Old City Hall | |
Location | 45 School Street Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 42°21′29.20″N71°3′33.59″W / 42.3581111°N 71.0593306°W |
Built | 1862–1865 |
Architect | G. J. F. Bryant, A. D. Gilman |
Architectural style | Second Empire |
NRHP reference No. | 70000687 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 30, 1970 [1] |
Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 [2] |
Boston's Old City Hall was home to its city council from 1865 to 1969. It was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire style to be built in the United States. After the building's completion, the Second Empire style was used extensively elsewhere in Boston and for many public buildings in the United States, including the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Providence City Hall in Providence, Baltimore City Hall in Baltimore, and Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia. The building's architects were Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman.
Old City Hall, built between 1862 and 1865, is located at 45 School Street, along the Freedom Trail between the Old South Meeting House and King's Chapel. The Boston Latin School operated on the site from 1704 to 1748, and on the same street until 1844.
Also on the site, the Suffolk County Courthouse was erected in 1810 and converted to Boston's second city hall in 1841, being replaced by the current building twenty-four years later. Thirty-eight Boston mayors, including John F. Fitzgerald, Maurice J. Tobin, and James Michael Curley, served their terms of office on School Street at this site over a period of 128 years.
With the move to the current Boston City Hall in 1969, Old City Hall was converted over the next two years to serve other functions – an early and successful example of adaptive reuse. The Boston-based nonprofit developer Architectural Heritage Foundation, Inc. (now AHF Boston) and the architecture firm Anderson Notter Associates completed the adaptive use and renovation. AHF Boston subsequently managed the property for fifty years.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970. [2] [1]
In 2017, Synergy Investments purchased Old City Hall for $30.1 million from AHF Boston. [3] With more than 83,000 square feet (7,700 m2) of real estate, it now houses a number of businesses, organizations, and a Ruth's Chris Steak House, Welch & Forbes, Underscore VC, McLane Middleton, Kaymbu and many more, though its most famous tenant, the upscale French restaurant Maison Robert, closed in 2004.
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This article is a timeline of the history of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, US.
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A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New England or the United States. While National Landmark or National Register status can provide tax incentives for the owner of an income-producing property, local landmark status provides more control over modifications to a designated historic structure or place.
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