Near the T · 39 stops · 5 packs

Near Downtown Crossing

Stops from the walks within about 600 m of Downtown Crossing station, closest first.

1. The 1852 Hunt
   The first boxes had a crank, and people turned it according to how excited they were.
   1 MIN · 23 M
2. Shot Here
   Colin Sullivan's penthouse in The Departed is a law library.
   2 MIN · 154 M
3. The 1852 Hunt
   Boston's first keyless alarm box went in on this corner in 1881.
   3 MIN · 179 M
4. Banned in Boston
   H.L. Mencken came to this corner in 1926 to sell one magazine to the one man in Boston who wanted to arrest him.
   3 MIN · 189 M
5. Under Boston
   The first American subway car reached Park Street three minutes after it entered the tunnel, and this entrance has been collecting plaques ever since.
   3 MIN · 216 M
6. The 1852 Hunt
   The Great Fire was stopped at Washington and Milk, a short distance from Old South's door.
   3 MIN · 219 M
7. Banned in Boston
   In 1860 'a mob of gentlemen' took this stage, and Frederick Douglass said the mayor broke up the meeting instead of protecting it.
   3 MIN · 225 M
8. The 1852 Hunt
   In November 1872, Boston's fire engines were pulled by men, because the horses were sick.
   3 MIN · 231 M
9. The 1852 Hunt
   The Great Fire started in a basement on this corner, and no photograph of it burning is known to exist.
   3 MIN · 233 M
10. Banned in Boston
    In the 1890s a public speech on the Common needed the mayor's permit, and Oliver Wendell Holmes said that was fine.
    4 MIN · 248 M
11. Banned in Boston
    This corner held the house of the woman Boston banished in 1637, and later the shop of the city's great literary publishers.
    4 MIN · 271 M
12. The 1852 Hunt
    Before it took a single real alarm, Boston's fire telegraph rang the city's bells from New York.
    4 MIN · 287 M
13. Under Boston
    The subway builders listed this graveyard as one of seven places the first subway breathed.
    4 MIN · 300 M
14. Bad Ends
    The stone people call Hester Prynne's may belong to a woman the court found 'greatly negligent' in her child's death.
    4 MIN · 310 M
15. The 1852 Hunt
    Every address in Boston is filed under a fire alarm box, a bit like a zip code.
    4 MIN · 311 M
16. The 1852 Hunt
    The officer who opened Box 52 for the Great Fire had his own key. The alarm was still a quarter hour late.
    5 MIN · 344 M
17. Shot Here
    Most of Glory's 1860s Boston was Savannah. This memorial is the real part.
    5 MIN · 348 M
18. Bad Ends
    The plinth says she was hanged on the Common. A judge's diary points a mile south.
    5 MIN · 362 M
19. Under Boston
    From December 1897, Boston fired its mail under these streets in steel cans of compressed air.
    5 MIN · 375 M
20. The 1852 Hunt
    The half-built post office stopped the fire's run to the northeast, and the square in front was named for it.
    5 MIN · 382 M
21. Under Boston
    Seven floors of parked cars under this lawn pay for the flowers on top.
    5 MIN · 392 M
22. Banned in Boston
    In 1915 a Black editor was told The Birth of a Nation was sold out here, and the state's new censorship board called the film 'not at all objectionable.'
    5 MIN · 398 M
23. Shot Here
    In 1967 a film crew staged a robbery at a real Boston bank.
    5 MIN · 399 M
24. Bad Ends
    The best old source on the 'hanging tree' is a surgeon's pamphlet, and he meant hanging in effigy.
    6 MIN · 409 M
25. Banned in Boston
    When Scollay Square was razed, its trade moved here, and in November 1974 Boston made it official.
    6 MIN · 412 M
26. Under Boston
    A Station in the Cellar
    6 MIN · 416 M
27. Under Boston
    The Kettle That Was Measured by the City
    6 MIN · 429 M
28. Bad Ends
    The Common's maintenance fund came from the murdered man's son.
    6 MIN · 432 M
29. Banned in Boston
    The Old Howard began as a church for people expecting the end of the world, and ended in 1953 when the vice squad brought a film camera.
    6 MIN · 436 M
30. Bad Ends
    In 1895 the subway dig moved about 910 people. The expense line reads 'Care of human remains,' $202.00.
    6 MIN · 456 M
31. Under Boston
    The Transit Commission's own report says ten people died in the 1897 explosion at this corner - six on the spot, four later.
    6 MIN · 456 M
32. Under Boston
    The Centennial Car
    6 MIN · 456 M
33. Banned in Boston
    H.H. Richardson's only surviving commercial building in Boston spent the 1970s as a peep show, and for almost a century nobody knew it was his.
    6 MIN · 461 M
34. Banned in Boston
    The Censors' Last Address
    6 MIN · 473 M
35. Shot Here
    Liberty Square was Free City in 2019 and old New York in 2022.
    7 MIN · 484 M
36. The 1852 Hunt
    The City's public map of its fire alarm boxes has a dot in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
    7 MIN · 485 M
37. Under Boston
    The Dewey Square mural wall is 70 by 76 feet of highway air intake.
    7 MIN · 486 M
38. Shot Here
    The city bought South Station in 1965 to knock it down, then sold what was left for less.
    8 MIN · 571 M
39. The 1852 Hunt
    Twice in six years, 911 went down, and the street boxes were the backup.
    8 MIN · 588 M

Minutes are the straight-line distance at 80 m a minute. The walk on the street is longer.