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DOWNTOWN CROSSING Boston's traditional shopping center, where Summer and Winter Streets meet and where Filene's and Jordan Marsh once competed for customers.  Don't get your hopes up- Downtown Crossing is in the midst of a transition.  Jordan Marsh is now Macy's and Filene's with its famous bargain basement is no more.  Only the facade of the original building remains along with its clock and chimes.  The building site is scheduled for redevelopment as a luxury office/residential/commercial complex, but the economy has stalled progress and left the site as little more than an excavation for now.  More promising is the current restoration of the old Paramount Theatre by Emerson College, which, together with Suffolk University, is in the process of moving into and reviving Downtown's "Ladder District" between Washington and Tremont Streets.  And for those interested in browsing for rare and second-hand books, the venerable Brattle Bookshop can still be found at 9 West St.

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BOSTON COMMON Where cows once grazed, British Regulars drilled and criminals were hanged, children now wade and splash in the Frog Pond and summer performances of Shakespeare on the Common are staged.  Boston Common covers 50 acres (20 ha) set aside for public use in 1634 and has remained a place where all but the most illegal of activities are tolerated.  Besides the frog Pond, the Common contains the old Central Burying Ground, the Parkman Bandstand, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the recently restored Brewer Fountain, two MBTA stops and the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial facing the State House.  It also serves as the starting point for Boston's Freedom Trail.

 

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BOSTON PUBLIC GARDEN When Boston began to expand westward in the early 19th century by filling in the old "Back Bay", among the first parcels of land to be developed was a 24 acres (10 ha) site set aside in 1856 as the nation's first botanical garden.  Today, the Public Garden is a carefully cultured landscape of ornamental trees, flower beds, lawns and walks surrounding a central pond spanned by the world's smallest suspension bridge.  Statuary abounds, including a prominent equestrian figure of Washington and the ever popular "Make Way for Ducklings" group commemorating the beloved childrens story.  From mid-April to mid-September, one can cruise the pond on another of Boston's attractions, the famed Swan Boats.

 

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BEACON HILL One of Boston's most historic and exclusive neighborhoods, Beacon Hill was developed in the early 19th century after much of the original hill was leveled for construction of the nearby State House.  Early on, attached row houses supplanted freestanding residences as land values rose, and brick became the dominant building material to ensure against fire.  Unlike other neighborhoods, Beacon Hill remained a Yankee stronghold throughout its history, with many Boston "Brahmin" families maintaining their town houses here while summering in their rural countryside or seaside estates.  In 1962, Beacon Hill became a National Historic Landmark and survives, complete with its gaslights and uneven brick sidewalks, virtually unchanged to this day.

 

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BACK BAY With its population rapidly growing in the early 19th century, Boston looked to its surrounding tidal flats for expansion.  In the 1850's filling operations began in the large basin west of Charles St.  Within 10 years, most of this "Back Bay" became dry land with a street grid (unusual for Boston) dividing the land into rectangular blocks and lots.  Throughout the 1870's, 80's and 90's, brick row houses arose in every conceivable architectural style, but within a tightly regulated master plan that imposed a strong sense of physical unity to the neighborhood.  With the construction of the Prudential Center in the 1960's, commercial development along Boylston St spread to Newbury St, which soon became (and still remains) Boston's premiere chic shopping street.  Today, the Back bay is a lively mix of stylish shops and restaurants with upscale residential living, which showcases Boston at its best.

 

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FENWAY To most Bostonians and visitors alike, this neighborhood west of the Back Bay means only one thing: RED SOX BASEBALL.  On game days, streets are clogged, the T is mobbed, parking rates quadruple, street parking is non-existent and the sidewalks turn into a lively festival of sausage vendors, souvenir hawkers, ticket scalpers and Sox fans.  After hours, the bars and clubs fill up with students from nearby Boston University and Northeastern, making for loud, lively weekend nights, especially after Red Sox wins.  Dominating the area, Fenway park, built in 1913, remains the nation's oldest baseball stadium, where, despite recent additions and enlargements, one can still enjoy baseball the old fashioned way.