The rest
of Hidden Boston:
Jamaica
Plain
Galleries and antiquarian bookstores, Irish pubs and Hispanic bodegas are
at the center of a melting pot bordered by woods and ponds.
The Chestnut Hill pumping
stations
Possibly the most beautiful public structures in America.
Stonybrook
Reservation
Imagine: A 500-acre forest within the Boston city limits.
Museum of Bad Art
A roomful of really, really bad art. In Dedham, conveniently located just a couple blocks from the Dedham Mall and the Norfolk County Courthouse (where Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted).
The
Jackson Homestead
Classic example of Federalist architecture and a stop on the Underground
Railway in Newton.
Charlestown historic houses
Take an online tour of the neighborhood's houses, which date back to the 1700s.
In 1971, Boston Gas commissioned artists Corita Kent to use one of two large natural-gas tanks in Dorchester as a giant canvas.
The result was an instant landmark: a rainbow of colored stripes that
greets motorists on Rte. 93 and which is the world's largest copyrighted
art work.
But did Kent, active in protesting the Vietnam War, add a political statement to the piece? Look closely at the left side of the blue stripe, and you'll see a man's profile. Now follow that profile down and an unmistakable beard appears - that of Ho Chi Minh.
Kent has since died, so she's not talking. But Boston Gas ardently denies any political tinge, saying the profile is a coincidence. A couple of years ago, when the company tore down the tank with the art on it, it had it re-painted on the remaining tank. Tank purists quickly noted that the profile had a rounder, less Ho-like nose. Boston Gas insisted the rounder beak was more in keeping with what it says was Kent's original design.
- Getting there:
Drive south from Boston on Rte. 93 (a.k.a. the Southeast Expressway). Depending on traffic, the tank should be 10 minutes or less away.