Boston Trivia
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127 free Boston trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
56 free Boston trivia questions with answers. This trivia about Boston runs from the Puritans landing on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 to the Big Dig and the Celtics' eighteenth banner. In between are the Tea Party and the Massacre, Paul Revere's lanterns, the oldest subway in North America, the day a wave of molasses tore through the North End, and the night two fake policemen walked out of the Gardner Museum with a Vermeer. It is written for Bostonians who want to test their local pride, visitors planning a walk along the Freedom Trail, teachers building a unit on the American Revolution, and pub quiz hosts who need a city round. The mix leans easy to medium, with a handful of tough ones on dates, architects and the State House dome. Every answer has been checked against city histories and encyclopaedic sources, so you can repeat them on the Swan Boats without fear of correction.
30 of 127 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Boston was named after a market town in which English county?
Lincolnshire
Boston takes its name from Boston, Lincolnshire, the English market town from which several leading Puritan settlers, including the Rev. John Cotton, had come.
Q 02In what year was Boston founded?
1630
Boston was founded in 1630, when John Winthrop's Puritans left the poor water supply at Charlestown for the peninsula across the river, which was named Boston on September 7.
Q 03Boston Common, dating from 1634, holds what national distinction?
The first public park in the U.S.
Boston Common, bought from William Blaxton in 1634 as a shared cow pasture, is considered the first public park in the United States.
Q 04Founded in 1635, what is the oldest public school in the United States?
Boston Latin
Boston Latin School, founded on April 23, 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States; Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and John Hancock all attended.
Q 05The oldest subway tunnel in North America, opened in Boston in 1897, runs beneath which thoroughfare?
Tremont
The Tremont Street Subway opened on September 1, 1897, carrying streetcars beneath Tremont Street between the Boylston and Park Street stations.
Q 06What did settler William Blaxton call the peninsula on which Boston stands?
Shawmut
Shawmut was the Algonquian name of the peninsula where Blaxton had lived alone since about 1625, before Winthrop's settlers arrived and renamed it Boston.
Q 07Boston's Back Bay neighbourhood was created in the 19th century by doing what?
Filling in tidal marshland
Nearly 600 acres of Charles River marsh were filled with gravel brought by rail from Needham.
Q 08On which date did the Boston Tea Party take place?
December 16, 1773
On the night of December 16, 1773, Sons of Liberty boarded three ships at Griffin's Wharf and dumped East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.
Q 09Roughly how many chests of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor at the Tea Party?
342
The Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea, roughly 92,000 pounds, valued at about £10,000 in 1773.
Q 10How many colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre of March 1770?
Five
Five colonists died: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray and James Caldwell were killed on the spot, while Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr died of their wounds afterward.
Q 11Which future U.S. president defended the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre?
John Adams
John Adams, then a 34-year-old Boston lawyer, defended the British captain and his soldiers at their 1770 trials and won acquittals for all but two; his cousin Samuel Adams was a leading agitator.
Q 12The June 1775 battle everyone calls Bunker was mostly fought on which rise in Charlestown?
Breed's Hill
The colonists fortified Breed's Hill rather than the higher Bunker Hill; the British took it on June 17, 1775, at a cost of more than 1,000 casualties.
Q 13The granite obelisk in Charlestown commemorating the June 1775 battle stands how tall?
221 feet
Q 21Who designed the Massachusetts State House, completed in 1798 on Beacon Hill?
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch designed the State House, completed in January 1798; Paul Revere's company sheathed its leaking wooden dome in copper in 1802.
Q 22The State House dome was first gilded with gold leaf in which year?
1874
The copper dome was first gilded with gold leaf in 1874; it was painted gray during the Second World War blackout and regilded with 23-karat gold in 1997.
Q 23A wave of what substance killed 21 people in Boston's North End on January 15, 1919?
Molasses
The 2.3-million-gallon tank burst and the wave moved at an estimated 35 mph; locals swore the smell lingered for decades.
The Bunker Hill Monument stands 221 feet tall, built of Quincy granite and dedicated on June 17, 1843, with Daniel Webster giving the oration.
Q 14Two lanterns hung in the steeple of which Boston church on April 18, 1775, signalling British movements before Paul Revere's ride?
Old North Church
Old North Church, built in 1723, is the oldest standing church in the city.
Q 15What was Paul Revere's trade?
Silversmith
Paul Revere was a silversmith and engraver in Boston's North End; his later copper-rolling firm supplied the sheathing that re-coppered USS Constitution's hull in 1803.
Q 16Which Founding Father was born on Boston's Milk Street in 1706?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street on January 17, 1706, the fifteenth of Josiah Franklin's seventeen children, and was baptised at the Old South Meeting House.
Q 17The USS Constitution, berthed in Charlestown, earned what nickname after defeating HMS Guerriere in 1812?
Old Ironsides
Sailors dubbed her Old Ironsides after British cannonballs appeared to bounce off her thick live-oak hull during the August 1812 victory over HMS Guerriere.
Q 18Faneuil Hall, nicknamed the Cradle of Liberty, is topped by a weathervane in the shape of what?
A grasshopper
The gilded copper grasshopper weathervane was made by Shem Drowne in 1742, modelled on the one atop London's Royal Exchange, and crowned the hall when it opened that year.
Q 19The Freedom Trail through Boston is marked on the pavement by what?
A red line of bricks
The 2.5-mile route was conceived by journalist William Schofield in 1951 and links 16 sites.
Q 20How long is the Freedom Trail?
About 2.5 miles
The Freedom Trail runs about 2.5 miles (4 km) from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, linking 16 historic sites.
Q 24First run in 1897, what record does the Boston Marathon hold?
World's oldest annual one
It was inspired by the marathon at the first modern Olympics in Athens the previous year.
Q 25The Boston Marathon starts in which town?
Hopkinton
The race starts on the town common in Hopkinton, about 26 miles west of the city; Hopkinton replaced Ashland as the start in 1924 when the course was lengthened.
Q 26The Boston Marathon is traditionally run on which holiday?
Patriots' Day
Patriots' Day, the Massachusetts holiday commemorating the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord, falls on the third Monday of April; the Red Sox also play a morning home game.
Q 27In what year did women officially become eligible to enter the Boston Marathon?
1972
Women were officially admitted in 1972, when Nina Kuscsik became the first sanctioned women's champion; Bobbi Gibb had run unofficially in 1966.
Q 28Fenway Park opened in 1912; what news story overshadowed coverage of its first game?
The sinking of the Titanic
The Titanic had gone down five days earlier, on April 15.
Q 29How tall is Fenway Park's Green Monster wall in left field?
37 feet
The Green Monster stands 37 feet 2 inches high; the 1934 rebuild replaced Duffy's Cliff and the wooden fence with the concrete-and-tin wall, painted green in 1947.
Q 30The illuminated Citgo sign that looms over Fenway Park overlooks which part of the city?
Kenmore Square
The sign atop 660 Beacon Street in Kenmore Square went up in 1940 advertising Cities Service and was rebranded with the Citgo trimark in 1965.