Author, diplomat, inventor, printer and scientist Benjamin Franklin is memorialized with a stately statue on the site of his former schoolhouse in Boston. Walk the Freedom Trail, which visits numerous historic spots throughout the city, to see the statue and learn more about this important native Bostonian, who is to credit for both the Franklin Stove and the lightning rod.
Find the statue alongside a mosaic on School Street in front of the Old City Hall, marking the spot of the original schoolhouse where Franklin was educated, alongside Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine and William Hooper, but never graduated. The school, Boston Latin, is the one of the country’s oldest public schools, founded in April 1635. It was torn down in 1745 as King’s Chapel expanded, but continues to operate in a new location in the city’s Fenway neighborhood.
Admire the work of sculptor Richard Greenough when you visit the 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter) Benjamin Franklin Statue, where it has stood since 1856. Compared to the French Second Empire-style Old City Hall behind it, the statue looks quite new. Notice the four bronze panels that surround the statue and highlight Franklin’s notable works as a printer and scientist and his signing of both the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris. Just behind the statue, to the left, you can see the King’s Chapel Burying Ground.
If time allows, visit Old City Hall behind the statue, home to Boston’s leaders for more than 120 years. Then, continue along the Freedom Trail to the next stop, the Old Corner Bookstore, which was once the home of the 19th-century publishing company Ticknor and Fields.
Don’t miss this look back at one of Boston’s most celebrated native sons, and a key player in early American democracy.
