Tour of Beacon Hill

Yesterday, my mom, Ellie, and I spent the morning and afternoon walking around the ultra-posh Beacon Hill neighborhood. We wandered around for a few hours, saw many of the highlights from the Freedom Trail and got to take a peek at how the "other half" lives!


First up was the Old Granary Burying Ground. The first body was buried here in 1660- making it one of the oldest cemeteries in Boston. Samuel Adams, Peter Fanueil, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are all buried here.
This headstone is not for anyone significant, I just thought it was interesting because it was placed when the cemetery was almost 30 years old... in 1688!!!
Here is one of the markers for Paul Revere's grave... it was placed some time after his death...
... this more simple headstone was apparently the original! I just thought it was kind of funny that it didn't have a birth-date, death-date, etc... just said "Revere's Tomb"! Enough said, I guess.
Slightly more auspicious: John Hancock's grave marker:
After leaving the cemetery, we headed to the Massachusetts State House. The famous gold dome, I learned, was originally white shingles, then Paul Revere sheathed it in copper, then in 1861, it was gilded with gold leaf.
Some of the iconic brownstones that give Beacon Hill it's look:
Parking is beyond a nightmare all over the city. I really don't even attempt to drive anywhere because even if you were lucky enough to find a space, there's a good chance it's for residents only (meaning you have to have a permanent Boston address and buy a $200+ permit each year). Also not uncommon are parking meters that cost $1.00 for every 30 minutes and have a 2 hour limit. In fact, I got in the car today for the first time since Sunday (can't say that I mind that, though!)
As bad as the parking is all over, I'm told it's worst in Beacon Hill. I learned on our Duck Tour from Thursday that last year a parking space in Beacon Hill sold for $141,000!!!
You know what kind of neighborhood you're in when people throw their trash out in Bloomingdales, Whole Foods, and Williams-Sonoma bags!!
The sidewalks are quite charming, even though they are near-impossible to navigate in my cheap umbrella stroller! Poor Ellie will never need to go off-roading-- I think she's had a pretty good taste of it this month!
Louisburg Square: This is one of the rare streets in Beacon Hill with a little "park" in the center (although the entire neighborhood of BH overlooks the Commons and Public Gardens, so I don't feel that bad for them!) Apparently John Kerry has a townhouse on this street where the average selling price for one townhouse is over $6 million and goes for as much as $20 million. Ridiculous.
I think this was one of my favorite spots. It's called "Acorn Street". "Street" is kind of a misnomer, it's barely wider than a driveway, but you could almost just see a horse and carriage driving down the alley and parking in front of one of the doors! It was so charming... there was moss growing between the cobblestones that looked as if they hadn't been touched since their original placement.
We finished the afternoon's activities with a yummy lunch from a local cafe called Panificio and a stroll down Charles St, where we got to see how the other half shops. Ellie was pretty wiped-out after all the touring!