Advance purchase required.
Tours often sell out quickly!

BOOK IN ADVANCE TO GUARANTEE YOUR SPOT!

Site of the First Public School

Although the school is no longer located on School Street, the site of the Boston Latin School, the first public school in America, is still a popular historical landmark on the Freedom Trail. The Foods of the Freedom Trail Walking tour will introduce you to the culinary delights of Boston's historic North End neighborhood while teaching you a little bit about the Freedom Trail's most famous historic places.

The Boston Latin School was founded by Puritan settlers on April 23rd 1635. John Cotton is often given credit for the establishment of the school which was founded two years after his arrival in Boston.

Benjamin Franklin's birthplace is one block away from the original site of the school and he was one of the more famous historical graduates. Today a statue of Benjamin Franklin stands watch over the old school site. The original school was located just to the right of a mosaic on School Street commemorating the site. If you look closely enough you can see the names of some of the more famous graduates of the school. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Henry Ward Beecher, Cotton Mather and Ralph Waldo Emerson were all graduates of the Boston Latin School.

On the opposite side of the street is Parker House which sits on what was the second site for the school. Today the school is located in Boston's Fenway neighborhood and still prospers, sending on average 25 graduates to Harvard each year.