I guess Mayor Menino wanted something a little fuzzier to announce the day after he proposed making clean needles available to drug users. Today we hear that he’s proposing to makeover Faneuil Hall (again), this time ousting the tourist shop merchants and putting in the National Park Service (which is currently housed in the Old State House). From the Globe:
Park Service officials plan to install kiosks with computer stations, where visitors can print out itineraries, maps, and information about Boston’s attractions and neighborhoods, spokesman Sean Hennessey said. And a theater will feature a film produced with the Discovery Channel highlighting points along the Freedom Trail. Planned construction also includes a full staircase to the lower level and new public restrooms that are handicapped accessible.
“We are proposing to take the ground floor of Faneuil Hall and create a better, more compelling, more suitable visitor contact station for the myriad visitors who come to Boston,” Hennessey said.
I’m all for making a more compelling space and giving the building more gravitas than a repository for T-shirt shops (though Dan Kennedy makes a good point in claiming that Boston’s charm is that historical buildings are actually still in use, not fossilized relics like their NY and Phila. counterparts). But why do I fear another cheesy Dreams of Freedom-style multimedia disaster? Still, it should be a move in the right direction, and the building would make a logical information center for those walking the Freedom Trail.
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