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Once the Revolutionary War ended, Boston's significant buildings became tourist attractions. The nation wanted to see the sites which helped to create a nation, so since the late 1700's, the Freedom Trail was a concept without a name. But that all changed in the early 1950's, when William Schofield proposed the novel idea of the Freedom Trail.
William Schofield was the news editor for the Boston Herald Traveller, a major Boston newspaper. In 1951, he realized that more so than any other place in the nation, Boston contained sites that played critical roles in the founding of the United States. Even more convenient was the fact that all of these landmarks were within walking distance of each other. At this point, each site had its own organization and individual idea of how to present itself to the public, so making an orderly visit to all the sites was very difficult. Schofield proposed to link 16 of these sites together in order to make a journey to them much more organized and plausible. Mayor John Hynes agreed that this would be a useful endeavor, so plywood signs were created to direct visitors through the journey.
In 1958, Richard Berenson, a local businessman, suggested placing a solid brick line along Schofield's walking path linking each stop in unmistakable fashion. Thus, the path was marked by red bricks set into the pavement or by a painted red line, running from Boston Common all the way to the Bunker Hill Monument. The Freedom Trail was officially created with this incorporation of a permanent link from site to site. A Freedom Trail marker or sign (the one shown on the homepage) identifies each particular site. The red line is still unmistakable today and is a dominant symbol of Boston's role in the Revolution.
The Freedom Trail Foundation, a non-profit organization designed to promote and expand the Freedom Trail, was formed in 1964. From its founding until 1992 (when the first professional staff was hired to "increase the Trail's visibility"), the Freedom Trail was completely run by volunteer support. In 1974, the National Park Service created the Boston National Historic Park, and it has since played a key role in maintaining and interpreting the sites. From that moment, a partnership was formed with the Freedom Trail Foundation, and together, the two have created arguably the nation's most important historical resource.
But in order to understand the creation of the Freedom Trail, you must first understand the era in which it was founded. The 1950's were an extremely intense period of years in American history, as the Cold War with the Soviet Union was at its peak. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, forever infamously linked with the Red Scare, gave his first speech denouncing Communism and stated that he had a list of State Department officials who were Communists. By July of that year, McCarthy was a major political force and "McCarthyism" was in full effect. The nation was terrified of the Communist threat, and soon became terrified of McCarthy as he attempted to hunt down Communists from all walks of life.
Americans attacked Communism in many various ways in the 1950's, including in television. In the half-true, half-bizarre mythical form in which Americans interpreted it, Communism meant no family, no personal loyalty, and the rise of the individual. Television confronted this idea by presenting the happy, secure, strong, nuclear American families. Anti-Communist messages ran rampant in 50's sitcoms, both secretly and not so secretly, from Father Knows Best to Leave It To Beaver. Americans confronted the issue the best way they knew how - through the use of mass media.
Another response to the Communist threat was to make national symbols in an attempt to create a national identity and elevate American patriotism. The Freedom Train, a train which contained some of the most important documents in American history and went on tour across the nation, had been unveiled a few years earlier. It promoted the idea of American democracy and freedom and inferentially indicted Communism. As it toured the nation, the Freedom Train was widely praised and it achieved its original goal of spreading patriotism throughout the countryside.
It was in this strongly anti-Communist period that the Freedom Trail was founded. Not much is made of its origins today, but it is an important concept to understand. It was more than just historical preservation - it was an attempt to foster patriotism in a nation confronted with the threat of Communism.
Along with the historic and anti-Communist dimensions, there was also a tourist dimension that played a key role in the Freedom Trail's formation and continuing prosperity. Much like any other major city, a large part of the city's revenue comes from tourism. So anytime you can draw tourists to the area, you take the opportunity and run with it, and that is just what happened with the Freedom Trail. In the mid-1990's, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism gave a $100,000 grant to the Freedom Trail Foundation for marketing the trail to visitors. Because the marketing campaign was so successful, the same grant has been awarded each year since then. The trail attracts roughly 3 million international visitors each year and over 8,000 students from all around the nation who participate in field trips. The trail is a local attraction as well, as thousands of locals make the journey through American history each year.
When William Schofield originally came up with the Freedom Trail idea, he never could have imagined the success that it would garner over the next few decades. But the trail continues to grow in popularity as each year passes, making it a staple in Boston society. The unmistakable red line, the Freedom Trail marker, and the 16 sites that they connect remain one of the most important historical resources that this nation has to offer.
REFERENCES
Booth, Robert. Boston's Freedom Trail: A Souvenir Guide. Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press, 2000 (5th edition).
Brown, Dona. Inventing New England: Regional Tourism in the Nineteenth Century. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
The Freedom Trail. VideoTours, Inc., 1991.
Fried, Richard M. The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Holleran, Michael. Boston's "Changeful Times": Origins of Preservation and Planning in America. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Kammen, Michael. Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Portrait of Boston and the Freedom Trail. SITE Productions, 1994.
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