These programs look at the rich history of the African American community on Beacon Hill in the 19th century, with a focus on the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, and the early struggles for equal rights in Boston.

This tour of Boston's Historic Beacon Hill District will highlight the architectural prowess of renowned architect Charles Bulfinch. The tour will be led by the Boston Landmarks Commission's Director of Design Review Joseph Cornish.

Reservations are required! Email Mr. Cornish.

 Join the Boston Landmarks Staff for a not-so-scary graveyard scavenger hunt in some of Boston's oldest cemeteries! Stops on the scavenger hunt include:

• Copp's Hill Burying Ground
• King's Chapel Burying Ground
• Granary Burying Ground

Staff will be (a)live tweeting throughout the event and will have a special surprise at the last graveyard stop.

Registration is encouraged! Contact us at 617-635-3850 for more information.

Get a sneak peek of on-going preservation work for the USS Constitution with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Naval History and Heritage Command Detachment’s restoration facility in the Charlestown Navy Yard.  Join Margherita Desy, Historian with the USS Constitution, for a one-hour tour of the 1847 Alexander Parris-designed carpenters’ and riggers’ shops.

This tour requires participants to be able to climb steep and long flights of stairs in the building. The tour is not recommended for children younger than age 10. Also, close-toe shoes are a must. The tour is limited to 25 people. Reservations are required!

With so much attention in Boston's history focused on Puritans and revolutionaries, it's easy to forget that the City has also had a fraught relationship with sex work almost since its founding. What do we actually know, however, about the daily lives of nineteenth-century Boston sex workers? Boston University historical archaeologist Jade Luiz will discuss how the artifacts recovered from a North End brothel privy shed light on what life inside a nineteenth-century brothel might have been like for the women working there, the madam running it, and the male customers visiting.

The Alibi Bar & Lounge, 215 Charles Street, site of the “Drunk Tank” at the Charles Street Jail is the venue for this unique presentation. This is a free event, but purchase of food and beverage is expected. Seating is limited and reservation is required.

The site of the Charlestown Navy Yard has played many roles in its nearly 250-year history. Landing site of the British Army during the Battle of Bunker Hill, then a naval facility building warships for the US Navy. National Park Service tour.

Boston's grand boulevard, Commonwealth Avenue, provides an enduringly popular stroll. The tour parallels the 19th-century filling and development of the Back Bay from its origin at Arlington Street down the seven blocks along the tree-lined, grassy Mall. See how careful effort over 150 years has preserved the "grandness" of the Avenue.

Prior registration is encouraged. Space is limited so make sure you RSVP!

The Boston Landmarks Commission organized a special tour of the 1849 Boston Custom House and 1915 clock tower during Preservation Month in May. 

The Custom House, a Boston Landmark, is located in McKinley Square, in Boston’s Financial District.

Space is limited so an RSVP is required! New this year - register for one of two tours: May 2 or May 16.

Sharpen your observation skills and study the aesthetic components of the Old North Church while celebrating the craftsmanship involved in building and creating this national icon.

Join us for a highly participatory experience examining the exterior and interior architecture, as well as three fine art pieces inside the church, including 17th century wooden Baroque angels and an altar painting by John Ritto Penniman. Visit the second floor gallery of the church, see the organ up close, and stand on the altar while you consider the visual elements within the context of the 18th and 19th centuries and contemplate the labor and skill involved. There's always more than meets the eye!

Disclaimer: This tour requires climbing and descending one flight of steep, narrow stairs to the second floor gallery of the church.