Page 76 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Boston
P. 76
74 BOST ON AREA B Y AREA
4 Paul Revere Mall Boston. Benches, a fountain,
and twin rows of linden trees
Hanover St. Map 2 E2. Haymarket,
Aquarium. 7 complete the space, which
has a distinctly European feel.
This brickpaved plaza gives the
crowded neighborhood of the 5 St. Stephen’s
North End a precious stretch of
open space between Hanover Church
and Unity Streets. A wellutilized 401 Hanover St. Map 2 E2.
municipal resource, the Mall is Tel (617) 5231230. Haymarket,
always full of local people: Aquarium. Open 8:30am–4:30pm
children, teenagers, young Mon–Sat. 5 11am Sun, 4:30pm
mothers, and older residents Sat, 7:30am Tue–Fri.
chatting in Italian and playing
cards or checkers. Laid out in Opened in 1714 as a humble
1933, and originally called the Congregationalist meeting
Prado, its focal point is Cyrus house, St. Stephen’s Church
Dallin’s equestrian statue of local was extensively enlarged and
hero Paul Revere, which was embellished by the architect
originally modeled in 1885. Charles Bulfinch (see p55) in
However, it was only sculpted 1802–04. Bulfinch incorporated
and placed here in a range of harmonious Italian
1940. Bronze bas Renaissance motifs in his
relief plaques on re design, adding a number St. Stephen’s Church, with its
the mall’s side of decor ative Renaissance-style bell tower
walls commem pediments and
orate a number pedestals, tall year after that project’s com
of North End arched windows, as pletion, the firstever bell cast by
residents who well as an ornate the famous revolution ary and
have played an bell tower that master metalworker, Paul Revere
important role Equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, is topped by a (see p23), was hung in the belfry.
in the history of Paul Revere Mall gilded cap. One The church’s present name
dates from 1862, when it
became Roman Catholic to
The Great Brinks Robbery accommodate the North End’s
Masterminded by Tony Pino, this infamous event took place on increasing numbers of Irish
the night of January 17, 1950 on North End’s Commercial Street. immigrants. When Hanover
Disguised as Brinks guards, seven of Pino’s men made off with Street was widened in 1869,
$2,775,395.12 in payroll money – including cash totaling the entire structure was moved
$1,218,211.29 – from the head quarters of the Brinks Armored back 16 ft (5 m) and, a year
Car Company. Nationwide headlines trumpeted the robbery as later, it was raised 6 ft (2 m)
the biggest heist in U.S. history. Even though all members of the to accommodate a basement
Brinks gang were eventually caught and imprisoned, only $60,000 chapel. Damaged by fires in
of the loot has been recovered almost 70 years after the event. 1897 and 1929, and redecorated
each time, the church was
restored to its Bulfinch
design in 1965.
The church’s interior features
include a gracefully curved
ceiling, original whitepainted
pine columns, and a pair of
pewter chandeliers, which are
copies of those hanging in the
Doric Hall of the Massachusetts
State House. The church’s pews
were donated in honor of the
numerous Irish, Italian, and
Portuguese parishioners who
live in the neighborhood,
while the Italian mahogany
Stations of the Cross are part
of the 1965 refit. St. Stephen’s
Members of the infamous Brinks gang, in police custody is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
074-075_EW_Boston.indd 74 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
