Massachusetts

Hotel Essex – Plymouth Rock Building // 1900

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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.

Stone & Webster Office Building // 1975

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Stone & Webster, established in 1893 by MIT graduates Charles Stone and Edwin Webster, was a national leader in electrification and power generation, and provided services in engineering, construction, environmental remediation, infrastructure, and plant operation for industrial clients. After the Boston Redevelopment Authority acquired and demolished sections of South Station for redevelopment, Stone & Webster decided to relocate their offices to this new site. Los Angeles-based architectural firm Welton Becket & Associates, designed the office building in a late International-style, which serves as a counter to the masonry and classically designed, South Station nearby. The steel frame with metal and glass skin and boxy form are effective at delineating the building from its neighbor, but is not pedestrian-friendly at the ground level as the raised ground floor is lined at the sidewalk by concrete steps. The building is now largely leased to Fidelity Investments.

South Station // 1899

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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.

What do you think of it?

Boston & Albany Depot // 1881-1958

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Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, New York City’s advantageous water connection through the Hudson River threatened Boston’s dominance as a historic trade center. Since the topography of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts made construction of a canal infeasible, Boston turned to the emerging railroad technology for a share of the freight to and from the Midwestern United States. The Boston and Worcester Railroad was chartered in 1831 and construction began the next year. Stations and rail lines were built westward of Boston and would eventually reach the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley with three existing lines merging in 1867 as the Boston and Albany Railroad, becoming the longest and most expensive point-to-point railroad yet constructed in the United States. The B&A undertook a significant program of improvement and beautification in the 1880s and 1890s, when the railroad hired architect Alexander Rice Esty to design this building, the Boston passenger station which was completed in 1881, the year of Esty’s death. That same year, the B&A hired architect Henry Hobson Richardson to design a series of passenger stations, connecting suburban villages west of Boston to the city. This station was located on Kneeland Street and serviced passenger service from Boston until the new South Station, a consolidated train station of various lines, was completed in 1899. This station later became a freight and storage warehouse for the railroad until the 1950s when the building was razed for the Central Artery, signaling the death of train travel as we knew it for decades to come. The site of the former station has remained undeveloped since then.

South Street Diner // c.1947

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One of the hidden gems of Boston can be found tucked away in the Leather District, one of the last remaining diner cars in the city, this is South Street Diner. At this site, at the corner of South and Kneeland streets, a diner car has existed since about 1935. In 1947 the present diner car was built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company and moved on this site as the Blue Diner opened, possibly named after its patrons, largely blue-collar workers. The diner would be renamed the South Street diner in 1992, a name that has stuck ever-since. The diner attracts tourists, nearby workers, and drunken college students, serving as a much-needed melting pot for people of different backgrounds to grab a good bite to eat.

Faxon Block // 1886

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This impressive commercial block is prominently sited at the corner of Beach and South streets in Boston’s Leather District, a wonderful enclave of late 19th and early 20th century mercantile buildings, historically centered around the leather and shoe-making industries. Like many in this block, the building was developed by the Faxon Brothers, some of the major developers of this district and areas of Quincy. Also like many other buildings in the Leather District, the block was designed by 1886 in the Romanesque Revival style, constructed of brick and brownstone with a clipped corner and Syrian arches and an oculus window at the fifth floor. The building was designed by relatively unknown architect, John H. Besarick and today houses professional offices.

Beebe Building // 1886

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Located at 127-133 South Street in the under-appreciated Leather District of Boston, the 1886 Beebe Building is an excellent vestige of the leathergoods trade and commercial architecture of the late 19th century. This building was constructed by J. Franklin Faxon (1832-1912), a business owner who engaged in real estate development and built a number of commercial blocks in this part of Boston. Rand & Taylor, architects, designed the building in an effective blending of Classical and Romanesque styles with rock faced brownstone ashlar above the storefronts, oculus windows, and segmental arched openings on the top floor. The Classical detailing of the two-story brick pilasters and modillion cornice add to its complexity. The building was originally occupied by the Thomas E. Proctor Leather Company and was later purchased by leather goods company Lucius Beebe & Sons and the storefront was renovated by Hutchins & French in 1930. The building has since been known as the Beebe Building and has been well-maintained by subsequent owners.  

United States Leather Company Warehouse // 1901

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As far back as Colonial days, the boot and shoe industry was one of the State’s leading industries. Buyers came suburban towns to purchase supplies, and in the early 1800s, the larger manufacturers began to open offices and stores in Boston. Soon, most of the leading merchants had established places of business in Boston, by the late 19th century, many were located in the South Cove area, which became known as the Leather District. The Leather District is characterized today by large, brick structures with flat roofs and feature continuous floor levels, band courses, and cornice lines. This handsome brick building on Atlantic Avenue was built in 1901 for Charles G. Rice and the Heirs of Nehemiah W. Rice as a warehouse for the U.S. Leather Company. The building was designed by William Gibbons Rantoul, who studied architecture at Harvard, and apprenticed with Henry Hobson Richardson as a draftsman in the 1880’s before opening his own practice. In 1946, the subject property was purchased by Frank Einis, and the new tenants, Fur Merchants Cold Storage, Inc., used the building for the storage of skins and furs for manufacturing into soft goods. Architecturally, the building showcases the lasting influence of Richardson on architects and industrial buildings in Boston from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The building can be classified as Romanesque Revival in style with its use of arches in the façade both structural and decorative, the Venetian arches at the 7th floor, as well as its arcaded corbelling over the 3rd level and at the cornice. I especially love the tall, engaged brick columns at the storefront, they are very unique!

Cornwall Congregational Church // 1842

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The Cornwall Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut, was erected at 8 Bolton Hill Road in 1842, replacing the colonial-era meetinghouse which had first stood on Old Meetinghouse Hill at Cornwall Center. When members of the church split into two separate congregations due to religious differences, the original congregation moved to South Cornwall in 1790. Another Congregational church was built in North Cornwall for the other group. This wonderful Greek Revival church reflects the enormous popularity the style in the first half of the 19th century. The structure rests on a stone block foundation and is sheathed with clapboard siding. The building incorporates a central entry of paired doors with a Greek Revival surround, flanked by 20/20 windows. The street elevation of the building is dominated by a monumental portico with pedimented gable, broad frieze and fluted Doric columns. The showstopper is the two-stage square belfry, each stage Doric columns and pilasters. The church is active today as the United Church of Christ and is often utilized for town events.

George Robert White Health Unit No. 2 // 1923

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Originally known as the George Robert White Health Unit Number 2, this Colonial Revival style building is located on North Margin Street in the North End of Boston, and is significant as an early health center providing health and education services for some of Boston’s most underserved residents. The building was constructed in 1923 as one of the neighborhood-based health centers built in Boston in the 1920s and early 1930s from funding by the George Robert White charitable trust. George Robert White (1847-1922), a longtime resident of Boston, worked in the office of the Potter Drug and Chemical Company as a boy, eventually becoming president and an owner of the corporation. He was an investor in real estate and reportedly was known for many years as the largest individual taxpayer in Boston. Upon his death, his will specified that his bequest to the city, about $5 million in 1922 (approximately $93 Million valued today), would be held in a permanent charitable fund “to be used for creating public utility and beauty and for the use and enjoyment of the inhabitants of Boston.” The North End Health Unit was the second built (the first was in the West End), and designed in the Colonial Revival style from plans by Coolidge and Shattuck, later known as Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott. Since the 1970s, the building was occupied by the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization, until 2020, when the building was renovated and converted into housing with 23 units for elderly residents.