North End,Portrait of a City

Of all the city's neighborhoods none symbolizes and captures the essence of Boston than its North End, a maze of winding colonial-era streets and the backdrop to some of the most significant moments in American history. During this walking seminar with a local historian we will explore North End's back alleys and side streets, painting a portrait of Boston's evolution from the 17th to the 21st century.

We begin our walk near the Blackstone Block, a small network of alleyways and structures dating back to the colonial era. John Hancock lived here, and several of the buildings still stand relatively unaltered from the 18th century. Using the streets themselves as visual clues we'll consider the topographical advantages of the North End for the early settlers in Boston. Our perambulations will take us through Haymarket, one of the city's longest standing outdoor markets and a place where northenders still buy their groceries.

Tracing a path along streets that still bear the names of important Bostonians or long vanished features we'll discuss the major developments of the North End as it evolved into one of the busiest shipping ports on the Atlantic seaboard and became America's gateway to Europe.