The best of Boston’s hidden history with author and guide Dina Vargo

From a secret Underground Railroad station to the Witch House of Lime Street to the Debutante Murderer House in Beacon Hill, this guide is sure to enrich and surprise you. Some travellers come to Boston to follow The Freedom Trail past famous sights from the US’ colonial and Revolutionary history. Others wander around the hallowed halls of the Boston Public Library and the red-brick buildings of Harvard University . But Boston’s history is rich and complex, with many stories that are rarely told. These include the unheralded (and sometimes ugly) acts of Revolutionary-era rebellion, inspiring acts of Civil Rights heroism, true crime and some just straight-up weirdness. Dina Vargo is an expert in strange stories from Boston’s past – a sort of specialised knowledge that she amassed as a docent for Boston By Foot walking tours. She went on to write two books on the subject, Hidden History of Boston and Wild Women of Boston . Her favourite subjects are women who defied social norms and made their own historical impact, often in ways that went unrecorded. Here, Vargo suggests the best places to learn about Boston’s hidden history. The Hayden House served as a critical station on the Underground Railroad (Credit: Mara Vorhees) 1. Hayden House, Beacon Hill In 1842, Louis and Harriet Hayden escaped slavery in Kentucky and fled to Canada. They eventually settled in Boston, where they joined the vibrant African American community in the city’s Beach Hill neighbourhood, opening a clothing store and becoming integral players in the abolitionist movement. Vargo explains that their home at 66 Phillips Street was a safehouse for African Americans seeking freedom and a critical station on the Underground Railroad. In Boston, this network was mostly made up of free Blacks who worked together to support and protect freedom seekers. The Haydens contributed to this effort by providing food, housing and transportation. Vargo points out that they continued to do so even after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law , which made it illegal to harbour formerly enslaved people, even in so-called “free” states. This meant every act of assistance was an act of resistance, putting the Haydens’ own lives at risk. Vargo explained that the Haydens helped hundreds of people escape to freedom, including William and Ellen Craft, who fled from Macon, Georgia. “They made this amazing escape from the deep South,” Vargo said, dodging slave dealers and police officers and making their way to Boston. When slavecatchers came looking for them, Ellen went into hiding at a home in the Brookline neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Louis Hayden barricaded William in his home, which was surrounded by hundreds of abolitionists and free Blacks who were sworn to protect him. The slave catchers eventually gave up and went back to Georgia, which Vargo says is testament to the strength, will and bravery of the Haydens and their community. Today, the Hayden House is a private residence and part of the Boston African American National Historic Site , where a free Black community flourished during the 19th Century. The 1.4-mile Black Heritage Trail showcases 14 sites from this era, including the Museum of African American History . Website: nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/lewis-and-harriet-hayden-house.htm Today, an emblem of the original Liberty Tree stands at 630 Washington Street (Credit: Stan Tess) 2. Liberty Tree Plaza, Chinatown “The world should never forget the spot where once stood Liberty Tree, so famous in your annals.” So declared the French Marquis de Lafayette, who joined George Washington’s Continental Army. He was referring to the elm tree that stood on Orange Street (now Washington Street) near the site of the present-day Liberty Tree Plaza . In fact, it has been nearly forgotten, Vargo says, perhaps because it represents the darker side of the US independence movement: the mobs and violence that we don’t often read about in history books. The tree was planted in 1646. According to Vargo, in the lead-up to the Revolutionary War, the tree was a meeting point and symbol for the most radical element of the independence movement, attracting throngs of angry people during times of tension and turmoil. In 1765, in response to the detested Stamp Act , the rebels hung an effigy of the local tax collector on the Liberty Tree, attracting a rowdy mob who paraded through the city, chanting threats and destroying property. In 1768, another unruly crowd managed to drag a boat from the harbour to the tree. The boat happened to belong to a customs commissioner and it was burnt to a crisp. The most famous incident is the 1774 story of John Malcolm, a strident Loyalist and customs official who angered his neighbours when he caned a local shoemaker and knocked him unconscious. Boston residents descended on him with a vengeance – stripping him down, covering him with tar and feathers and hauling him off to the Liberty Tree to be hung. After enough such incidents, British soldiers eventually chopped down the Liberty Tree for firewood. Nowadays, a wooden carving adorns the side of the building at 630 Washington Street on the site where the Liberty Tree once stood. Across the street is the understated Liberty Tree Plaza, which “commemorates the public space where ordinary people gathered to bring about extraordinary change”. Walking tours regularly stop at Seamen’s Bethel and Mariners House (Credit: Washington Imaging/Alamy) 3. Seamen’s Bethel and Mariners House, North End Thousands of tourists stroll across the brick plaza at North Square, following the Freedom Trail past the historic Paul Revere House or indulging in a plate of pasta at an Italian restaurant. But Vargo reveals that North End history goes beyond these famous draws. During the 19th Century, the North End was an impoverished neighbourhood of narrow streets and dilapidated tenements, and more than a few brothels, taverns and gambling dens. It was also the centre of the city’s shipping industry. It was here that a Methodist missionary group founded the Seamen’s Bethel (now Sacred Heart Church) to provide moral and religious instruction to seamen. The minister was Edward Thompson Taylor, who had been a sailor himself. He thus earned the moniker “Sailor Preacher” for his eloquent sermons and his 40 years of service to seamen.   In 1848 he worked with the Seamen’s Aid Society to found Mariners House, a “temperance boarding house” for sailors. Mariners House still stands on North Square and, Vargo marvels, it still serves the same purpose (although the word “temperance” has been removed from its description). With affordable lodging available exclusively for men and women who work at sea, Mariners House calls itself a “seafarer’s inn with modern conveniences and an ancient soul”, a relic from another era that still fills a contemporary need. Outside the front doors, North Square is one of Boston’s most charming and historic corners, with its gas lamps still lighting the cobblestone streets. The central plaza features a series of sculptures entitled North Square Stories . The four bronze sculptures each depict a theme, or tell a “story” that is integral to the neighbourhood, including history, immigration and maritime culture. Look for Taylor in one of the scopes of the  Fantastical Historical Nautical Instrument sculpture.   Website: marinershouse.org Phone: 1-617-227-3979 Address: 11 North Square, Boston Unassuming as it may be, the Witch House at 10 Lime Street has a fascinating past (Credit: Mara Vorhees) 4. Witch House of Lime Street, Beacon Hill The late-19th Century saw a rise in interest in spiritualism across the US and UK, a quasi-religious movement that revolved around communication with the spirit world. Communication usually took place through mediums, who had the power to receive and interpret messages from dead relatives, friends or strangers. Vargo explains that spiritualism gained popularity in the US after the Civil War and again after World War One because so many loved ones had died in battle, far from home, with no possibility to say goodbye or bring closure. In the 1920s, a medium named Margery gained notoriety as the Blonde Witch of Lime Street, where she lived at number 10 . Vargo says she became famous for conducting her seances in the nude, channelling the dead, and winning an endorsement from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who wrote Sherlock Holmes and was a steadfast spiritualist believer). “It probably helped that she was beautiful and exotic and openly sexual, which got her additional attention from male practitioners,” Vargo explained. “She was very popular.” In 1924, Margery was nominated for a prize from Scientific American magazine for performing telekinesis in a scientifically controlled setting. The prize committee included prominent psychologists, psychic researchers and even magicians. “Who gets on the committee but Harry Houdini!” Vargo exclaimed. “Houdini lost his mother when he was younger and he realises that mediums like Margery – while perhaps giving comfort and solace to some people – are also taking advantage of vulnerable people. And he resents this.” The world-famous magician and escape artist attended several seances before exposing Margery as a fraud, even demonstrating how she performed some of her acts, leading the committee to withhold the prize. Despite various accusations of fraud over the course of her career, Margery continued to publicly practice her mediumship at her home on Lime Street until her death in 1953. The home is now a private residence, but be sure to wander up and down Lime Street to admire its eclectic mix of quintessentially “Boston” Tudor and Georgian homes. Then, pop into Beacon Hill Books & Cafe , a five-storey bookstore in a gorgeously refurbished 19th-Century townhouse, to brose the section on Boston history. 85 Pinckney Street is the setting of one of the most salacious murder cases in Boston’s history (Credit: Mara Vorhees) 5. Debutante Murderer House, Beacon Hill Arguably the most prestigious address in Boston, Louisburg Square is a short block with swanky Greek Revival houses on both sides and a pretty oval park at its centre. The block exudes a sense of Victorian propriety; but, Vargo reveals, this was where one of the city’s spiciest scandals unfolded. In the 1960s, the red-brick rowhouse at 85 Pinckney Street was the home of Suzanne Clift, child of a prominent Boston family that included television producer Thomas Brooks Clift and movie actor Montgomery Clift. Vargo recounts the tale of Suzanne’s torrid affair with an Italian lover named Pietro. As the story goes, Pietro and Suzanne had been dating for two years but he was about to end the affair and move to the West Coast for a job. Before he could set off, he was found dead. Meanwhile, Suzanne had fled the country with her dog Shnipsi, inspiring titillating headlines about the “socialite” who murdered her lover on Beacon Hill. “For a while, this was the most thrilling news in Boston – this young woman, a debutante from a fancy family, who had killed her boyfriend in a crime of passion.” Suzanne did eventually return to Boston and confess to the crime, claiming that it had been an accident. Hundreds of curious onlookers came to ogle at her trial, where defence lawyers revealed that she had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that she was pregnant with Pietro’s child. Suzanne was found guilty of manslaughter, but her sentence involved time at a mental health centre, as opposed to jail. And so, the tantalizsng tale of the Debutante Murderer faded into the annals Boston’s hidden history. The Debutante Murderer House is now a private residence, but just one of several noteworthy homes on this picturesque block. Take a walk around Louisburg Square to see the homes of some famous residents from history, including writer Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women), artist John Singleton Copley (painter of Watson and the Shark) and architect Charles Bullfinch (designer of the Massachusetts State House). ;