Boston Common, Boston

When the last yellow leaves fall to the ground, the Frog Pond in Boston Common turns into a giant outdoor ice rink. It's best experienced on a crisp Sunday afternoon when the slanting rays of the sun warm your cheeks and the back of your neck. Many visitors here take a detour from their shopping spree in nearby Downtown Crossing, from a gastronomic excursion to Chinatown, or from an afternoon in the Theater District. Of course, many come here just for the skating. Granted, the ice isn't the best, but few things are more pleasurable than gliding in the open air surrounded by a winter wonderland.

After a large snow storm, the Common turns into a giant snowpark. Sledders, young and old and all young at heart , line up at the top of the hill for a exhilarating ride down.

Boston Common - founded in 1634, this is the nation's oldest public park. It originally served as a grazing field for the colonists' cattle and also as a training field for men of arms. Commencement if the Revolutionary War by the British was from Park Square. Today, Bostonians come here to engage in a variety of activities such as concerts, craft fairs, exercise, and relaxation.

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
Shaw (b. October 10, 1837 -- d. July 18, 1863) was a Civil War Union Army Officer, Colonel and commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The Memorial depicts Colonel Shaw and his men passing in review past the Massachusetts State House on their way to Boston Harbor to depart for combat duty in South Carolina. The monument was created in bronze by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It was unveiled on Memorial Day, 1897 during ceremonies featuring orations by William James and Booker T. Washington. It is a reminder that Boston was, before and during the Civil War, the nation's foremost center for abolition of slavery. Images of this monument appear at the end of the movie 'Glory. (1989)' Colonel Shaw was portrayed by actor Matthew Broderick.

The Frog Pond
Once home to legions of unusually large amphibians and site of the first water pumped into the city, it is a kidney-shaped pool, used for wading in summer and ice-skating in winter.

Boston Common
Boston's famous park is Boston Common, a fifty-acre chunk of green, which is neither meticulously manicured nor especially attractive, though it effectively separates downtown from the posher Beacon Hill and Back Bay districts. It's the first thing you'll see emerging from the Park Street T station, the central transfer point of America's first subway and a magnet for small demonstrations and, unfortunately, panhandlers.
Established in 1634 as *a trayning field* and *for the feeding of Cattell,* as a slate tablet opposite the station states, the Common is still primarily utilitarian, used by both pedestrian commuters on their way to downtown's office towers and tourists seeking the Boston Visitor Information Pavilion, just down Tremont Street from the T, which is the official starting-point of the Freedom Trail. The shabbiness of the southern side of the Common is offset by the lovely Beacon Street Promenade, which runs the length of the northern side, from the gold-domed State House to Charles Street, opposite the Public Garden.
Even before John Winthrop and his fellow Puritan colonists earmarked Boston Common for public use, it served as pasture land for the Reverend William Blackstone, Boston's first white settler. Soon after it disintegrated into little more than a gallows for pirates, alleged witches and various religious heretics; a commoner by the name of Rachell Whall was once hanged here for stealing a bonnet worth 75¢. Newly elected president George Washington made a much-celebrated appearance on the Common in 1789, as did his aide-de-camp, the Marquis de Lafayette, several years later. Cattle have not grazed here since 1830. Ornate eighteenth-century iron fencing encircled the entire park until World War II, when it was taken down for use as scrap metal: it is now said to grace the bottom of Boston Harbor.

Visit the Boston Commons. It's a great place for people watching, reading, having lunch or going for a walk. I didn't go there a whole lot because it was on the other side of Boston. But it is a really cool place.

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The central park of Boston, this city park dates back to colonial times and is still a vibrant center of recreation for the city.