Black Heritage Walking Trail

Much as we love to promote our own historic sites here in Melrose, it is important to recognize how Melrosians impacted history that happened elsewhere. The Boston Globe recently profiled Beacon Hill’s Black Heritage Trail, a tour that everyone should take—and while you are doing so, you can consider the many Melrose connections to that story.

The tour starts at the monument to the Massachusetts 54^th Volunteer Regiment, across from the State House. Wesley Furlong was not only an officer in that regiment, but also was a prominent participant in the monument’s dedication ceremony in 1897 as the leader of the 54^th Regiment’s veterans’ association. He would take part in the ceremonies marking the anniversary of that dedication up until his death in 1917.

For decades each Sunday, Furlong would travel from Melrose to attend services at the Charles Street Meeting House, another site on the trail. In 1910, a delegation of white Melrose Civil War veterans came to the meeting house for a celebration in honor of Furlong’s life.

In 1831, future Melrosian Samuel E. Sewall attended a lecture given by William Lloyd Garrison at the African Meeting House on Belknap Street. That event changed his life, making him one of America’s foremost abolitionist attorneys, and one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society.

During the trials of Anthony Burns and Shadrach Minkins, escaped enslaved men, Sewall worked frequently with Black activist Lewis Hayden, whose home at 66 Phillips Street is another stop on the BHT. Hayden was also a friend to Mary Livermore, visiting her in Melrose at least once, in 1886, for the reception following an address given by William Lloyd Garrison.

The most famous orator associated with Boston’s Black community was undoubtedly Frederick Douglass. He delivered an address at the newly erected Melrose Town Hall in 1875.

The story of Boston’s Black Heritage Trail extends far beyond the slopes of Beacon Hill. In various ways, it tells a chapter in the story of Melrose as well. Click on the link below:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/30/magazine/black-heritage-trail-walking-tour-deep-into-boston-history/