The oldest bank in a state isn’t necessarily the first one chartered. Banks have had their difficulties over the years and many failed or were swallowed up by other banks. Bank of America, for example, started out as the Providence ...

The Fourth of July from the get-go has been a rowdy holiday with ringing bells, gunfire, cannonfire, fireworks, feasting, speeches and toasts. Over the years, people tried to turn it into something else: a platform for temperance speeches, a chance for ...

The Fourth of July has been celebrated with feasting, fireworks and festivity since Boston shot off cannons on the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The document wasn’t actually signed on the Fourth of July, as some of the ...

Covered bridges have been around since the late 18th century in the United States. Philadelphia claims to be the site of the first covered bridge, a 550-foot span over the Schuylkill River. It was built in 1805, according to the ...

Opera houses didn’t become a feature of American cities and towns until after the Civil War, though they existed before the American Revolution. The first of the American opera houses is believed to be in Williamsburg, Va., and dates to ...

Summer theater has been a feature of New England resort towns since a Maine entrepreneur started staging plays in a former skating rink in 1899. In 1916, the Provincetown Players produced Eugene O’Neill’s plays on a wharf. During the 1920s, ...

Wallace Nutting was a dyspeptic minister so overwhelmed by urban life and modern values that he led countless Americans into a nostalgic vision of the colonial age. He was the Martha Stewart of the Colonial Revival, influencing the décor of ...

The six oldest restaurants in New England include taverns that served hungry travelers and a diner that fed mill workers after their shift. As is always the case with the word ‘oldest,’ some of our choices are open to debate. ...

The American Revolution probably wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the Revolutionary taverns where patriots and Loyalists gathered to talk politics. Sam Adams famously haunted the taverns of Boston, honing his political skills and making his political connections. His cousin John ...

Sometime around 1630, John Endecott planted a pear tree with the hope it would live for generations. He got his wish with the Endicott Pear Tree, believed to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America. The tree survived harsh winters, ...