This guide follows one line through central Boston, from the city's oldest park to its harbour: Boston Common and the site of its Great Elm, Park Street Church, the Granary Burying Ground where Paul Revere and Samuel Adams lie, and Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park by the wharves. Most of them sit on or beside the Freedom Trail, so they make an easy walk with a lot of history packed into it.
Boston Common
Boston Common was set aside as common land in 1634, just four years after the town was founded, which makes it the oldest public park in the United States. Today it covers about 50 acres between Beacon Hill and the shopping streets of Downtown Crossing. For two centuries it was a working field: residents grazed cattle here until 1830, militias drilled on it, and British troops camped on it before and during the siege of Boston in 1775–76. Public executions also took place on the Common in the colonial period, including the hanging of the Quaker Mary Dyer in 1660. It is the second stop of our Boston scavenger hunt, right after the Public Garden next door.
- The Frog Pond, a paddling pool in summer and an ice rink in winter.
- The Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Flagstaff Hill, the Common's highest point.
- The Parkman Bandstand, used for concerts and gatherings.
The Great Elm
For more than two centuries, a huge elm stood near the centre of the Common. An 1855 study by the Boston Society of Natural History judged it more than 200 years old, which means it was already growing when the first settlers arrived. Tradition holds that early executions took place on one of its limbs, and during King Philip's War Native Americans were executed beneath it. Later the Sons of Liberty gathered here. The tree fell in a storm on 15 February 1876; a small plaque now marks the spot. The Great Elm site is not a scavenger hunt stop, but it is a short detour across the Common.
- The plaque marking the site, which also recalls that the Methodist preacher Jesse Lee preached here in 1790.
Park Street Church
At the corner of the Common rises Park Street Church, built in 1809 to a design by Peter Banner; its white steeple was long the first landmark travellers saw when approaching Boston. On 4 July 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first major public speech against slavery here, and on 4 July 1831 the hymn 'America' ('My Country, 'Tis of Thee') was sung in public for the first time on its steps. It is a stop on the scavenger hunt.
- The tall white steeple, best seen from the Common.
- The corner outside, nicknamed 'Brimstone Corner', according to tradition because gunpowder was stored in the church during the War of 1812.
Granary Burying Ground
Next to the church lies the Granary Burying Ground, founded in 1660 and named after a town granary that once stood where Park Street Church is now. It is the third-oldest cemetery in Boston, and its graves read like a list of the American Revolution: Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Robert Treat Paine, three of them signers of the Declaration of Independence, are buried here, as are the five victims of the Boston Massacre of 1770, among them Crispus Attucks.
Benjamin Franklin is buried in Philadelphia, but his parents lie here, under an obelisk raised in 1827. More than 2,000 markers stand in the burying ground, but many were moved into neat rows in the 19th century, so a headstone rarely shows exactly where the person lies. The burying ground is one of the stops on the scavenger hunt.
- The Egyptian Revival granite gateway on Tremont Street, added in 1840.
- The slate headstones with winged skulls and cherubs, typical of colonial New England.
- The grave marked for Mary Goose, which a popular legend links to 'Mother Goose', a claim historians do not support.
Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park
The walk ends by the harbour in the North End, in a park created in 1974 on filled land between Long Wharf and Commercial Wharf. Its best-known feature is the long arched trellis covered in wisteria, which frames views of the water, and there is a rose garden dedicated to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the mother of President John F. Kennedy, who was born in the North End. The park also holds the Massachusetts Beirut Memorial, dedicated in 1992. A marble statue of Columbus stood in the park until 2020, when it was beheaded by vandals and removed by the city. This park is the last stop of the scavenger hunt.
- The wisteria-covered trellis, at its best when it flowers in late spring.
- The Rose Kennedy Rose Garden and the harbour views from the waterfront edge.
How to see them in one walk
Start on Boston Common, cross it to the plaque marking the Great Elm site, and then head to Park Street Church at the corner of Park and Tremont Streets. The Granary Burying Ground is right next door. From there, follow the Freedom Trail past the Old State House, built in 1713 and the oldest surviving public building in Boston, where the Declaration of Independence was read to the crowd from the balcony in July 1776, and on past Faneuil Hall, cross under the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and finish at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, where you can sit by the water and watch the boats in the harbour.
See Boston with World City Trail
Our Boston scavenger hunt turns the city into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the Public Garden to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, and four of the places in this guide are among them: Boston Common, Park Street Church, the Granary Burying Ground and Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Boston.
Play the Boston scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Boston →
Play the outdoor escape game in Boston →
Facts checked in October 2026.