times, is a prominent structure some 400 feet long, crowned by a guilded dome. The Shaw Monument, by Saint Gaudens, the reproduction of the Beacon Monument which was erected in 1790, and statues of Daniel Webster and Horace Mann, are of interest in this locality. The City Hall, an Italian Renaissance structure, on School Street, is fronted by statues of Benjamin Franklin and Josiah Quincy, and the granite County Court House, a type of German Renaissance, is 450 feet long, erected at a cost of $2,500,000. On State Street stands the Custom House, of granite, in form a huge Greek cross; not far distant is the United States Government Building, which covers an entire block and accommodates the post-office, sub-treasury, and United States courts. The total cost of this edifice, including construction and land, was nearly $6,000,000.
Copley Square is perhaps the city's greatest architectural centre. Here are the Public Library, facing Trinity Church, and the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Second Unitarian and the New Old South churches. The library is built of Milford granite, in Italian Renaissance style, and is nearly square, inclosing an open court which contains a fountain by Martigny and is surrounded by a fine arcade. Over the main entrance are reliefs by Saint Gaudens, while the interior is richly decorated with colored marbles and mural paintings by well-known artists, among them Puvis de Chavannes, Edwin A. Abbey, and John S. Sargent. The entrance hall leads to a magnificent marble staircase flanked with lions. Statues of Emerson and Sir Harry Vane add to the interior decoration. The Boston Public Library is the largest free circulating library in the world. It has accommodation for 2,500,000 books and contains about 775,000 volumes, among which are included several valuable special collections, that of Shakespeariana being one of the finest in the world. The general reading-room (Bates Hall) is of spacious dimensions, 42 feet wide by 217 feet long, and extends across the Copley Square front. The churches on this square are worthy examples of ecclesiastical architecture, and, with the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Washington Street, the First Church of Christ (Scientist), and the First Spiritual Temple (Spiritualist) are perhaps the most striking church edifices in the city. The New Old South Church is in Italian Gothic, with a fine campanile and an interior noticeable for its rich marble. Trinity Church, by Richardson, said to be the finest church in New England, is a specimen of French Romanesque. It has the form of a Latin cross, and is particularly notable for its beautiful interior decorations and stained-glass windows. The Museum of Fine Arts, on the east side of the square, is of red brick, in Italian-Gothic style, and is the repository of works of inestimable value, the collection of Japanese art and that of antique casts being among the best in the world. Other points of interest in various parts of the city are the buildings of the Massachusetts General Hospital, the great Exchange Building, containing the Stock Exchange Chamber, the Chamber of Commerce, the tall Sears and Ames buildings, the Unitarian and Congregational buildings, the Masonic Temple, Tremont Temple, the Youth's Companion Building, the Natural History Museum, with a library and valuable collections, the Massachusetts Historical Society Building, the Armory of the First Corps of Cadets, and the new buildings of the New England Conservatory of Music.
In Charlestown are the famous Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill. In this section of the greater city the principal points of interest are the Bunker Hill Monument, a granite obelisk 220 feet high, which affords from the top an extensive view, and the navy yard, occupying nearly 90 acres, and containing machine-shops, ship-houses, etc., and a large granite dry-dock. Charlestown has also statues of Col. William Prescott and Gen. Joseph Warren, a soldiers' monument, and a monument to John Harvard.
Parks. The Common, a most characteristic feature of Boston, esteemed by the people as few other public parks are, because of its intimate connection with the history of the city, was set off in 1634 as a training-field and common ground, and has since been carefully preserved for public use. Its 48 acres are crossed by paths shaded by grand old elms, while toward the centre, near where the ‘Great Elm’ stood until blown down in 1876, is the Soldiers' Monument, erected in memory of the men of Boston who “died for their country.” Near the Tremont Street Mall stands the Crispus Attucks Monument, commemorating the ‘Boston Massacre of 1770.’ The bronze figure represents Revolution breaking the chains, and the scene of the massacre is portrayed in bas-relief on the base; the names of the victims are on the shaft. Adjacent to the Common is the Public Garden, of 24 acres, the entrance to the Back Bay district, tastefully laid out and in season a mass of brilliant flowers. It contains an artificial lake, spanned by a ponderous bridge, and an equestrian statue of Washington by Ball, statues of Edward Everett and Charles Sumner, a representation of “Venus Rising from the Sea,” and the group by J. Q. A. Ward, commemorating the discovery of ether, first successfully used in 1846 by Dr. Morton, in an operation at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Among other noteworthy statues of the city are a bronze statue of Governor Winthrop in Scollay Square, one of Samuel Adams in Adams Square, another of Governor Andrew in the State House, the statues of Alexander Hamilton, John Glover, William Lloyd Garrison, and Leif Ericson in Commonwealth Avenue, the statue of Farragut in the Marine Park, of Beethoven in the Music Hall, and of Columbus in front of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Owing to the natural beauty and accessibility of its suburbs, and the existence of the Common and the Public Garden in the heart of the city proper, Boston was late in initiating a system of public parks. There are now two phases of park development—the nuinicipal, dating from the seventies, and the metropolitan, of more recent inauguration and of vast extent, requiring years for its completion as planned. The municipal system, of over 2600 acres, includes, besides numerous playgrounds and open-air gymnasia, and independent parks in various parts of the city, a chain of parks connected by fine parkways, and almost encircling the city from the Charles River Embankment to the Marine Park in South Boston. From its terminus at the Charles River, the boulevard extends through a narrow section, Charlesgate, to ‘The Fens,’ then by the narrow Riverway to Leverett Park, approaching Ja-
