A recent post about the Mapparium got me to thinking about some of the places and oddities in Boston that might not be so well-known. Here's a thread to share the spots and eccentricities that folks know about or have stumbled across.

The Mapparium
The Mapparium is in the Christian Science Center, and for me it's one of Boston's slightly eccentric jewels. It's an inverted globe, with a catwalk running through it. So what's the big deal?

It was created in the 1930s, at a time that the Christian Science Monitor was an important international newspaper, it shows all of the world's countries. and it hasn't been updated. Just from a historical perspective, it's a lot of fun to see how different the world is, politically at least. But the most amazing aspect is the acoustics: if I am standing next to you in the middle of the catwalk and you speak in a normal voice, I will barely be able to hear you. But if you and I are at opposite ends of the mapparium and you whisper something, I'll hear you clear as day.

Rollins Place / Boston's Antebellum mansion
You're strolling along Revere Street and its brick houses on the back of Beacon Hill, when you suddenly come upon as incongruous a sight as you might imagine: an antebellum house at the far end of the alley named Rollins Place. The mansion has everything you'd expect -- a portico supported by columns , great windows, architecture befitting a southern plantation. It's only on a second or third look that you notice that there's no door. And wait, the windows aren't real. The whole thing is a fake, a trompe d'oeil.

The mansion has been there for at least 40 years (probably longer), and it's been dutifully and beautifully maintained by the home owners along Rollins Place. This place is as eccentric as it gets, and it's unknown to lots of people who have lived in Boston for years.

Beacon Hill
There's so much to be said about Beacon Hill, and it's Beacon Hill is the highest point in the original city of Boston, and they'd build a fire on the top whenever the city leaders needed to notify the residents something important was happening -- hence the name "Beacon" Hill.

Beacon Hill is absolutely a place to be explored on foot. Mt Vernon is the place to start, and you're good either with an organized on-foot tour or on your own.

There were two other, smaller, peaks in the area that's now called Beacon Hill -- Mount Vernon and Pemberton Hill. Mt Vernon and Pemberton Hill, along with the top of Beacon Hill, got shaved off, and the land was used to fill in the tidal marsh area that became the streets between Charles St and the river. (Some people mistakenly believe that the land was used to fill in the Back Bay. Not true: the Back Bay was filled in only after the railroad lines came into Boston, bringing in land from the suburbs, the western part of the state, and even Vermont.) Incidentally, Tremont Street got its name from those 3 hills -- "tre" = 3, "mont" = hill.


What's up with repeating street names?
Boston has 5 different Washington Streets, and none of them connect to one another. There's a Cambridge Street that goes from the Doubletree Inn to Brighton Center, and a totally different Cambridge Street that goes from Government Center to the Mass General. When somebody gives you an address, how are you (or your GPS) supposed to know which one is which?

It's easy to explain why, less easy to come up with a good solution. It turns out that many of Boston's neighborhoods were, in the 1800s, independent cities and towns: East Boston, Charlestown, Brighton, Dorchester (which included South Boston), Hyde Park, West Roxbury, and Roslindale (and maybe others) were each their own municipalities, with no concern about having the same street names as nearby towns. In the 1800s, though, the city of Boston annexed each of the towns, and it was thought that renaming the streets would cause too much confusion. So consider yourself warned: if you ask someone directions to Cambridge Street, you could get the right directions to the wrong place.

One street name curiosity that still puzzles me is Batterymarch Street, in the financial district. Next to a tavern I used to frequent there, there's a T intersection, where 3 streets converge. The weird thing is that all 3 streets are Batterymarch St


Big buildings
The customs house is an amazing building, and it was the tallest building in the country when it was build. Until around the mid-1970s, it was owned by the federal government and open to the public, and it's an amazing place to see. Best feature was the outside tower, which gave the absolute best view of downtown Boston and the harbor. The building is now owned by Marriott Corp, and I'm not sure what the access might be.

The Prudential Building is an excellent example of nondescript architecture. However, when it was completed around 1960, it was the tallest building on the North American mainland, at 52 stories. What about the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, you ask? Manhattan is an island, my friend.