Quincy Market – Hub of Visitors’ Attractions
Quincy Market, Boston’s most-visited tourist attraction, was originally constructed in 1826, a stone’s throw from the “Cradle of Liberty,” Faneuil Hall, at the apex of the city’s open-air food market since Puritan times.
The granite and brick, slate-roofed building looks much the same on the exterior as it did 175 years ago, but has come a long way, with architectural renovation, renaissance, and multiple tourist attractions, to its centerpiece role today as “the Hub of the Hub” for visitors to Boston.
In the old days, Quincy Market was the perishables depot for ships unloading in Boston Harbor, as well as the purveyor of meat and produce for Bostonians. The building once stood at water’s edge, and the site was shored up with landfill, extending the city’s domain out into the Boston Harbor.
Today, Quincy Market is still a food emporium, though of a different kind, teeming with upscale shops, boutiques, pushcart vendors and restaurants, as well as visitors from around the world—some 50,000 a day during the summer months.
This ingenious and fortuitous blending of history with consumerism was born during Boston’s urban renewal of the ‘70’s with architect Ben Thompson’s vision of the building’s potential as a tourist attraction. At the same time, the project was an important historic reclamation for the City of Boston.
Thompson made contemporary commercial use of the original 19th century merchant’s stalls and interior columns; they stand as retail space demarcations today.
Quincy Market is divided into three sections—the main building, the North Market and the South Market, housing familiar retailers like Crate & Barrel, Crabtree & Evelyn, and Godiva, as well as the “Boston” merchants, including Yankee Candles, Salty Dog, Museum (of Fine Arts) gift store, and others.
Quincy Market’s main draw for visitors though, is strolling the entire 565-foot interior corridor of the building, where every imaginable kind of food-tasting experience awaits.
From here, you can walk to the Boston waterfront, the North End and the New England Aquarium. Quincy Market is bordered by the financial district, Government Center and Haymarket. The Old State House, the Boston waterfront and the North End are within a few minutes’ walk.
For further information:
http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/information_hours.html
- Barbara Sealock
