Fourth of July in Boston: parade, Beacon Hill stroll, and the Esplanade

Downtown on the Fourth Phil Evenden

The morning of July 4, downtown Boston fills with the Harborfest procession — a walking parade that leaves Copley Square and moves through the old streets toward the Granary Burying Ground and the Old State House. The crowd is a mix of families, history buffs, and people who come every year; the air carries brass-band fragments and the occasional crack of a musket salute from the militia reenactors.

Beacon Hill — brick, gaslight, and Federal row houses Swampyank at English Wikipedia

Beacon Hill feels sealed off from the rest of the city — narrow streets, brick sidewalks, black shutters, and working gas lamps that still hiss at dusk. The architecture is overwhelmingly Federal and Greek Revival, built between roughly 1800 and 1850, and the neighborhood has preserved its scale with unusual strictness. On a holiday morning the streets are quiet; the only sounds are footsteps on brick and the occasional clink of a café cup from an open window.

Charles Street — the neighborhood's front parlor Richard Lathrop

Charles Street runs the length of Beacon Hill's flat side, lined with brick storefronts and the occasional tree. The street's character comes from its refusal to go big: no chain stores, no wide sidewalks, just a steady rhythm of small, owner-run businesses that have been here for decades in some cases. The antique shops between Chestnut and Pinckney Streets are worth a browse even if you're not buying — several have old Boston lithographs and nautical instruments in the window.

The Esplanade — Boston's riverside green lung Phil Evenden

The Charles River Esplanade runs for about three miles along the Boston side of the river, a narrow park wedged between the water and Storrow Drive. On the Fourth of July it's the city's central gathering place — blankets spread on the grass, sailboats tacking in the basin, and the Hatch Memorial Shell at its heart. The Shell is a mid-century outdoor amphitheater whose curved white canopy has become one of the city's most recognizable silhouettes. Even when there's no performance, the lawn in front of it is a fine place to sit and watch the river traffic.

The river from the Esplanade

From the Esplanade the Charles River stretches wide, with the MIT dome and the Boston University towers on the opposite bank. Sailboats from the Community Boating docks cut back and forth across the basin, and on a summer afternoon the river is busy with kayaks and the occasional eight-man shell from one of the college crew teams. The Longfellow Bridge is visible to the east, its stone piers and salt-and-pepper shaker towers a landmark since 1906.

Boston Common — the city's oldest public park Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand

Boston Common was set aside as common grazing land in 1634, making it the oldest public park in the United States. Over the centuries it has been a British army camp, a public hanging ground, and a rallying point for everything from Civil War recruitment drives to civil-rights marches. Today it's a 50-acre green rectangle at the foot of Beacon Hill, crisscrossed by paths and dotted with monuments. On the afternoon of the Fourth, the edges near the State House are quieter than the Tremont Street side, which buzzes with foot traffic heading toward Downtown Crossing.