Think you know everything about the history of Beantown? These 10 crazy Boston facts may just leave you scratching your head!
1. For 17 years, Bostonians could get a driver’s license without passing a test.
In 1903 Massachusetts began requiring its residents to obtain a license to drive, but until 1920 there was no skills test involved! Chauffers were required to pass a test starting in 1907, but the average citizen simply had to apply.
2. There were actually two Boston Tea Parties.
On December 16, 1773, more than 90,000 lbs. of tea were thrown into the harbor during the famous Boston Tea . OnMarch 7, 1774, history repeated itself when 60 people boarded the ship, Fortune and tossed 3,000 lbs.of tea overboard.
3. The "Citgo" sign used to be filled with five miles of neon tubing.
If stretched out, the tubing could have reached from Kenmore Square to Fort Independence (via Broadway). Since the sign was renovated, it now uses LED lights.
4. The swan boats were inspired by an opera.
Opera fans may know that the show Lohengrin, features a boat drawn by a swan. When Robert Paget, who introduced a new type of boat to the Boston Public Garden in 1877 was inspired to create the same look to hide the captain and the paddlewheel apparatus. Paget's family still owns and operates the boats today.
5. The Hancock Tower used to make people ill.
When it was first built in the sixties, engineering flaws in the John Hancock Tower caused it to sway in a heavy wind, giving those inside motion sickness. This, along with several other design flaws, were repaired in the mid 1970s.
6. The giant Hood Milk Bottle outside the Boston Children’s Museum could hold 58,620 gallons of milk.
The bottle was built by Arthur Gagner, an independent ice cream maker, not the company whose name it bears. Gagner sold his homemade ice cream from the massive bottle. Hood later purchased it after it was abandoned and gifted it to the museum.
7. A freshwater spring helped the Puritans’ settlement in Boston survive.
When the Puritans first settled in Boston, safe, fresh water was scarce until William Blackstone told them about the Great Spring. With this reliable supply of drinking water, the community was able to flourish. A plaque in Spring Lane now marks the location of the old spring.
8. Boston’s population was at its largest during the 1950s.
Boston can certainly feel crowded at times, but its population was at its highest during the 1950 baby boom with 801,000 residents listed for that year. The population was 667,137 in 2016, according to the U.S. Census.
9. Abraham Lincoln had family ties to Boston.
President Lincoln was descended from Samuel Lincoln, one of the colonists who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was also related to Paul Revere by marriage!
10. Boston once banned Christmas.
The Puritans made public celebrations of Christmas illegal in 1659, declaring the holiday a pagan ritual. The ban was overturned in 1681.
Featured Image via Facebook/IM Boston
H/T to Only In Your State
