Blackstone Block

Hennessy’s Bar // c.1826

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St. Patricks Day in Boston is not the same this year. It has been a year since I have been crammed into a dimly lit, wood-paneled Irish Pub, with a pint of Guinness and good conversations with strangers. So for now, I will drink my sorrows in highlighting one of many Irish pubs in Boston, Hennessy’s. The building was constructed as one of a row around 1826 along with the adjacent buildings on the block (today containing Son’s of Boston and Blackstone Grill). All four buildings were identical and stood 3-1/2 stories as Federal style commercial buildings with retail space at the ground floor and office or residences above. The buildings were sold off separately and in the 1960s, this building was acquired by the Charlestown Savings Bank, who thought to “Colonialize” the building. They removed 1-1/2 stories and altered the openings at the ground floor (it could have been MUCH worse). The bank moved out just decades later and the building has since been home to Hennessy’s.

Yankee Publishing Building // 1874

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One of my favorite commercial buildings in Downtown Boston is the former Yankee Publishing Building on Union Street, for its architecture and the fact its surrounded by some great pubs! The building was constructed in 1874 for Cyrus Carpenter (1821-1893), a prominent manufacturer and dealer of furnaces and stoves in Boston. He owned the building, but ended up leasing the space to a competing furnace company, Walker & Pratt Manufacturing Company. Carpenter owned the building until his unexpected death in 1893 when he was run over by a Back Bay horse car, when it was conveyed to his wife until her death. The building was later purchased by the long-time tenants who continued to sell furnaces and other goods out of the store with offices above.

The business by which the building is currently known is Yankee Publishing. It is an independent family-owned business that was founded in 1935 and based out of Dublin, New Hampshire. It publishes Yankee Magazine ten times a year (the magazine has a paid circulation of 500,000; subscribers primarily residing in the Northeast) as numerous travel guides and other publications in print and online to guide locals and tourists of New England alike.

Union Block // c.1842

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Located in the Blackstone Block of Downtown Boston, this flatiron building encloses Marshall Street on the Freedom Trail, creating a tight, pedestrian-oriented street that once covered old Boston. The Union Block (c.1842) is a Greek Revival commercial block which typifies this network of short, narrow streets which somehow survived Urban Renewal and the coming of the highway in Boston. The longest running occupant of the building was Ward & Waldron Paper Hangings, which from my understanding, made wallpaper for the estates of Beacon Hill which were being built on the other side of town. After successive ownership, atlas maps show the ownership of the building in 1888 conveyed to Massachusetts General Hospital, which still held title to it past 1938. The building is now home to Bell in Hand, an iconic local pub that was founded in 1795 at another location.