Boston Latin School Site/Benjamin Franklin Statue Audio Guide

Boston Latin School Site: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Boston Latin School Site/Benjamin Franklin Statue

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Boston Latin School site highlights Welcome to Boston Latin School Site/Benjamin Franklin Statue and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Welcome to School Street in downtown Boston, a short stroll along the Freedom Trail. Look for a bronze figure of Benjamin Franklin and, at your feet, a decorative pattern of brick and tile set into the sidewalk. Together they mark one of the most quietly important addresses in American history. This is the site of the original schoolhouse of Boston Latin School, founded on April twenty-third, 1635. It is the oldest public school in America. The site sits directly behind King's Chapel, at 45 School Street, so you are standing in the middle of Boston's old civic and religious heart. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the school began, why a statue of one of its most famous dropouts stands guard here, and how this little patch of pavement connects to the city's other great buildings. Keep your eyes on the ground as well as on the bronze, because the sidewalk is part of the story.

2. 02

   A School Before There Was a Schoolhouse

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Boston Latin School site highlights A School Before There Was a Schoolhouse and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Boston Latin School opened on April twenty-third, 1635, and it offered free education to boys, rich or poor. Girls, at that time, attended private schools at home. It was a bold idea for a young Puritan settlement only a few years old, and it earned the school its place as the oldest public school in America. Here is a detail that surprises people. For the first 10 years there was no school building at all. Until the schoolhouse was completed in 1645, classes were held in the home of the first headmaster, Philemon Pormont. Picture a handful of boys gathered in a private house, with a teacher whose front room doubled as the nation's first public classroom. The schoolhouse that followed stood on this very spot on School Street. The brick and tile memorial in the sidewalk and the statue beside it now mark where that original building once stood, a reminder that one of the country's biggest educational traditions began in a very small place.

3. 03

   Franklin, the Famous Dropout

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Boston Latin School site highlights Franklin, the Famous Dropout and points out what to notice during your visit.

   The bronze figure above you is Benjamin Franklin, a former student of the school he is said to overlook. There is a lovely irony in his standing here. Franklin is remembered as one of America's greatest minds, yet he is also one of its most notable dropouts. He was in good company, though. Five signers of the Declaration of Independence attended Boston Latin: Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and William Hooper. Of those five, only four graduated, and Franklin was the one who did not. Other notable alumni include Cotton Mather and the architect Charles Bulfinch. The statue itself has a history. It is the bronze Franklin that belongs to the grounds of Old City Hall, and it was the first portrait statue to be erected in Boston, in 1856. So as you look up at him, you are looking at a piece of Boston's public art that has been standing here for well over a century and a half.

4. 04

   A Site That Kept Changing

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Boston Latin School site highlights A Site That Kept Changing and points out what to notice during your visit.

   The original wooden schoolhouse did not last forever. In 1745 it was torn down to make way for an expanded King's Chapel, the stone church just beside you. The school did not disappear, though. It simply carried on in different locations, as it has done ever since. Today, more than 2,400 pupils attend Boston Latin School on Avenue Louis Pasteur, a long way from the small first classes held in a headmaster's home. The ground you are standing on kept evolving too. In 1810 the Suffolk County Courthouse, designed by the renowned architect Charles Bulfinch, was built here. It served as Boston's second City Hall from 1841 until the government outgrew the space in 1862, and it was then replaced by the building by Gridley J. F. Bryant and Arthur Gilman that is now known as Old City Hall. Look down once more at the mosaic. It is shaped like a hopscotch board and is called City Carpet, installed in 1983. It marks the original site of the Boston Latin School, so a playful pattern now sits where generations of schoolboys once studied.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Boston Latin School site highlights Before You Head Off and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Before you move on along the Freedom Trail, take a moment to notice how much is packed into this one short stretch of School Street. There is a bronze statue, a mosaic underfoot, the stone walls of King's Chapel right behind, and the old city hall rising nearby. Each belongs to a different century, and each has a connection to the school. Try reading the scene as a timeline. Start with the humble beginning of 1635, with classes in a headmaster's home. Move to the schoolhouse that gave way to a growing chapel, and then to the courthouse and city hall that followed. Finally, end with the statue of a student who left early and still became one of the most celebrated figures in American history. As you walk on, you might wonder what else around you started as something humbler than it looks. In this part of Boston, the answer is often quite a lot.