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Boston Then and Now
Historic View of Boston
I have to say first and foremost that my home state of Texas was not included in the archive of WPA travel guides. Apparently, even the 1930s Texas was not a bastion for national travel, and I understand why. By today’s driving standards, it takes approximately twelve hours to drive east/west across the state; I can therefore only imagine how many days it might have taken in the 1930s.
As a compromise, I decided to spend some time reading the “Here’s New England!” guidebook instead. My sister lived in Boston for many years and I spent quite a bit of time there being every bit the annoying tourist. One thing that really struck me about the Boston section of this guidebook was how very little has changed. Boston is of course one of the oldest and earliest cities in this country. But considering most of this nation’s track record for historic preservation, I would not necessarily expect the walking tour described in the guidebook to be practically verbatim the one still handed out in Boston Common at the tourists’ center. I have walked a historical walking tour of Boston, and therefore seen almost everything mentioned by the WPA writers.
Paul Revere House
From the State House to the Park Street Church to the Old State House to Faneuil Hall; even the miscellaneous burial grounds and cemeteries in between still exist. Clearly, Boston has always held its history in high esteem. The municipal government even seventy years ago felt these historical buildings and sites were important enough not only to save but also to preserve for future generations. I come from a city where a twenty-year-old building is too old, and certainly New York City has had a long and rough battle with the preservation of landmarks. I am so thoroughly impressed with Boston for being so ahead of the curve, even if it did not purposely initiate a doctrine of conservation. I am also so glad to know that if I return to Boston tomorrow, all the same buildings will still be there to tour again. And hopefully that will still be the case for Boston tourists in another seventy years.
As a lifelong Bostonian, I
As a lifelong Bostonian, I can't help but feel a little pride while reading your post. We are pretty awesome at preserving these historical places. Boston is tiny, easily walkable from one end to the other in a few hours, but there is just so much history everyone. And a lot of the roads are still cobblestone and the buildings are still bricks--it feels very authentic. Like, Boston and the people who lived there have not strayed one little bit from what they think of themselves as in the past 200 years.
Now this is all good for historical, educational reasons and all that, but it's also a little annoying. The streets are so narrow, and it's almost impossible to find your way around with a GPS. And the sidewalks are too small for the amount of people walking around, and the public transportation system is not good enough to keep masses and masses of people off the sidewalk. Even Fenway Park is the oldest unrenevated ball park in the world--they still change the score by hand, the wooden seats are tiny and creaky, and it's so small that tickets cost a fortune! Don't get me wrong, Boston is my home and I love the oldness of it, but sometimes it's worth it to modernize a little bit.
I read somewhere that they
I read somewhere that they did "all 48 states" (Alaska and Hawaii weren't states yet...weird!) so no worries, Texas is out there somewhere. Regardless, I really liked what you said about Boston ability to preserve its natural history in landmarks, and I agree that often times this is neglected too often. But I always think, whenever visiting landmarks, about all the work that went into restoring such old buildings and making them suitable for tourists etc. Part of me feels like so much of the history is lost through renovtion and remodeling, that I often forget how incredible the place I'm visiting is/was. I like to think that "Oh Paul Revere walked in this exact place" when in reality, they've replaced all the floorboards, repainted, revarnished, etc. to the extent where they've essentially stripped away the history.
texas
Texas? really? It's true that it's a big state but so is California. And no offense to Iowans but I feel that Texas definitely deserves a WPA guide if Iowa has one. I've never been on a walking tour of Boston but based on my experience in New York I feel like the information might as well have come straight from the guide.