SUNDAY Date: Sunday, April13, 2014 Location: CLEVELAND, OH Circulation (DMA): 427,662 (17) THE PLAIN DEALER Type (Frequency): Newspaper (S) Page: K1,K2 Section: Travel Keyword: Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum Page 1 of 3 © 2013 Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Account: 33156 (1391) OH-3800 For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher SUNDAY Date: Sunday, April13, 2014 Location: CLEVELAND, OH Circulation(DMA): 427,662 (17) THE PLAIN DEALER Type (Frequency): Newspaper (S) Page: K1 ,K2 Section: Travel Keyword: Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum Before my trip in late February, I The real crates of tea, of course, leading up to the American War hadn't been to what might be con­ were gone for good, brewing in salty of Independence. But there were sidered the birthplace of the Ameri­ Boston Harbor. plenty of others, in Boston and can protest movement in several One of those crates - one of only elsewhere. decades. I headed to the waterfront two ever recovered - is on display To put the tea protest in per­ to re-educate myself on the events inside the museum. It was found the spective, the morning after my leading up to our nation's split from morning after the protest in nearby museum visit I joined a tour of the the mother country. Dorchester by teenager John Robin­ Freedom Trail, the 2.5-mile route First up: The Boston Tea Party son, and passed down through his through downtown Boston that Ships & Museum, which opened in family for more than two centuries. travels past 16 sites important in the summer of 2012 not far from It sits under glass. early American history. the spot where the disguised pro­ The museum also features sev­ Again, a costumed in-character testers tossed the tea more than two eral more-technologically advanced guide led the group. This time, centuries ago (an earlier version of exhibits, including a conversation Veronica Barron took on the role the museum was destroyed by fire between two holographic women, of Meliscent Barrett, a teenager in 2001). one Tory and one Patriot, debating from Concord, Mass., who helped No mere look-and-read reposi­ the effects of the protest the morn­ arm the rebels in the nearby battle tory of history, this museum gets ing after. of Lexington. ("History is not just its visitors involved. I was handed a And my favorite: Side-by-side por­ made up of famous characters;' she feather - my Indian disguise - and traits of revolutionary leader Sam­ told us.) a card outlining my new identity as uel Adams and British King George Our tour began inside Boston one of the protesters, Thomas Mel­ III, two men who never met in real Common, the nation's oldest pub­ ville (a close friend of John Hancock life. Using technological wizardry lic park, established in 1634 and and, later, the grandfather of "Moby more common to a place like Dis­ used in its early years for grazing Dick" author Herman Melville). ney World, these portraits come to cattle, as a public stockade, and by First stop on this interactive tour: life and have an actual conversation, encamped Redcoats. A room designed to look like the using words pulled from journals From there, we walked by the nearby Old South Meeting House, and letters. new Massachusetts State House, where protesters first gathered "The die is now cast," King built in 1798 ("new" being a rela­ on that fateful night. The voice of George tells his adversary. "The tive term, of course, meaning that Samuel Adams filled the room: "The colonies must either submit or tri­ it's 85 years younger than the old time for petition and compromise is umph. Blows must decide whether one). Its signature dome, initially over;' he told us. "Taxation without you are to be subject to England or covered in wood shingles, was representation is tyranny:' independent:' gilded with gold leaf in 1874. Local actress Jillian Couillard, Adams' reply? "I predict that the From here, we traveled to: playing the role of revolutionary British will sink into obscurity while • The Granary Burying Ground, wife Margaret Gammell, led us on providence will erect a mighty em­ burial site of John Hancock, Sam­ to the Eleanor, a replica of one of pire here in America;' he says, per­ uel Adams and Paul Revere, whose the three ships that was filled with haps overconfidently. modest gravestone was replaced imported tea. We were gathered in The museum experience con- years after his death after "Paul Re­ opposition to the new Tea Act of cludes with a multisensory short vere's Ride;' by Henry Wadsworth 1773, she explained, which rein­ film, "Let It Begin Here," which Longfellow, elevated the home­ forced Britain's economic control chronicles the first battle of the town hero to a national figure in over the colonies by propping up Revolutionary War, fought about the late 19th century. the East Indian Co. 10 miles away in Lexington. • The Old State House, where Massachusetts Royal Governor For some post-museum nourish­ the Declaration of Independence Thomas Hutchinson had refused ment, head upstairs to Abigail's Tea was first read in public in Massa­ to send the tea back to England, Room, serving sandwiches, sweets chusetts and where, in 1770, Brit­ and it was time to act, according to and several kinds of tea, including ish soldiers fired into a crowd of Gammell. ''Are you ready to throw Singlo, a green tea that was to make gathering Bostonians, killing five. off this yoke of tyranny?" Gammell its debut in America in 1773 (but The incident became known as the prodded us. wound up steeping in the harbor Boston Massacre, and was used by "Huzzah!" we replied, as we instead). revolutionary leaders to stoke pub­ dumped 2-foot-square water-re­ lic opinion against the loyalists. sistant boxes overboard (and then More than just • Fanueil Hall, an old market hoisted them back up, via the at­ a (tea) party building that hosted town meet­ tached rope, so other visitors could ings during both the Revolutionary experience the exhilaration of The Boston Tea Party may be and Civil War eras. It continues as Page 2 of 3 feigned disobedience). among the best-known incidents a marketplace today, peddling ice © 2013 Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Account: 33156 (1391) OH-3800 For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher SUNDAY Date: Sunday, April13, 2014 Location: CLEVELAND, OH Circulation (DMA): 427,662 (17) THE PLAIN DEALER Type (Frequency): Newspaper (S) Page: K1 ,K2 Section: Travel Keyword: Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum cream cones and scented candles in place of radical ideas. The guided tour ends here, but the trail continues through Bos­ ton's North End neighborhood, past Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. It then crosses the Charles River and takes a turn past the USS Constitution, launched in 1797 and currently the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. The trail ends atop Bunker Hill, where a 221-foot-tall granite mon­ ument, erected in 1843, offers ter­ rific views of the Boston cityscape. Here, in June 1775, the Conti­ nental Army met its better-trained British adversaries in the first ma­ jor battle of the war. The Redcoats won the battle, but the scrappy col­ onists gained enough confidence to continue the war for another eight years. Makes the political squabbles of today look like, well, a tea party. ERIKJACOBS I THENEW YORK TIMES The Robinson Half Chest on display at the recently renovated Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum in Boston. Page 3 of 3 © 2013 Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Account: 33156 (1391) OH-3800 For reprints or rights, please contact the publisher .