Today
Two hundred thousand persons visit Bunker Hill every year. Of these visitors 20,000 pay their $0.10, and presumably climb the 294 granite steps to the top.[12] Very few Bostonians are among these visitors.[13] They are of various types: honeymooners and casual tourists, whose list of the sights to be seen in historic Boston includes the monument, and historically minded youngsters, one of whom was recently caught in a heated argument with his father as to where the order was to “wait ’til you can see the whites of their eyes.” Surely, the stout young man who recently lugged 25 pounds to the top—his young daughter—was not typical.
[12] Estimate of custodian from a review of his register, 1951.
[13] “Those pangs of conscience he feels every June 17 are as close as the average Bostonian ever comes to climbing Bunker Hill Monument.”—Boston Globe, 18 June 1951.
The evidence that the monument is probably the most popular of the historic shrines of old Boston would be as pleasing to the charter members of the Bunker Hill Monument Association as to the present members of this venerable society, which lists among present and past members, 30 generals, 12 admirals, 12 Presidents of the United States, a score of Massachusetts governors, 20 mayors of Boston, and 6 presidents of Harvard University. It is a healthful society to belong to, the 1949 Proceedings say, in the mention of 46 half-century members of whom 16 were then living.
Many years ago, the Association voted to hold patriotic exercises every year at the monument, and this resolution has been faithfully fulfilled. The annual ceremonies today are very different from those of the earlier years; they have followed the varying pattern in which American citizens have celebrated their national anniversaries during the more than a century since the monument was dedicated in 1843. They were solemn occasions during the earlier years. In what better spot could the Yankees of the trying days of the Civil War compare their convictions with those who fought for similar principles than at the monument, as they listened to the stirring eloquence of their War Governor, John A. Andrew. In later years the holiday spirit took over, with a fireman’s muster to please the older folk, while the youngsters of Greater Boston made Bunker Hill Day on 17 June a parallel in firecracker noise and casualties to fingers and eyesight, to the Fourth of July, of which it was a preview. Today, Bunker Hill Day is a huge neighborhood festival, with block parties and a skillfully routed parade which seems to pass every house on the hill. They who enjoy things most are the children of working people, not of the wealthy families that once lived in the sightly dwellings of Bunker Hill. Each boy or girl can give a visitor the story of the battle in detail, and recite the precise dimensions of the monument. (They collect from tourists for this information, for it is one way by which Charlestown youngsters get their spending money.) These children would rarely answer to the old names: Prescott, Warren, Putnam, or similar Yankee names. They are mostly of second or third generation European families: proud Americans, fortunate to live near the site of one of America’s most famous historical shrines. Their festival is a heartening occasion to witness, for it is American democracy at its best.
Through it all the monument rises above its unadorned settings; except that the crown of the hill has been removed, it could still be the New England hilltop farm on which the battle was fought. The obelisk rises in the simplicity of its straight lines and clean angles, with no curves, and with the somber gray of its harsh-textured masonry unrelieved by any greenery of foundation shrubbery. The rugged monument is symbolic of the stern spirit of those who fought in the battle, and of the determination of those who solved the problem of building this massive memorial to them, in the pioneer days of American architecture and engineering.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.