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Historic Tourism: US attractions from a past age.

by: Sarah Maple
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The 19th Century saw the birth of tourism as we know it. The term: “tourist” emerged in the US to label those folks who would travel to Europe to see the historic architecture of London and Paris, or alternatively to the far-flung corners of their own country – such as the East Coast. In the late 1850s Yosemite Park became established as a definitive American tourist attraction where visitors could make use of the most fantastic invention of recent times, the camera. However where the United States succeeded with natural wonders, its cities were ugly and commercial in comparison to the beauty and art of Europe – and so the popular architectural attractions of the time seem quite strange by today’s standards.

The American School for the Deaf was founded in 1817 in West Hartford, Connecticut. Being the first of its kind, and a grand red brick building with impressive white pillars and a white bell spire, the institution became a popular tourist attraction. Its palatial architecture reflected the affluence of the fast-developing nation, and became something of a symbol for cultural integrity and a forward-thinking society. The school is still there today – and boasts 200 students.

Along similar lines, The Perkins School for the Blind was established shortly after in Boston. During the 1830s the successful Boston merchant, Thomas Handasyd Perkins, donated his mansion to the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, and again, such a new and impressive institution began to be included in tourist brochures of the areas. By 1885 the school purchased six acres of land in the Southern area of Boston and the imposing five storey building built there became worthy enough for its own run of postcards.

Educational facilities weren’t the only growing attractions for tourists however. The Sing Sing Correctional Facility (named after the Native American Sinck Sinck tribe) in Ossining, New York, was one of the country’s pioneering profit-making jailhouses. Completed in 1828, the institution used harsh tactics to keep an efficient prisoner workforce who would mine marble from a nearby quality and sell it for the building of further notable buildings such as New York University and the United States Treasury. A nice place to go for your honeymoon?

Yet perhaps the most intriguing early American visitor attraction was the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts. Built in 1831, this was the first rural or garden style cemetery and took inspiration from the landscape gardens of England, as well as being seen as the first step of the parks and gardens movement. By the late 1830s a brochure was published entitled Picturesque Pocket Companion and Visitor's Guide Through Mt. Auburn. Its many trails and architecture of some of the monuments, such as the gothic Bigelow Chapel, were (and still are) of particular interest to visitors.

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