The Irish Heritage Trail Expands
Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail was created in 1994 to chronicle the illustrious history of the city’s Irish community through public landmarks. We are excited to add these two landmarks to the Irish Heritage Trail in 2026.
Swan Boats
Lagoon
Boston Public Garden
The iconic Swan Boats in the Public Garden Lagoon were first launched in 1877 by an Irish immigrant couple, Robert Paget and his wife Julia (Coffey) Paget.
A boatbuilder by trade, Robert developed a catamaran propelled by foot pedals to sail around the quarter mile lake. He designed a swan to cover the captain pedaling the boat, an idea inspired by the popular Wagner opera, Lohengrin. The boats were an immediate success.
“The swan-gondolas that sail so gracefully on the bosom of the lake are beautiful and picturesque additions to the scene,” wrote The Boston Globe on June 16, 1877, while advocating for the boats to operate on Sunday.
Robert died in 1878, and his widowed wife Julia kept the business thriving for the next 36 years, while raising four children. Julia passed the enterprise on to her son John, who passed it to his son Paul. Today, the Swan Boats are managed by Paul and Marilyn’s daughter Lyn and her cousin Phil—both fourth-generation members of the Paget family.
The current fleet of Swan Boats consists of six boats, the oldest of which was built in 1910. The boats are powered by a single driver who pedals while sitting atop a paddle wheel and steering with two ropes connected to a rudder. Each boat holds about 20 passengers and weighs about 6,000 pounds.
In 2026, the Swan Boats season goes from Saturday, April 18 to September 7.
Edgar Allan Poe Statue
Poe Square at Transportation Building
Boylston and Charles Street
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), master short story writer and novelist, was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to parents David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold, actors at the nearby Federal Theatre.
His great grandparents, John Poe of Dring, County Cavan and Jane McBride of Ballymoney, County Antrim, were Scots-Irish Presbyterians who emigrated from their farm in Cavan to the American colonies in the 1740s, settling first in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before moving to Baltimore, MD.
A life-size statue of Poe was unveiled in 2014 at Poe Square at the corner of Boylston and Charles Street outside the Transportation Building, near where Poe as born, thanks to Poe fans Paul Lewis and Rob Valella. Entitled “Poe Returns to Boston,” the statue depicts Poe with a large raven, and carrying a suitcase full of his writing manuscripts. The sculptor was Stefanie Rocknak.
A few blocks away, the Boston Public Library in Copley Square has a bust of Edgar Allan Poe, created in 2014 by sculptor Bryan Moore and located in the library’s Johnson wing. The BPL contains a number of Poe’s original letters in correspondence with Longfellow and other literary figures.
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