Boston Bits ~ Insiders’ Tips -- our monthly journal of things Bostonian, to give Boston Your Way site visitors a sense of our city.

It is July in Boston, a time to celebrate Revolution.

Let’s get this Revolutionary date straight
July 18, 1776 – is in fact the date the Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston. Tourists and Bostonians mistakenly believe that it was read on July 4th, as that is the day we celebrate our historic occasion and the day we stage an annual reading of the historic document from the site of its original local proclamation – the balcony of the Towne House, as the Old State House was called then. The document was printed on the 4th, and first read on July 8ht, in Philadelphia, and then was circulated north to New York, Trenton, and Boston. It was read in Boston on July 18th.

Crowds outside the Towne House pulled down two ornate symbols of the hated English Crown, the unicorn and lion, and threw them into a celebratory bonfire in Dock Square, near the popular Faneuil Hall Marketplace of today. The statues have been replaced and grace the Old State House today.

Insiders’ Tip
The Old State House is the site of Boston’s history museum and library, called The Bostonian Society. ( HYPERLINK "http://www.bostonhistory.org" http://www.bostonhistory.org) It is located at the top of State Street – in the heart of the Freedom Trail. It is currently hosting a show of photographs from its historic archives. There are so many delightful vintage photographs – of the Boston Waterfront, the Boston Common, the Back Bay being filled in, 19th-Century factory buildings, the original Quincy Market, streets of the North End, sites along the Freedom Trail, and so on. It costs only $5 to get into the Museum, housed in the seat of the colonial government. You will also see relics from the American Revolution and a dramatization of the Boston Massacre, which occurred just outside its doors.

Boston and the French Revolution
It is easy to forget that July marks more than our independence from Britain. It also commemorates the French Revolution as symbolized by Bastille Day. Boston has a rich French heritage. Two colonial heroes -- Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil -- were of French descent. The Marquis de La Fayette fought with the Continental Army and laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. The Back Bay was designed in the French style, with a boulevard and mansard roofed buildings

Insiders’ Tip
Join the celebration at the 30th annual Bastille Day Street Dance on Marlborough Street outside the entrance of the host French Library and Cultural Center. The street will be closed between Berkeley and Clarendon streets. Enjoy dancing to music by three of the French-speaking world’s biggest stars, including Congolese Afro-pop superstar Papa Wemba, Haiti’s Emeline Michel and Mauritania’s Daby Touré.

Sweet Revolution
Boston is proudly the Ice Cream Capital of the world. You will always find someone walking down the street with an ice cream cone. Ice cream shops may not be as ubiquitous as gourmet coffee shops, but in the summer you will almost always find Bostonians and sightseers strolling down Newbury Street or around Harvard Square and Quincy Market enjoying a cone.

In the “old days” we had Bailey’s, a charming old-fashioned emporium, which served sinful sundaes with dark hot fudge sauce spilling over silvery tin dishes. They were a Boston institution for generations until they suddenly closed in the 1980’s. We still have a few Brighams, including the last intown destination on High Street. It stays in the game with its “Big Dig” flavor.

But a Boston Ice Cream Revolution began in 1973, when Steve’s Ice Cream opened, casting aside air-filled factory products in favor of homemade premium ice cream. Steve Herrell made Boston history when he turned a personal passion into a wildly popular business. Located in Davis Square, Somerville, very much off the beaten track, especially in the ‘70’s, Bostonians and tourists alike found it, creating long lines out the door and past the front window that displayed Steve’s charming old-fashioned red ice cream churner. He not only introduced premium homemade ice cream in radically exotic flavors, such as rose-hip, he invented “mixins”, the M&M’s, Oreos, etc., that got folded into your servings right before your eyes.

Many similar local shops opened – J.P. Licks, Christina’s and Toscanini’s, giving Bostonians more choice. We lost the real Steve’s, however, when Herrell sold his business around 1980. Under the new ownership lots of new Steves, complete with the signature red churner, did pop up in and around Boston. But the ice cream itself was mass-produced, and prepacked containers began to appear in supermarkets far beyond Boston. Steves had gone corporate. Boston was bereft and a little betrayed.

Fortunately, Herrell decided to make a comeback. Only he could not return as “Steves.” He had sold the right to his name along with his business. He got around that problem by naming his latest venture, “Herrells.” His mixins must be called smoosh-ins. But it is the same divine stuff. So now again Boston, the Ice Cream Capital of the World, can rejoice in the pure heaven of Steve Herrell’s ice cream, especially his vanilla – the best in the world.
Herrells is located in Cambridge at 15 Dunster Street, and in Allston at Harvard and Brighton Avenues.

Insiders’ Tip
Speak like a Bostonian and order a “frappe” when you want the frothy ice cream and milk drink in a metal can and that outsiders mistakenly call a “milk shake.” And the little chocolate or multi-colored tidbits sprinkled over the top of an ice cream cone? No, they are not sprinkles. They are “jimmies.”

Speaking of sweet things…
Boston was the site of the first chocolate mill in America. It was founded in 1765 by Dr. James Baker and John Hannon in a wooden mill on the banks of the Neponset River. Eventually called the Walter Baker Company, and identified by its chocolate lady sillouette, it is the oldest manufacturer of chocolate in the country. The 19th Century brick factory at the edge of Dorchester Lower Falls has been converted into a charming condominium community. (The company is now owned by Kraft Foods, and the chocolate is manufactured somewhere not in Boston.)

Boston is also the home of Necco Wafers and Skybars, as well as Welch’s Grape Jelly and Grape Juice.

A Soccer Revolution
After a history of lackluster performances, Boston’s soccer team, the New England Revolution, is enjoying a successful 9-1-5 season. Many credit new coach, Steve Nicol, for the Revolution’s own revolution.

Insiders’ Tip
You can always get into a Revolution game. Alas. Just as soccer does not get the respect here that it gets in Europe, the Revolution’s popularity suffers in comparison to the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots or even the Bruins. But it is a terrific sport, and our local team deserves our support. Maybe as our young generation of school-age soccer players grows up, the picture will improve. The team plays at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, the same venue as the Patriots’. It is one-hour by train from South Station.

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