Walking the Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Hill, Stop by Stop
The Black Heritage Trail links homes, schools and churches of Boston’s 19th-century free Black community. Here is a guide to the route and its stories.
The north slope of Beacon Hill was once home to much of Boston’s free Black community. In the decades before the Civil War, the people who lived on these streets built churches and schools, organized against slavery and sheltered those escaping it. The Black Heritage Trail, about a mile and a half long, connects the places where that history happened.
The trail is part of the Boston African American National Historic Site, managed by the National Park Service in partnership with the Museum of African American History. Most of the houses are private residences, so they are viewed from the street.
Starting at the Common
The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial stands on Beacon Street, across from the State House. Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s bronze relief honors the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first Black regiments raised in the North during the Civil War, and its white colonel, Robert Gould Shaw. It is one of the most celebrated public monuments in America.
Homes and schools on the slope
- George Middleton House. One of the oldest homes on Beacon Hill built by Black Bostonians. Middleton was a veteran of the Revolutionary War who led a Black militia company.
- Phillips School. In 1855, after Massachusetts banned school segregation, this became one of the first integrated public schools in Boston.
- John J. Smith House. Home of a barber and abolitionist whose shop was a meeting place for activists and who later served in the state legislature.
- Charles Street Meeting House. A church where abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, spoke in the 1800s.
The Haydens and the Underground Railroad
The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House on Phillips Street is one of the most important stops. The Haydens had escaped slavery themselves, and their home became a major station on the Underground Railroad, sheltering many freedom seekers. Lewis Hayden was well known for his fearless resistance to slave catchers.
Nearby, the John Coburn House belonged to a clothing dealer and activist who helped organize a Black self-defense group to protect the community from slave catchers.
Smith Court
The trail ends at Smith Court, a tiny street that holds several key sites:
- The Smith Court Residences, typical homes of Black Bostonians in the 1800s.
- The Abiel Smith School, built in 1835 as a public school for Black children.
- The African Meeting House, built in 1806 and now part of the Museum of African American History. It is the oldest surviving Black church building in the United States built by free Black people.
Planning your walk
The trail takes about an hour or two to walk at a relaxed pace. The National Park Service offers ranger-led tours in some seasons, and a self-guided map is available on the official site at nps.gov/boaf. Beacon Hill streets are steep and can be slippery in winter, so wear good shoes.
February, Black History Month, is a natural time to walk the trail. But the stories along these streets, of courage, faith, education and the fight for equal rights, are worth remembering in every month of the year.
