Hyde Park

If you look, you can still spot signs that Hyde Park was once an independent town, 93 years after Boston annexed it. Above is a former town boundary marker at Dale Street and Windham Road (in what most people would now consider Roslindale) that has somehow survived decades of snowplowing and repaving (there's a "B" on the other side).

Not far from there, Poplar Street abruptly turns into West Street for no apparent reason between two intersections - until you learn that the spot also marks the former boundary between the city of Boston and the town of Hyde Park. Over on Truman Highway, an old pedestrian bridge over the Neponset and the train tracks still bears a plaque with the name of the Hyde Park selectmen who presided over its construction. Others?

There's no better place to watch the melting pot that Boston is becoming than River Street and Fairmount Avenue in Hyde Park (it's basically one street; River jags off by the municipal building).

Buy some black-pride t-shirts right down the block from an old Irish bar. Visit J&M (above) for an eclectic variety of figurines (and basics such as pots and pans). Hungry? Try some Dominican seafood at El Fogon (right next door to Melinda's Taqueria and across the street from the old-time Dotty's ice-cream parlor). And check out the small but growing number of galleries and gift shops:

At the Fairmount commuter-rail stop in Hyde Park.