The West End Museum is offering several historic walking tours in June, including “Exploring the West End: on Saturday, June 19, at 11 a.m. The 90-minute tour will feature dozens of historic places and people dating from 1640-2000, and discuss this area affectionately called “the greatest neighborhood this side of heaven.”
The Exploring the West End tour leaves from The West End Museum at 150 Lomasney Way, Boston. The cost is $5 for West End Museum members and $8 for the public. Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-the-west-end-tickets-158216240033.
Next, on Saturday, June 26, Museum Board member and history buff Bill Kuttner will lead a tour along the old Middlesex Canal. The three-mile walk begins at The West End Museum at 9 a.m. and ends at Sullivan Square, where people can share a pint at the Tavern at the End of the World.
Authorized by Gov. John Hancock in 1793, the Middlesex Canal was the greatest public works project of its time, linking the Merrimack River in Lowell to Boston Harbor and transforming the economy of post-Revolutionary Massachusetts. Long before the railroads, the canal enabled efficient transport of raw materials for use by Boston’s growing population and manufactured goods for export to Europe. Even the granite used to build Massachusetts General Hospital and the grand mansions of Beacon Hill came down the canal.
The cost of the Canal tour is $6 for West End Museum members, or $12 for the public. Register here.
The West End Museum is also planning after-work walking tours later this summer. For updates, visit www.thewesstendmuseum.org.