300th Anniversary Monument – Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts

In Boston, on the edge of Boston Common and along Beacon Street, is a large stone monument at an entrance to the Common. This monument celebrates the 300th Anniversary of the founding of the City of Boston.

Inscribed on the Beacon Street side of the monument are three texts, one of which is the famous declaration of John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, spoken on board the Arbella just before the city was founded:

"For wee must consider that wee shall be as a citty on a hill the lies of all people are uppon us so that if wee shall deale falsely with our God in this worke we have undertaken … wee shall be made a story and a by-word through the world."

On the Common side, there is one phrase, "Boston Founded AD 1630" as well as a basin in the stone that indicate that it probably was a fountain at one time. Immediately above the basin is a bronze relief sculpture done by John Francis Palermino. It depicts two men about to shake hands, with other settlers nearby. The man on the left represents William Blackstone and behind him are Native Americans. These represent those who had lived on the Shawmut Peninsula – the core piece of land that would become the city of Boston – before the newcomers arrived, represented by the man and the line of people to the right. Boston Harbour and the buildings of Charlestown (founded two years earlier) are in the background, along with a ship floating in the harbour. There are hills in the far background.