Blumenthal and Schulman lead “Exploring the Other Boston”–freshmen walking tour
On Saturday, October 1 Doctoral Student Seth Blumenthal and Professor Bruce Schulman led a group of CAS Freshmen on a historic walking tour of Boston. Boston is more than the Freedom Trail, so Blumenthal and Schulman led students through Boston’s diverse neighborhoods and explored the many layers of history they have accumulated over 400 years. Participants found out why Beacon Hill’s passageways made Boston oneof the most heavily traveled cities on the Underground Railroad, saw the nation’s first African Meeting House, just steps from the Boston Brahmin’s mansions on Mt. Vernon St. that made it the “only respectable street in America” for 19th century Americans. They promenaded through the Public Garden and saw Boston’s French side in the Emerald Necklace, and then checked out its Italian side, with the Boston Public Library’s courtyard and the statue that made Bostonians blush. As the walk wound through the city, they turned into Boston’s trendy South End, where urban renewal met its match in the 1960s when the neighborhood stopped a highway, experienced an inspired chef’s take on immigrant cuisine, and heard about the South End’s first racially integrated and last remaining Jazz club.
