Black Heritage Trail: Beacon Hill

Row houses, schools, and safehouses of Boston's 19th-century free Black community

This is where Boston worked out what kind of place it wanted to be. Seven stops over 0.6 miles, about an hour of walking. The story for each stop plays as you arrive, so nothing has to be looked up and nobody has to be followed.

Boston has 50 MassRoam tours and no two cover the same ground. It works as well at eight in the morning as it does at dusk. Stop for coffee, pick it back up.