Beacon Hill, Boston Common, and the Old West End

Beacon Hill is Boston at its most Bostonian. Redbrick row houses dressed with black shutters and the occasional violet-hued windowpane filter into view, and narrow streets return you to the 19th century just as surely as if you had stumbled into a time machine. Across Beacon Street from Beacon Hill, the wide expanse of Boston Common has provided green space for locals since 1634.

Its history dates to the Colonial Era; in ensuing years, Beacon Hill achieved a narrative that includes the abolitionist movement, politics, and, even, prostitution. Blue-blood Brahmins, with surnames like Cabot and Shaw, are perpetual residents, but the Hill gets a consistent influx of the contemporary, at pricey boutiques on its main thoroughfare, Charles Street.

Boston Common had its start as a place for cattle to graze, then as an encampment for British regulars during the Revolutionary War, as a place for public assembly, and today, as a wonderful recreation area.