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The Exacerbating Street Design of Old Boston
“They say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson credit: many facebook posts -by Jon Cotton When the Puritans came in 1630, they had a great grand vision...
View ArticleJohnny Pesky: the Man Behind the Pole
-From Old School I grew up watching the Red Sox, beginning with Car Yastrzemski and the Impossible Dream season in 1967 through the team’s two recent World Series championships. I still remember Tony...
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Purim at Vilna Shul
courtesy of wikipedia The Vilna Shul is the only survivor of about 50 Boston synagogues from the jewish immigration period, and the only one in Boston on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s...
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The Lincoln Memorial
– by Jon Cotton I just visited Washington D. C. The Hope Diamond, once in the hands of King Louis XIV, is on display free of charge; the Capitol Building’s magnificent dome is visible from many...
View ArticleAnne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy
-by Jon Cotton, Boston tour guide In 1638 Anne Hutchinson was kicked out of Boston for “antinomianism.” Most tour guides are bewildered by “antinomianism.” bostontourguide.org is here to help....
View ArticleThe Duel in the Sun: The 1982 Boston Marathon
- From Old School Each year on Patriot’s Day, tens of thousands of runners and more than a million fans envelope the roads from Hopkinton to Boston for an event known as the Boston Marathon. Countless...
View ArticleOn Gratuity
-by Delilah Webb As tour guides, we fall in with a family of service industry brethren living on the gratuity of strangers. Unlike waiters, most of us are compensated by our company with a “living...
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Marathon 2013: The Bombs Heard ’round the World
-by Jon Cotton I was home when the bombs blew some people apart. JR texted the news, and there followed a stream of concerned communications, so I updated my Facebook status to “Jon Cotton is...
View ArticleOne Week On: Mostly Back to Normal: Shrine Honors the Dead in Copley
-Jon Cotton, Copley Square, Saturday, 8:30am The FBI has reopened the secured area, and I’m the starting tour guide in Copley Square, the site of last week’s bombing. In my last article I described...
View ArticleDeclaration of Independence a Declaration of Principles
The Declaration of Independence includes what may be the most famous words of the English language: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” The Declaration is not...
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