Custom House District

Last updated

Custom House District
CustomHouseTower Boston DetroitCo.jpeg
Custom House Tower (1915), constructed atop the 1849 Boston Custom House
Map of Boston and Cambridge.png
Red pog.svg
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°21′28″N71°3′12″W / 42.35778°N 71.05333°W / 42.35778; -71.05333
ArchitectMultiple
Architectural styleSkyscraper, Art Deco, Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals
NRHP reference No. 73000321 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 11, 1973

Custom House District is a historic district in Boston, Massachusetts, located between the Fitzgerald Expressway (now Purchase St. / the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway) and Kilby Street and South Market and High and Batterymarch Streets. Named after the 1849 Boston Custom House located on State Street, the historic district contains about seventy buildings on nearly sixteen acres in Downtown Boston, consisting of 19th-century mercantile buildings along with many early 20th-century skyscrapers, including the 1915 Custom House Tower. [2]

Contents

The area is an early example of urban planning, in which the Broad Street Associates hired architect Charles Bulfinch in 1805 to plan the commercial development of the area south of Long Wharf and State Street, which connected the wharf to the city center. The district includes a few Federal period buildings that were built to the standards specified by Bulfinch, but is architecturally diverse, reflecting more than century of economic development. Visually prominent 19th-century buildings include a collection of warehouses built out granite, which marked a departure from the more usual brick construction of the period. The State Street Block, built 1858 to a design by Gridley James Fox Bryant, is another example. [3]

The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. [1] When first listed, its historically significant buildings were limited to those of the 19th century. An amendment to the listing in 1996 extended the period of significance to 1928, changing a number of architecturally significant early skyscrapers from non-contributing to contributing properties. [3]

Contributing properties (partial listing)

Non-contributing properties (partial listing)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bulfinch</span> American architect (1763–1844)

Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salem Maritime National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States

The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is a National Historic Site consisting of 12 historic structures, one replica tall-ship, and about 9 acres of land along the waterfront of Salem Harbor in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Salem Maritime is the first National Historic Site established in the United States. It interprets the Triangle Trade during the colonial period, in cotton, rum, sugar and slaves; the actions of privateers during the American Revolution; and global maritime trade with the Far East, after independence. The National Park Service manages both the National Historic Site and a Regional Visitor Center in downtown Salem. The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Wharf (Boston)</span> United States historic place

Long Wharf is a historic American pier in Boston, Massachusetts, built between 1710 and 1721. It once extended from State Street nearly a half-mile into Boston Harbor; today, the much-shortened wharf functions as a dock for passenger ferries and sightseeing boats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Point Channel Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Fort Point Channel Historic District is an historic district located along Congress, Summer and A streets in South Boston on the south side of Fort Point Channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Street District</span> United States historic place

The West Street District is a historic district on West Street in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the city's "ladder districts" that runs between Tremont Street and Washington Street in the Downtown Crossing commercial/retail area. The district includes four buildings located near the corner of Tremont and West Streets, all built in the early 20th century. The two buildings at 148-150 Tremont Street were once occupied by Chandler and Company, an exclusive department store. Number 148 is a Renaissance Revival structure built as an office building in 1912, and number 150 was built in 1903 to house the Oliver Ditson Company, a music publisher. The Fabyan building at 26-30 West Street was designed by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott, and built in 1926. The Schraffts Building at 16-24 West Street was built in 1922, and housed a flagship candy store and restaurant for more than fifty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Salem District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

Downtown Salem District is a historic district roughly bounded by Church, Central, New Derby, and Washington Streets in Salem, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and represents a major expansion of the Old Town Hall Historic District, which was listed in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milk Street, Boston</span>

Milk Street is a street in the financial district of Boston, Massachusetts, which was one of Boston's earliest highways. The name "Milk Street" was most likely given to the street in 1708 due to a milk market at the location, although Grace Croft's 1952 work "History and Genealogy of Milk Family" instead proposes that Milk Street may have been named for John Milk, an early shipwright in Boston. The land was originally conveyed to his father, also John Milk, in October 1666.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Street (Boston)</span>

State Street is one of the oldest and most historic streets in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Located in the financial district, it is the site of some historic landmarks, such as Long Wharf, the Old State House and the Boston Custom House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India Wharf</span>

India Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts, flourished in the 19th century, when it was one of the largest commercial wharves in the port. The structure began in 1804 to accommodate international trade at a time when several other improvements to the Boston waterfront occurred, such as the creation of Broad Street and India Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Street Church (Boston)</span>

The Federal Street Church was a congregational Unitarian church in Boston, Massachusetts. Organized in 1727, the originally Presbyterian congregation changed in 1786 to "Congregationalism", then adopted the liberal theology of its fifth Senior Minister, William Ellery Channing, (1780–1842). For most of the 18th century the church was known as the Long Lane Meeting-House. In 1788, state leaders met in the relatively spacious building to determine Massachusetts' ratification of the United States Constitution. Thereafter the church renamed itself the Federal Street Church in honor of the event. In 1803, it called William Ellery Channing, (1780–1842), as its minister who defined "Unitarian Christianity" and launched the Unitarian movement, making the Federal Street Church one of the first to define itself as Unitarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Preston</span> American architect

William Gibbons Preston was an American architect who practiced during the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was active in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the Chatham County courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the original Desoto Hotel, the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes. He began his professional career working for his father, the builder and architect Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and was the sole practitioner in the office from the time his father retired c. 1875 until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress Street (Boston)</span> Street in Boston, Massachusetts, US

Congress Street in Boston, Massachusetts, is located in the Financial District and South Boston. It was first named in 1800. It was extended in 1854 as far as Atlantic Avenue, and in 1874 across Fort Point Channel into South Boston. Today's Congress Street consists of several segments of streets, previously named Atkinson's Street, Dalton Street, Gray's Alley, Leverett's Lane, Quaker Lane, and Shrimpton's Lane.

The Custom House in Boston, Massachusetts, was established in the 17th century and stood near the waterfront in several successive locations through the years. In 1849 the U.S. federal government constructed a neoclassical building on State Street; it remains the "Custom House" known to Bostonians today. A tower was added in 1915; the building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Street Block (Boston)</span> United States historic place

State Street Block is a granite building near the waterfront in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. Architect Gridley James Fox Bryant designed it. In the 1850s "the Long and Central Wharf Corporation ... sold each bay to individual owners, requiring that 'the granite to be used for the sidewalk & facade of each bay must be purchased from the Corporation & erected according to the architect's plan.'"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wall Street Historic District (Manhattan)</span> Historic district in New York City

The Wall Street Historic District in New York City includes part of Wall Street and parts of nearby streets in the Financial District in lower Manhattan. It includes 65 contributing buildings and one contributing structure over a 63-acre (25 ha) listed area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Wharf (Boston)</span> United States historic place

Central Wharf is a historic pier in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1815–1816 between Long Wharf and India Wharf, it originally extended from India Street nearly a quarter-mile into Boston Harbor. Today, the much-shortened wharf serves as the home of the New England Aquarium.

5–7 Broad Street is a historical building in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by Boston architect Charles Bulfinch in 1805, it is one of the few remaining commercial Federal period structures within the Central Business District of Boston. It was designated a Boston Landmark in 1983 by the Boston Landmarks Commission and is in the National Register Custom House District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flour and Grain Exchange Building</span> Building in Massachusetts, United States

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. Custom House District
  3. 1 2 "NRHP nomination for Custom House District". National Archive. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  4. Cunard Building [ dead link ]
  5. Farlow Building [ dead link ]
  6. India Building [ dead link ]
  7. 160 State Street, Boston [ dead link ]
  8. Richards Building [ dead link ]
  9. 100 State Street [ dead link ]
  10. 75 State Street [ dead link ]
  11. Folio Boston [ dead link ]
  12. 20 Custom House Street [ dead link ]
  13. 21 Custom House Street [ dead link ]
  14. Market Place Center [ dead link ]