Entering Roxbury. Entering History.

The route on the map — tap a numbered pin to find its stop below. Stops 1–7 are in Roxbury; Stop 8, the Trotter House, is the Dorchester extension on Deep Tour and charter routes.

1. 
   STOP 01 — NUBIAN SQUARE

   The Ferdinand Building & the Square

   The 1910 flatiron anchor of the Square — department store, the Strand Theatre, and the corner where the community voted in 2019 to rename Dudley Square for ancient Nubia.

   Dudley St at Warren St
2. 
   STOP 02 — ROXBURY HERITAGE STATE PARK

   Dillaway-Thomas House

   Built about 1750, headquarters for General John Thomas in the Siege of Boston — and a stop where we tell the story of the Black soldiers and Roxbury families who lived that war.

   183 Roxbury St
3. 
   STOP 03 — NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK

   Shirley-Eustis House

   The 1747 mansion of Royal Governor William Shirley — one of only four remaining royal colonial governor's mansions in the United States, standing in the middle of Roxbury.

   33 Shirley St
4. 
   STOP 04 — THE CULTURAL HALL

   Hibernian Hall

   The 1913 ballroom that became Black Boston's stage — Duke Ellington and the great bands played this room. Today it anchors the Madison Park Development Corporation's cultural work in the Square.

   184 Dudley St
5. 
   STOP 05 — EST. 1630

   First Church in Roxbury

   The fifth meetinghouse of one of Boston's oldest congregations, where abolitionist fire was preached and Roxbury's Black community organized — the elm out front shaded Washington's troops.

   10 Putnam St, Eliot Square
6. 
   STOP 06 — THE MUSEUM

   Museum of the NCAAA

   The National Center of Afro-American Artists' museum — decades of Black art in the historic Abbotsford house, and the institution behind Boston's longest-running Kwanzaa celebrations. Its grounds are the home grounds of Juneteenth in Roxbury — and where the Big Head stands, below.

   300 Walnut Ave

   Illustration of the Museum of the NCAAA, 300 Walnut Ave — artwork created for this page.

7. STOP 07 — 72 DALE STREET

   Malcolm X – Ella Little-Collins House

   The home Malcolm Little came to as a teenager, living with his half-sister Ella — the Roxbury address where Malcolm X's Boston years began, now being restored as a landmark of that story.

   72 Dale St
8. STOP 08 — THE WATCHDOG'S HOUSE

   William Monroe Trotter House

   Home of the Boston Guardian editor who confronted Booker T. Washington and helped found the Niagara Movement — Roxbury's own civil-rights headquarters, a National Historic Landmark in Dorchester.

   97 Sawyer Ave, Dorchester

NUBIAN SQUARE — VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK

The Edward O. Gourdin Statue

Brigadier General, judge, and Olympic silver medalist — Fern Cunningham-Terry's bronze of Gourdin stands in the heart of Nubian Square, ringed by bas-reliefs honoring Black veterans from the Revolution to Iraq. Our own channel filmed this park: “Honoring General Edward Gourdin (Veterans Park).”

Justice Edward O. Gourdin Veterans Memorial Park, Nubian Square

Illustration of the General Edward O. Gourdin memorial, Veterans Memorial Park, Nubian Square — artwork created for this page.

ON THE NCAAA GROUNDS — 300 WALNUT AVE

The Big Head — Eternal Presence

John Wilson's monumental bronze head, Eternal Presence, watches over the museum grounds at 300 Walnut Ave. Roxbury simply calls it the Big Head — our tours stop at its feet, and movie nights gather here in the summer.

300 Walnut Ave, Roxbury

Photo: Northeastern University.

DOWNTOWN — BOSTON COMMON

The Embrace

The downtown connection: Hank Willis Thomas's bronze of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King embracing, on Boston Common — near where Dr. King preached and led the 1965 march to the Common. Charter routes pair the Square with the Common.

Boston Common, downtown Boston

Illustration of The Embrace, Boston Common — artwork created for this page.