Boston, Massachusetts: Ether Dome

The historical operating theater where ether -- the first anesthetic -- was first administered. Or so say the folks in Boston. Nearest parking at Parkman St. Garage.

I work for an A/V company and had a taping in the Ether Dome, so I spent a couple of days there. There is not a ton to see, just a hallway with some posters of the history of ether and equipment from (I guess) the room. In the Dome itself, there are Egyptian mummies in glass cases and other artifacts. Tops it will take you 30 minutes to tour everything, if you read every info card. Open every day during regular visiting hours. Great place to kill time if you are waiting for someone in the hospital to get discharged. They still use the room for talks every so often, so if you go there and it is being used you cannot enter.

Just thought of another one ... At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, there's a room called the Etherdome. It was part of the original MGH, and was the first place and time that ether was used as an anaesthetic during an operation. There's a tiny museum in the back that has the actual mask through which the ether was administered (or so they say).