http://bps.boston.k12.ma.us/bwht/home.htm
You won’t find the
Boston Women’s Heritage Trail on any Boston map, nor will you
find Park Rangers ready to guide you along it’s walkways. This
Walk (or walks really) was the brainchild of a group of Boston
teachers, librarians, and students. The five walks meander
through several Boston neighborhoods as testaments to the
accomplishments of local women.
The booklet with maps that
guides the walker is available at both National Park Service
locations: Boston Common and 15 State Street. Unlike NPS
brochures, the booklet is not free. Although it costs $9.95 on
the Common, you can get it for $5.00 on State Street. The
80-page book is a worthy publication, however, for not only does
it detail the walks, it includes a vast amount of Boston
history, and lots of illustrations.
The five walks are
labeled: Downtown, North End, Beacon Hill, South Cove/Chinatown,
and Back Bay. Several of the stops overlap those found on the
Freedom and Black Heritage Trails, so if you plan to walk either
of these, have the booklet with you before you start. The stops
include private homes (with plaques – look for the little icon
of a tall woman in a long dress), public buildings that have
changed use, and sites with various functions that are open to
the public. The number of stops on each walk varies.
As an example, the North
End Walk (12 stops) celebrates the diversity of our cultures,
and visits, among other sites, the Paul and Rachel Revere House;
the Mariners House where wives of sailors were provided a place
to sell the items they made at home; and the birthplace of Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy. Plaques commemorating North End women
feature among those hanging in the Revere Mall. The North Bennet
Street Industrial School was founded by a woman named Pauline
Agassiz Shaw in 1881. It still holds an international reputation
for training students in fine carpentry, violin making and
restoration, and in making jewelry. This Walk weaves around
quite a bit, but stays in the North End. All the Walks do much
the same, overlapping at times with other Walks.
The Beacon Hill Walk (17
stops) shares two sites with the Black Heritage Trail: the
African Meeting House (some prominent abolitionists were women)
and the Harriet and Lewis Hayden House where an escaped slave,
Ellen Craft, lived for a time. Craft dressed like a man,
pretending to be her own master, acting as if her own husband
were her slave. Thusly disguised, the two of them labored
against slavery. Elsewhere, the walk focuses on women writers
and artists.
The other three walks
(Back Bay is the most jam-packed at 35 stops), are similar.
Any of the five can be
walked within 1 ½ hours. The neighborhoods they pass through
are each distinctive in flavor, and include other sights. For
information, call 617-522-2872. This is a project of the Boston
Public Schools.
Hours:
Public buildings are open
during regular business hours.
Admission:
Free to all NPS sites.
Admission varies at the museums.
WOMEN'S HERITAGE TRAIL
ATTRACTIONS
