Page 52 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Boston

50  BOST ON AREA B Y AREA

and Britain were in 9 Old Granary
conflict over British Burying Ground
restrictions on trade
and freedom of the Tremont St. Map 1 C4.  Park Street.
Open 9am–5pm daily.
seas, as well as the
U.S.’s ties with Named after the early colonial
Napoleonic France. grain storage facility that once
The U.S. militia, based stood on the adjacent site of
in Boston, stored Park Street Church, the Granary
its gunpowder in Burying Ground dates from
the church base- 1660. Buried here were three
ment as safekeeping important signatories to the
against bombard- Declaration of Independence
ment from the (see p23) – John Hancock,
British navy, hence Samuel Adams, and Robert
the nickname. Treat Paine, along with
Park Street Church Benjamin Franklin’s parents,
later became merchant-philanthropist Peter
famous throughout Faneuil, and some victims of the
the islands of the Boston Massacre.
Pacific, when in The orderly array of grave-
1819 the church stones, often featured in films
sent a num ber of and television shows set in
Congrega tional Boston, is the result of mod ern
missionaries to carry groundskeeping. Few stones,
the Gospel to Pacific if any, mark the actual burial
islanders from a site of the person memorialized.
base in the Hawaiian In fact, John Hancock may not
Islands. In 1829, be here at all. On the night he
William Lloyd was buried in 1793, grave
Park Street Church at the corner of Tremont and Park Garrison (1805–79), robbers cut off the hand with
Streets, near Boston Common a firebrand of the which he had signed his name
movement to abolish to the Declaration of Independ-
8 Park Street slavery (see p32), gave his first ence, and some scholars
Church abolition speech from the Park believe that the rest of the
Street pulpit, while in 1849 a body was later spirited away
1 Park St. Map 1 C4. Tel (617) 523- speech called The War System during 19th-century construct-
3383.  Park Street. Open late Jun– of Nations was addressed to ion work. Although many
Aug: 9:30am–3pm Tue–Sat; Sep–late the American Peace Society heroes of the Revolution are
Jun: by appointment. ^ 7 by Senator Charles Sumner.
∑ parkstreet.org still known to be buried here,
Much later, in 1893, the Paul Revere, one of Boston’s
Park Street Church’s 217-ft anthem America the Beautiful most famous sons, was nearly
(65-m) steeple has punctuated by Katharine Lee Bates denied the honor because the
the intersection of Park and debuted at a Sunday service. cemetery was technically full
Tremont Streets since its Today the church continues when he died in 1818. The city
dedication in 1810. Designed to be involved in religious, made an exception, and he
by English architect Peter political, cultural, and was able to join his comrades
Banner, who adapted a design humanitarian activities. in perpetuity.
by the earlier English architect
Christopher Wren, the church
was commissioned by
parishioners wanting to
establish a Congregational
church in the heart of Boston.
The church was, and still
remains, one of the city’s most
influential pulpits.
Contrary to popular belief,
the sermons of Park Street
ministers did not earn the
intersection the nickname of
“Brimstone Corner.” Rather, the
name came about during the
War of 1812 when the U.S. Old Granary Burying Ground, final resting place for Revolutionary heroes

050-051_EW_Boston.indd 50 09/01/17 12:14 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.7)
Date 1st October 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm