Remembering and Restoring the Edmund Fowle House, Last month The Boston Globe ran a story on the restoration and opening of the Edmund Fowle House, funded by the Historical Society of Watertown. In 1775 the Massachusetts Provincial Congress used this building as the headquarters of the Council it had set up to serve as the executive wing of its government, Gov. Thomas Gage having lost the loyalty of the people and being otherwise engaged. Why Watertown? It was far enough away from Boston to be safe, near enough to the lines for news to travel quickly, and about equidistant between the northern and southern ends of the siege lines. Henry Knox and the printer Peter Edes also set themselves up in Watertown after escaping from Boston. Why the Fowle house? Apparently it had an unusually large room for a private dwelling. According to the Globe: The second floor was still unfinished—mostly because Fowle’s wife had died in childbirth before it was completed—when the Provincial Congress took over the house in 1775; at the time, it sat barely 3 miles from the Continental Army’s encampment on Cambridge Common. The New England army actually occupied many camps ringing Boston, but Cambridge housed the headquarters of its commanding generals, Ward and Washington. The Fowle house was moved off Mount Auburn Street in 1871, but it’s still near the old center of Watertown. The memory of the Fowle house’s use in 1775-76 didn’t last long. “Within a decade after the Revolution,” said preservation architect Wendall C. Kalsow, “nobody would have known where the council’s meeting room was. By the 1780s, this was no longer a house of national historical significance.” By then, he explained during an interview at the house, bedrooms had been constructed on the second floor, cutting up the space used for the meeting room. Which helps to remind us that historic preservation is a relatively newfangled value. Our Revolutionary ancestors cared more about the usefulness of land and buildings than about what had happened in them many years before. above written by: J. L. BELL, a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston.
Historical Society Blog & Forum http://historicalsocietyblogforum.blogspot.com/

Only yards away from "Old Ironsides," the USS Constitution Museum has interactive galleries that tell the story of one of our country's most cherished icons.

ALMA houses the most extensive collection of Armenian artifacts in North America, with over 20,000 items, 27,000 books, 5,000 coins, 3,000 textiles, 930 rare books, 800 oral histories and 170 Armenian oriental rugs. The building includes Bedoukian Hall, the main exhibit gallery, as well as several smaller side galleries, the research library, a contemporary art gallery, studio space, offices, meeting rooms, and climate-controlled vaults for the storage of rare and delicate pieces.

After 70 years in the Back Bay, the Institute of Contemporary Arts has re-opened in full glory on the reviltalized Waterfront of Boston. Designed by world renowned architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the ICA is an imposing and captivating piece of art in itself. Grab a friend and head on over to the Seaport district where the ICA is a neighbor to an ever gentrifying and hip neighborhood. Open until 9 pm and closed Mondays. Admission $10-12($10 Students with ID) The gallery is free on Thursdays from 5-9pm. Here is a handy map of parking lots in the area.

Robotic reptiles and live lightning demonstrations are just the beginning of the interactive experiences available at the Museum of Science. The museum entertains and enlightens with over 400 exhibits, a five-story dome Omnimax Theater, a planetarium, and laser shows. Customized sound effects greet pedestrians as they enter specific rooms: the animal exhibits are characterized by roars, the computer exhibit by electronic beeping, and the mathematics and physics exhibits by the sound of a nerd being given an atomic wedgie. Tickets for the Omni Theater shows (50min), planetarium shows (45min), and laser shows (45min) cost $8.50 for adults and $6.50 for children but can be purchased at a discount in combo rates. Laser shows featuring rock artists such as Pink Floyd and Aerosmith are popular among teenagers, college students, and twenty-somethings in altered states. Weekday afternoons and Friday nights are the best times to visit; stay away on rainy-day weekends if you dislike crowds. Admission $14, seniors $12, children 3-11 $11, kids under 3 free. Show times vary, so consider calling to reserve tickets, or visit the website to purchase tickets. Be sure to hit up the extensive gift shop for a wide variety of T-shirts, games, trinkets, jewelry, and dietary supplements crucial to the survival of any Trekkie (astronaut ice cream). Paid parking in adjacent lot.

The Otis House is the perfect example of Boston Brahmin living in the days after the Revolution. This house, now a preserved museum, was one of the first homes completed by celebrated Boston architect, Charles Bullfinch. Bullfinch was also responsible for several other federal style mansions in Beacon Hill as well as the Massachusetts State House. The Otis House is also Historic New England's headquarters and has a variety of historical information on this period in time. A Boston jewel sure to be enjoyed by a Boston history buff!

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