Known today as Boston Latin School. The school was unique in the world. Technically, all children--rich or poor--could attend tuition-free. Practically, though, few poor children attended, since students had to pay for firewood, and poor families were more likely to require their children's assistance around the house. So in reality, the school became a bastion for education the Boston elite. The original building was built in 1634 by the Puritans, 2 years before Harvard College, and the oldest public school in America. It was torn down to make way for
King's Chapel in 1645 and the new building has since been renamed the Boston Latin School.
The oldest portrait statue in Boston, of Benjamin Franklin and erected in 1856, is behind the fence in the courtyard, and overlooks the original building site where Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock once attended. Today, a colorful mosaic marks the school's first location and is one of the stops on the
Boston Freedom Trail.
Even today four years of Latin are still required to graduate.
