Boston Record Breakers: Self-Guided Scavenger Hunt

Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library is a pioneer of public library service in America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. As a City of Boston historic cultural institution, Boston Public Library today features a central library and twenty-five neighborhood branches, serving nearly 4 million visitors per year and millions more online. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

Copley Square named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to its many cultural institutions, some of which remain today. It was proposed as a Boston Landmark. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Arlington Street Church is a Unitarian Universalist church across from the Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Because of its geographic prominence and the notable ministers who have served the congregation, the church is considered to be among the most historically important in American Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism. Completed in 1861, it was designed by Arthur Gilman and Gridley James Fox Bryant to resemble James Gibbs' St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Ether Monument, also known as The Good Samaritan, is a statue and fountain near the northwest corner of Boston's Public Garden, near the intersection of Arlington Street and Marlborough Street. It commemorates the use of ether in anesthesia. Its design has been attributed to the Boston architect William Robert Ware and to the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward. It is 40 feet (12 m) tall and is the oldest monument in the public garden. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court (state legislature) and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $133,333 (more than five times the budget), and has repeatedly been enlarged since. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment is a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens opposite 24 Beacon Street, Boston (at the edge of the Boston Common). It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading members of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863 to depart the city to fight in the South. The sculpture was unveiled on May 31, 1897. This is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African American soldiers. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

Park Street was laid out in 1804, initially as Park Place, replacing the previous Sentry Street. In the 1880s, the feminist Woman's Journal was published on Park Street. Houghton Mifflin was also headquartered here beginning in the late 19th century.

The Tremont Temple on 88 Tremont Street is a Baptist church in Boston, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, USA. The existing multi-storey structure was designed by architect Clarence Blackall of Boston, and opened in May 1896. It replaced a much smaller, 1827 structure that had repeatedly suffered damage by fires. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

Alexander Graham Bell, a BU professor from 1874 to 1879, invented the telephone in 1876 after having his research on a new device for transmitting speech funded by BU. He appears here at a 1916 BU reception marking the 40th anniversary of his invention. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Tavern has been around since 1795. A gathering place for printers and politicians, sailors and students, it quickly became the most famous alehouse in the city. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.

The Union Oyster House, located on the Freedom Trail, near Faneuil Hall, enjoys the unique distinction of being America's oldest restaurant. This Boston fixture, housed in a building dating back to Pre-Revolutionary days, started serving food in 1826 and has continued ever since with the stalls and oyster bar, where Daniel Webster was a constant customer, in their original positions. Here you will have to look around to find the answer to our challenge to advance to the new location and learn the story of this place.