Architectural History Boston

Little Building // 1917

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The Little Building sits prominently at the busy corner of Boylston and Tremont streets overlooking the Boston Common. Like the Colonial Theater next door, the Little Building was designed by architect Clarence Blackall and named after its developer and owner, John Mason Little. Blackall designed the Little Building in the Neo-Gothic style with a steel frame and a two-story Tudor-arched entrance on Boylston Street. The original facade was granite and cast stone, and the floors were made from reinforced concrete. The building replaced the Hotel Pelham which occupied the site since the 1850s. After being completed in 1917, the Little Building was considered significant enough that it was featured in American Architect and Building News, highlighting many architectural details inside and out. The Little Building was advertised as a “City Under One Roof” with 600 offices, dozens of shops, a post office, restaurants, and connections to the nearby subway and theaters. Emerson College purchased the Little Building in March 1994 for $5 million and converted the building to dormitories. After years of deteriorating masonry, Emerson College hired Elkus Manfredi Architects to oversee a full renovation of the building, including a sweeping facade restoration and the insertion of three glazed elevations between street-facing light wells. The “new” Little Building is a splendid re-imagining of a historic building, showing how old buildings can be renovated to meet contemporary uses through well intentioned design and care.

Old Boston Public Library // 1855-1898

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Courtesy of BPL collections.

Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library was the first large, free municipal library in the United States. The Boston Public Library’s first building of its own was a converted former schoolhouse located on Mason Street that opened to the public in 1854. As soon as the library occupied the building, it was apparent that the amount of visitors and collections could not effectively be held in the cramped quarters. Planning began almost immediately for it’s first purpose-built library. Less than a year later, in December 1854, library commissioners were authorized to purchase a lot and fund the construction of the new library. A desirable building lot on Boylston Street, opposite the Boston Common, was purchased and a public invitation for proposals from architects was held. The requirements for the building included: a library hall with alcoves capable of containing on fixed shelves at least 200,000 volumes, a general reading room with ample accommodations at tables for at least 150 readers, a ladies reading room, an adjacent library room for the arrangement of 20,000 books “most constantly demanded for circulation,” and quarters for the Trustees and Librarian. The facade was to be of brick, with stone dressing”. The selected design by architect, Charles Kirk Kirby, was for this handsome Italianate style building which took nearly three years to build, opening in September 1858. Twenty years later, as the library outgrew that space, the Trustees asked the state legislature for a plot in the newly filled Back Bay, and planning began on the McKim Building, built in 1895 down Boylston Street. This building, the first purpose-built Boston Public Library building, was demolished in 1898, and replaced by the ten-story Colonial Theater Building. It stood just 40 years.

Walker Building // 1891

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On Boylston Street overlooking the Boston Common, this historic building with two distinct parts is not photographed as much as some of its neighbors, but it is an important visual reminder of the period of growth and development in the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is the Walker Building, an early office building that was constructed beginning in 1891 in two phases by owner Joseph W. Walker. Mr. Walker hired the architectural firm of Winslow & Wetherell to design the building, which was finished in the Romanesque Revival style with a notable cornice with nine-bay arcade of arched windows and ornate wreath and swag motifs. A major tenant in the building was the Boston office of the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company, the largest dental manufacturing company in the world. Less than a decade after the six-story Walker Building opened, Joseph Walker purchased and razed the parcels nextdoor and again hired the same firm (at this time renamed Winslow & Bigelow), to expand the Walker Building, building a ten-story addition in a similar style. The second Walker building housed piano company showrooms and offices along with professional offices of numerous architects and professionals. The Walker Building is now owned by Emerson College, and is used as classrooms, computer labs, and study spots for students with the dining center and bookstore in the former retail spaces.

Lincoln Building // 1894

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Designed by a prominent architect, Willard T. Sears, the Lincoln Building at Lincoln and Essex streets, is a handsome example of a late 19th century mercantile structure consisting of stores, office & loft space, serving as an important visual anchor the almost uninterrupted neighborhood of the Leather District of Boston. The building is the second of its name, with the first Lincoln Building succumbing to the Lincoln Street Fire of 1893, which started as a small fire in a restroom of a toy wholesaler, eventually spreading to a storage room full of fireworks, which exploded, eventually killing at least five, and forced many others to jump from buildings to seek safety. The replacement building is Renaissance Revival in style with a stone base and classically decorated facades. The recessed entrances set within arches and the series of columned bays at the ground floor are truly special. The building was long-occupied by leather dealers and companies, but was converted to residential use in 2006 with condos on the upper floors and retail spaces on the street.

Tarbell Building // 1896

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Similar to the Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Co. Building on Portland Street in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District, the equally stunning building here was also designed by the same architect in a matching style. The building was constructed in 1896 by owner Catherine E. Tarbell , and the Boston branch of the National Casket Company moved in as tenants soon after its completion as part of its national expansion. The company would become the largest manufacturer and supplier of caskets in New England by 1906. The Tarbell building was designed by Stephen Codman in the Beaux-Arts style and is notable for its use of oxeye windows, rounded corners, and engaged pilastered facades. The company held its regional headquarters and sales offices from this building, which benefited from rail access for shipping caskets all over the region. The building is one of the finest examples of the Beaux Arts and Classical Revival styles in Boston.

The Last Tenement // c.1870s

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Originally built in the 1870s, and largely remodeled in the early 1900s, this charming building has been known locally as “The Last Tenement” of the old West End of Boston. Once part of an unbroken a row of 30 brick tenements along the east side of Lowell Street, this building typified much of the West End of Boston, a vibrant and dynamic immigrant neighborhood. Dwarfed by larger, modern apartment towers and highway off-ramps, this stand-alone building is a survivor, and should really be preserved! Here is a little history on The Last Tenement that I found. The building was originally built as a three-story residence just after the Civil War by furniture dealer, George M. Rogers. The building was rented to four families in the 1880 census, showing the diversity of the region with 20 people residing in the building of Irish, English, and German-Jewish backgrounds. At the turn of the century, an elevated rail line was laid out down Lowell Street. After WWII, the neighborhood would see a terrible demise, that has been widely told. City leaders effectively considered the vibrant immigrant neighborhood a slum, and in an effort to redevelop it to bring back middle-class families (and their tax dollars) handed much of the neighborhood to developers to start over, with little more than lip service for the displaced. This building, now with an address of 42 Lomasney Way, was occupied for some time by “Skinny” Kazonis, a low-level Mafia associate of the Angiulo Brothers, which was a leading gang in the North End until the Winter Hill Gang decided to run rackets in the area. The property sold, and residential units have been rented and the building maintained, with the assistance of a billboard for additional income for the owner. The Last Tenement showcases the strength and resilience of the old West End and will hopefully remain as a reminder of the vibrant neighborhood that was razed and replaced with mediocrity.

McLaughlin Tenements // c.1875

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After the American Civil War, the North End of Boston saw a massive phase of redevelopment, replacing the dilapidated wooden dwellings with larger brick tenements to house the neighborhood’s growing immigrant population. Nearly all of the North End was replaced with these dwellings, which has now added so much to the appeal of the neighborhood. One of the earliest and notable examples is this building on Endicott Street. Built around 1875, the tenements were owned by George T. McLauthlin (also spelled McLaughlin), who owned the engineering and machinery company on Fulton Street, housed in one of the last remaining cast-iron facades in Boston. The tenement house was later owned by George’s son Daniel, likely providing housing for the company’s employees and/or providing additional income for the family. The building also appears to have always had commercial use on the ground floor, allowing merchants to also rent the space. The late-Italianate panel brick block is modest in design, but contributes to the diverse population and worker’s housing in the North End.

Eliot School // 1931

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The Eliot School is a descendant of the first Eliot School in the North End, which opened in 1713 on the present North Bennet Street. Aside from Boston Latin, Eliot School is the oldest public school in Boston. Originally known as the North Latin School, it was renamed in 1821 likely after the former pastor of New North Congregational Church, Rev. Andrew Eliot. Constructed as an elementary school in 1931, this building occupies the site of the former Freeman School, one of the smaller 19th-century school buildings in the North End. This school building was designed in the Art Deco style by Cambridge-based architect Charles Greco. The building features decorative use of brick with stone incised pilasters and highly ornamental lintels over each entry, incorporating the name of the school,
carved foliate designs and shields, and the 1931 construction date.