COMMONWEALTH AVENUE
PHILLIPS BROOKS' MEMORIAL
Besides the main library there are branch libraries or reading rooms in every section of the city. Altogether the Boston Public Library contains over one million volumes, making it the largest circulating library in the United States.
But there are other buildings in the Back Bay which rival those on Copley Square. We should see the Christian Science church with its massive dome; the Boston Opera House; and Symphony Hall, the home of the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra, known the country over.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts stood originally on Copley Square, but in 1909 a new and magnificent building was opened, farther out in the Back Bay. Not far from the new museum stands the Harvard Medical School, an imposing group of five white-marble buildings.
But now we are tired of buildings, so come into the Public Garden—the gateway to the Back Bay—and while you rest I will tell you about Boston's parks. Sitting in the beautiful Public Garden, it will not be hard for you to believe that the park system of Boston is the finest in the country. The first park was, as we have seen, the Common. For many years the Common was not a place of beauty. Edward Everett Hale spoke of it as a “pasture for cows, a playground for children, a training ground for the militia, a place for beating carpets.” Many changes have taken place on the Common since the old days, but two of the characteristics still remain. Boston Common is still a playground for children, and military drills are still to be seen there from time to time.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY