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Boston Common: The Oliver Wendell Holmes Path




The Long Path, as it was originally known, is the long mall running from Beacon at the Joy St entrance across the length of the common to the corner of Boylston and Tremont St. The Long Path was made famous by Wendell’s Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. In fact, it was in his The Autocrat of the Breakfast table, that Wendell said that the “Boston State House is the hub of the solar system.”[1] Therefore, the path was renamed the Holmes Path in honor of the writer.

It is said that Oliver Wendell, a neighbor of Beacon Hill, was walking along the path with Amelia Lee Jackson when the following conversation took place:

"Will you take the long path with me? –Certainly,– said the schoolmistress with much pleasure –Think,–I said, –before you answer; if you take the long path with me now, I shall interpret it that we are to part no more. She answered softly, I will walk the long path with you!"[2]

Wendell, a great writer and admirer of the grounds, wrote a poem evoking Blaxton’s arrival scene to the Commons:

“All overgrown with bush and fern,
and straggling clumps of tangled trees…
Beneath the shaggy southern hill
lies wet and low the Shawmut plain[3]

Among the many stories about Wendell’s life along the Common is that one day, as Holmes was walking home, he noticed a little boy trying to reach the brass knocker on a tall front door. “Holmes considerately stepped up to the boy’s side, grabbed the door knocker, gave it several loud bangs, and said, “There you are, son. How’s that?” “Great!” said the youngster. “Now run like hell!.”[4]

Oliver Wendell Holmes is also the creator of the phrase Boston Brahmin, term coined in his articles in the Atlantic Monthly, his renowned Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.

[1] Schoefield, William G. Freedom by the Bay: The Boston Freedom Trail. Page 31.
[2] Booth, Robert and Jack Frost. Boston's Freedom Trail: A Souvenir Guide. Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, Connecticut, 2006, pages 4 and 5.
[3] Schoefield, William G. Freedom by the Bay: The Boston Freedom Trail. Page 19.
[4] Schoefield, William G. Freedom by the Bay: The Boston Freedom Trail. Page 31.
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