Boston Common

Boston Common is an urban park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, covering roughly 50 acres between several major streets. The grounds include open lawns, shaded tree clusters, winding footpaths, and the Frog Pond, a shallow water feature in the center.

The city of Boston purchased the land in 1634 from an early settler for 30 pounds sterling, making it the first public park in North America. Over the following centuries, the grounds served as grazing land, meeting place, and military camp before taking its current form as an urban green space.

The name comes from medieval England, where a common meant shared grazing land for all citizens. Today people gather on the lawns for picnics, sunbathing, or to watch street performers and public events that take place throughout the year.

Visitors can use the Frog Pond for swimming in summer and ice skating in winter, while walkways connect the grounds to different parts of downtown. Signs at the entrances provide maps and information about monuments and pathways.

British troops built artillery fortifications and stationed 1,700 soldiers here during the winter of 1775–1776, as tensions mounted before the War of Independence. Some of the old trees were planted decades later as living memorials to that early military presence.