Running tour · Boston

Freedom Trail to the Finish Line

5.8 mi run

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. The Public Garden and the Ducklings

   Look across the pond, with its little island and the suspension bridge across the middle. All of this was tidal marsh. In the early 1800s Boston filled it in, and much of the fill came from Mount Vernon, a Beacon Hill summit that no longer exists.

2. Boston Common

   Look out across the Common, toward the gold dome of the State House. Before Boston, a settler named William Blackstone lived alone on this peninsula for five years. He invited the Puritans over by advertising its fresh springs. In 1634 the town taxed each household six shillings and bought his farm as a common.

3. The Shaw Memorial and the 54th

   Look at the bronze relief facing the gold dome of the State House. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw rides beside his men, the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first Black regiments of the Civil War. Frederick Douglass helped recruit them. Men came from across the North, and from as far as Canada and the Caribbean.

4. The Old State House and the Massacre

   Look at the small brick building with its balcony, dwarfed by the towers around it. It went up in 1713, and at 65 feet it was once the tallest building in Boston. Now look at the pavement below: a circle of cobblestones, ringed in brass with stars.

5. Faneuil Hall

   Look up at the cupola: that small gilded grasshopper is the weathervane. Shem Drowne made it in 1742, the year the hall was built. Nobody agrees why it's a grasshopper. One theory is that it copies the vane on London's Royal Exchange. Legend says knowing about the grasshopper was used to catch spies in the War of 1812.

6. Paul Revere's House

   Look for the grey wooden house with its second floor jutting out over the sidewalk, on exposed beams. Built about 1680, it's downtown Boston's oldest residence. Its first owner was Robert Howard, a wealthy slave merchant.

7. Old North Church

   Look up at the tall white steeple on the red-brick church. This is Old North, formally Christ Church, established in 1723 for a Church of England congregation. It's the oldest church building in Boston. Its eight bells, cast in 1744, are the oldest in North America, and a teenage Paul Revere rang them.

8. The Great Molasses Flood

   Look at the Little League diamond, the bocce courts and the playground. About 20 inches under the ballfield lies the concrete base of a tank, 50 feet tall and 90 feet across. It held molasses for the Purity Distilling Company.

9. The Hatch Shell and the Esplanade

   Look at the big Art Deco half-dome facing the lawn. Its arched opening is 40 feet high and 110 feet wide, and the names of famous composers are carved along the front of the stage.

10. Harvard Bridge and the Smoots

    Look down at the sidewalk: painted numbers, every ten smoots, counting from the Boston end.

11. The Boston Marathon finish line

    Here at Copley Square, beside the Boston Public Library, is the finish of the world's oldest annual marathon. The first, in April 1897, had a field of 15. For most of its history, the only prize was a wreath of olive branches.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source