Boston History Camp is an immersive, two-week program for high school students on the history of Boston, featuring daily walking tours around the city, readings and guided discussions, and supervised research projects on historical topics of students' own choosing.
Boston History Camp is a new summer camp for Boston-area high school students with a passion for story—and history!
Daily walking tours, guided conversations, and hands-on projects will introduce students to Boston's rich history on the spots where it happened. In this immersive, intensive two-week day camp, students will: - Walk through history on daily 2-3 hour walking tours of different neighborhoods. Locations include the Freedom Trail, the Back Bay, the North End, Harvard University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Fenway Park, and more.
- Build historically accurate stories of their own to share via video, podcast, essay, or walking tour.
- Engage in guided conversations about Boston historian Stephen Puleo's book A City So Grand—and, on the last day of the camp, meet the author himself.
Using humor, theatrical storytelling, and narrative formulas, we have a unique way of engaging students outside of the traditional classroom setting. Campers will be actively walking around, experiencing history on the locations in which it happened. We designed this camp after years of operating the #1 ranked historical tour company in Cambridge and having kids tell us, "I wish we had learned history like this in school."
Check our TripAdvisor and Google reviews for confirmation! Programs are capped at 15 students, so families should act now to reserve a spot.
Although daily excursions and tours take students all over town, drop-off (beginning at 8:30am) and pickup (ending at 5:30) are at the Commonwealth School in the Back Bay: 151 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02116
A Typical Day of Camp:
- 9am: Drop off 9-9:30am: Storytime/Check-in. Tell me a STORY in 2 minutes, even if it was just about your dinner last night. Otherwise, blow our minds. But you have 2 minutes.
- 9:30am-10:15am: Walk or take the T to our daily site for a tour
- 10:15am-12:45: Tour of Daily specified location
- 12:45-1:30: Lunch
- 1:30-2:15: Return to Commonwealth School or other research location
- 2:15-3:15 Directed discussion/lessons
- 3:15-3:30 Walk to Boston Public Library
- 3:30-4:15: Research and writing, One-on-One meetings
- 4:15-4:30: Back to Commonwealth School
- 4:30-5:30: Pickup
Camp Excursions By Day:
- Day 1: Freedom Trail, Part 1 (Boston Common through Faneuil Hall)
- Day 2: Beacon Hill
- Day 3: Innovations of Kendall Square and MIT
- Day 4: Freedom Trail, Part 2 (Faneuil Hall to Copp's Hill)
- Day 5: Back Bay
- Day 6: Harvard and Harvard Museum of Natural History
- Day 7: Massachusetts State House
- Day 8: Museum of Fine Arts
- Day 9: Fenway Park
- Day 10: Special Guest speaker Stephen Puleo
Lunch Locations By Day:
- Day 1: Quincy Market
- Day 2: Charles Street (Tatte, Upper Crust, DeLuca’s), meet in Public Garden or Commonwealth classroom)
- Day 3: Clover or Chipotle; meet on Roof Garden or in Marriott Lobby
- Day 4: Umbertos, Bricco Deli, or North End Sushi/Seafood, Meet at Greenway
- Day 5: Paramount Cafe or Delucca's
- Day 6: Winthrop Park (Shake Shack, Tasty Burger, Pinnochio’s)
- Day 7: Flour Bakery/Anna’s Taqueria
- Day 8: MFA Cafe
- Day 9: Time Out Market
- Day 10: Surprise Meal Recommended for rising high school sophomores through seniors.
