Bettina A. Norton

Thursdays, April 5 - May 17 (foul-weather date, May 24) 10:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 7 sessions
Meet at designated public transportation spots

This course is designed to acquaint us with special places within our city that we might not otherwise know. We will limit our visit to communities in Boston that were separately established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony days but subsequently were incorporated as part of the city. Not only will we look at the area’s distinctive and interesting architecture, but also its social history, community dynamics, and specific worthy sites.

Neighborhoods we will visit include Sumner Hill in Jamaica Plain, Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Codman Square in Dorchester, Dudley Square and Meetinghouse Hill in Roxbury, and the Boston Naval Shipyard and Monument and City Squares in Charlestown, and (new this year) the oceanside area of South Boston, revealed to us by a well-known Southie raconteur. We will be treated to one behind-the-scenes visit on each tour. Tours finish with lunch at a neighborhood restaurant. Attendees are responsible for cost of lunches and transportation.

Participants will meet at 10:00 a.m. at a designated public transportation stop (different each time) and proceed together to the beginning site for each tour. Lunch will be at 12:30, by reservation, and can be ordered from the full menu. Each owner/chef will chat with us about his neighborhood and clientele. A list of the more notable sites to be seen will be provided at the beginning of each tour.

Bettina A. Norton

Bettina A. Norton was registrar and in charge of the print collection at the Essex Institute, then director of the Cambridge Historical Society. She is the author of books, pamphlets, and over 60 articles, most notably on the 19th-century American artist, Edwin Whitefield; the Boston Naval Shipyard; Trinity Church in the City of Boston; and the series, Neighborhood Trivia Hunts. From 1995 to 2001 she ran The Beacon Hill Paper/Chronicle, and she now serves as executive editor of The Boston Musical Intelligencer (q.v.) She and her family live in the house in which she grew up.