Boston is one of the most walkable cities in the country and there’s no better way to see such a great city than Boston By Foot. It is a local nonprofit with volunteers who love to teach anyone about the history of Boston from many different angles. Samantha Nelson has been Boston By Foot’s executive director since May 2012. Prior to that she was director of education at the Old State House Museum. The following interview was slightly edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Boston By Foot is celebrating its 50th year. Happy anniversary. Who was the founder and how has it grown?
Sam Nelson: We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We were started in the American Bicentennial. And now we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. Our founder was a woman named Polly Flansburgh — a charming, charismatic woman. She had a vision that she wanted people to better understand the city of Boston and tour the city and get to know the environment and the stories that the buildings can tell us. She started Boston By Foot in the bicentennial, when everyone was excited to be celebrating history. She envisioned this as a volunteer organization where people are volunteering their passion, their time, their talent, to lead tours of Boston and introduce people to the sites of the city.
Santoro: You said her name is Flansburgh?
Nelson: Yes.
Santoro: Do you know if she is the mom to John Flansburg?
Nelson: She most certainly is.
Santoro: John Flansburg, for those who don’t know, is one of the two Johns in the band, “They Might Be Giants.”
Nelson: That’s right. Yup. John’s a great supporter of Boston By Foot too.
Santoro: Now, you literally offer something for everyone at Boston By Foot. Can you walk us through some of the programs?
Nelson: We have close to a hundred different tour titles that we offer, and that includes tours of the historic downtown. We have several different ways to tour revolutionary history, including a tour that’s for children and families, Boston By Little Feet, one of our most popular tours. But we have tours on all kinds of topics, literature and literary history. We have tours on social history, infrastructure and architectural styles and tours in most Boston neighborhoods. One of our goals is to get to every neighborhood before Boston turns 400.
Santoro: This isn’t your typical duck boat tour. Your tours get into the nitty-gritty.
Nelson: Absolutely. We’re touring by foot, where you can really take it all in. And we’re able to do all this because we have an amazing crew of volunteers. Just about 200 people volunteer with the organization. They all have their own interests, their own passions, and they bring those with them to their tours. And they help us research all these topics and develop these tours and lead the tours. We’re able to serve about 15,000 people each year.
Santoro: And so you’re probably adding programs all the time.
Nelson: Yes, we have a few new tours that we’re adding to our catalog that we are pretty excited about.
Santoro: Part of the 250th, I would imagine.
Nelson: Yes, we have a new tour that we’re calling “Toward a More Perfect Union.” It visits some of the pretty familiar downtown sites, but it emphasizes how the debates, discussions, disagreements of the revolutionary era are things that we are hashing out today, and things that have been hashing out for the past 250 years. So, it helps provide a little context to some of those conversations that we have today.
Santoro: How long do these tours last, and is there a limit to the number of people in each group?
Nelson: Most of our tours are 90 minutes. We’ve found that’s a sweet spot. We pride ourselves on having small, intimate tours where people can really get to know one another, get to know the guide. The guide can tailor the tour to the people who are taking the tour. We max out pretty close to 15. It’s rare that we would have a larger tour than that Because it makes for a meaningful experience.
Santoro: And it’s very manageable. Where do you find these guides?
Nelson: Our guides come from many different backgrounds and different places. We’re very fortunate. Many, many people come to us after years of taking tours and learning and seeing that this is something that they can do. We have recent college graduates, maybe someone who’s come to Boston, they want to get to know their city. Some people have lived in Boston their entire lives, and maybe they’re approaching retirement, and they want to stay active and find community. And so that’s a lot of different profiles of people who join our volunteer community.
Santoro: How does one become a guide?
Nelson: We do have training every spring. We bring in about 30 to 40 new volunteers. It’s an in-depth program, as you can imagine. The program itself is led by other volunteers. And we train folks in tour mechanics and some of the content and interpretive skills. And then at the end of our training program, we have a graduation ceremony at Old North Church. Scheduled for next week, we will welcome a new class of. Boston By Foot volunteers to the community.
Santoro: As easy as Boston is to get around, there are some areas that are tougher than others. There are some steep hills, such as Beacon Hill. There are some cobblestone streets as well. How does Boston by foot handle folks with mobility issues?
Nelson: I’m glad you asked that because that’s something that we have done a lot of thinking around and working with colleagues and partners. In fact, we’re proud members of the Universal Participation Innovation Network with Massachusetts Cultural Council. And so, we do a lot in our communication to people who are taking our tours or what to expect on the tour so that they can make conformed decisions about whether this tour with lots of cobblestones and hills is for them. But we are also training our guides all the time to be very mindful about even invisible disabilities that people might have that might limit their ability to fully participate in the tour, and to be prepared to make accommodations as necessary, whether that’s with the route or with using visual descriptions. In fact, we’ve had some help from folks here at GBH to help train our volunteers in best practices.
Santoro: Nice, very nice. It’s nice that GBH got involved in that. Samantha Nelson is the executive director of Boston By Foot. Lace up those walking shoes and book yourself a tour. Samantha, Sam, thank you so much for coming in.
