The former Somerville District Courthouse at 19 Walnut Street in Union Square, is a two-story masonry building constructed in 1925. While much smaller and less ornate than other courthouses, the small building is significant as the first courthouse built in the young city and an architecturally significant example of a Classical Revival style civic building designed by architect Charles R. Greco. The building served as the Somerville District Courthouse until the late 1960s, when the legislature authorized a new district courthouse. The City of Somerville purchased the old courthouse in 1969, and the building has housed offices for the City’s Recreation Commission since that time. Interestingly, the building was used for the filming of a courthouse scene in the 1980’s “Spencer for Hire” TV detective show.
Somerville, Massachusetts, was long part of Charlestown, until it incorporated as a separate town in 1842. From the 1840s until just after the Civil War, Somerville went from a sleepy farming village to manufacturing center, spurring a sharp influx of immigrants to the city, industry boomed and brick manufacturing became the predominant trade. The town of Somerville incorporated as a city in 1872, and one of the first civic buildings constructed as a new city, was this Victorian Gothic building on Bow Street in Union Square to house the growing Somerville Police Station. Built in 1874 from plans by architect, George Albert Clough, a prominent and busy local designer. The handsome station was in use until the new Police Headquarters further east in Union Square was built in 1932. This building was sold off by the city and became offices and housed meeting spaces for a local boy’s club and an American Legion Post until it was converted into housing in the late 20th century.
The Liberty Tree Block is located at one of Boston’s oldest and most important intersections, Boylston and Essex streets. It is said that near this site, the Liberty Tree stood, and where in 1765, Patriots in Boston staged the first act of defiance against the British government under its branches, The Stamp Act protests. The tree became a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of Britain over the American colonies. The Liberty Tree was cut down by British Loyalists in 1775, but the tree’s symbolism lives on in the building constructed on the site 75 years later. Nineteenth-century real estate developer David Sears had this commercial block built in 1850, which housed stores at the street with ballrooms on the upper floors. The Liberty Tree Block is best-known and named so due to the wooden relief plaque of the Liberty Tree on the Washington Street elevation. The motif stands 8′ high and 5′ wide and was carved by ship carvers. The bas relief is inscribed with “Liberty–1765” across the top, “Law and Order” at its roots, and at the bottom, “Sons of Liberty, 1765. Independence of their Country, 1776.” The building (and its carving) are protected Landmarks in Boston.
Tucked away on Boylston Place, a dead-end pedestrian way off the bustling Boylston Street in Boston, you will find a collection of 19th century buildings that have miraculously survived over a century of growth, urban renewal, and rebirth. This is the Ancient Landmark Building, constructed in 1887 as a IOOF Lodge.The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order established in the United States 1819. The four-story Ancient Landmark Building blends Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles effectively with its two arched openings, arched windows in the top floor and two-story metal projecting bays. In the 1970s, the building was listed as “substandard” by the infamous Boston Redevelopment Authority, and luckily did not get demolished as part of its Urban Renewal push. The property was eventually acquired by Emerson College, a great steward for historic buildings and cultural institutions, who restored the building and built a new dormitory above and alongside the Ancient Landmark Building. The project preserves the important streetscape of Boylston Place, while providing needed dormitories for the school.
The construction of a new South Station Terminal in 1899, prompted a development boom for the nearby area, which had for the previous decades been almost entirely mercantile and centered around the leather and woolen industries. Due to increased land values and an influx of travelers to the area, developers saw an opportunity to erect this building to serve as a hotel for visitors to Boston via South Station. Boston architect, Arthur H. Bowditch, furnished plans for this building in the Beaux Arts/Renaissance Revival style, with use of brick and limestone construction, ornate finishes at the façade including the fluted pilasters, arches and cartouches in the spandrels. The building was completed in 1900 and known as Hotel Essex and featured a long, storied history as a hotel until it closed in the second half of the 20th century. After years of deteriorating conditions, the building was adapted as the corporate offices for Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation in 1982. The building was restored and has been known as the Plymouth Rock Building ever since.
When the railroads serving Boston were first laid out and built, each line stopped at its own terminal which created a dysfunctional and cumbersome travel experience for those entering or leaving the city. The Boston Terminal Company, established in 1897, was charged with the task of consolidating service from the four terminals at a single terminal, a union station (similar to North Station), for routes south of the city. South Station was designed by architects were Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston and quickly became New England’s busiest transportation center. The five-story Classical Revival style station built of stone is an architectural landmark with three-story Ionic colonnade crowned by a clock surmounted by an eagle, stands above the triple-arched brick masonry lower level corner entrance. While the station handled 125,000 passengers each day during World War II, post-war passenger rail traffic declined in the US. South Station was sold to the Boston Redevelopment Authority in 1965 and (surprise!) they demolished portions of the building and later developed plans to demolish the rest of the station and replace it with a multi-use development including a new train and bus station with large parking garage. Luckily for everyone, the BRA failed in this endeavor and the building remained to the point where public transportation is again invested in and beloved and the building has since been restored. Recently, a glass “crown”, known as South Station Tower, a 51-story designed by Pelli, Clarke & Partners, with new office space, luxury residences, and a redesigned, arched interior concourse (which in my opinion, is the best part). The redevelopment is a push towards transit-oriented development and blends new and old in an innovative way.
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.
This six-story brick and sandstone building at Causeway and Staniford streets near North Station in Boston was built in 1887 as the headquarters and sales center for William L. Lockhart & Co., manufacturers and wholesale dealers of coffins, caskets, and undertakers’ supplies, which at the time was considered the largest establishment of its kind in New England. The company had its factory in East Cambridge and built this structure as offices and sales rooms. The building is an excellent example of the Romanesque Revival style, which is typified by the use of round arched windows at the top floor and the use of inlaid carved stone panels. Frederick Nason Footman a relatively unknown architect is said to have designed the building for the Lockhart Company, with the building serving as an important piece of the company’s portfolio. Shop space was created on the street level, with the company’s offices, salesrooms and casket hardware department occupying the second floor, show rooms on the third floor, shipping department on the fourth floor and storage on the fifth and sixth floors. While the adjacent parcels have been razed and are still vacant, this building serves as an important visual gateway into what was once the West End, a neighborhood that was almost entirely demolished during urban renewal.
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.
Buildings of New England 