Boston in March?  Not such a crazy idea, if you plan on keeping warm by walking and making strategic indoor visits to museums, libraries, galleries, and historic sites, not to mention bakeries, restaurants, bookstores and coffee houses.  Below are some suggestions for those planning some extra time in Boston.

 

Explore the city

•  Walk the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The linear park resulting from Boston’s Big Dig project is worth experiencing. Not up for the full stretch? Start at either end (Chinatown or the North End) and walk towards South Station. Easy access from several subway stops.

•  Walk Boston: this site offers great self-guided walks, with detailed directions, distances, sites and descriptions.   If you did not make it to Boston for ARLIS, you might enjoy the walk in the Seaport District, which includes the Institute of Contemporary Art, designed by Diller and Scofidio. 

•  History Buffs:  Freedom Trail.

•  Explore the parks that make up Boston’s Emerald Necklace, starting with the Boston Common and Public Garden, up the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and on to the Back Bay Fens..and beyond. For details, download sections from the online map.
• Charles River Esplanade: favorite route for joggers and walkers.

 

The Great Indoors: A selection of Museums, Libraries, Historic House Museums and related Archives.

•  Museum of Fine Arts  and the new Art of the Americas wing, and courtyard, designed by Foster + Partners.
•  Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will be reopening in mid-January with the new addition designed by Renzo Piano.

             Ride the green Line (the E line) out Huntington Avenue (“Avenue of the Arts”) to explore these two great Boston area museums featuring new additions:

• Harrison Gray Otis House:  Home of Historic New England (the organization previously known as SPNEA, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities).  This historic building, located at 144 Cambridge Street (near the Charles Street stop on the Green Line) also houses the library and archives.  Lorna Condon, the Librarian and Archivist, extends an invitation to stop by and visit the archives and library (open Wednesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) You might also want to make time for a tour of the Otis house, designed by Charles Bulfinch.

• Back Bay:  Gibson House Museum: open Wednesday through Sunday with guided tours in the afternoon.

• Boston Athenaeum: Located at 10 ½ Beacon Street, this private library, founded in 1807, opens its first floor galleries to the public.  On display through March 3^rd: Artists‘ books: books for artists.

• Harvard Museums: While the Fogg Museum is closed for renovation, including an addition by Renzo Piano, the Sackler Museum is open. Also consider visiting the glass flower collection at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum, and the living collections and horticultural archives of the Arnold Arboretum.
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Also Consider: a day trip to Providence, Rhode Island, only an hour away from train.