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Old City Hall
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Front façade, October 2006
Location	Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′29.20″N 71°3′33.59″W / 42.3581111°N 71.0593306°W / 42.3581111; -71.0593306Coordinates: 42°21′29.20″N 71°3′33.59″W / 42.3581111°N 71.0593306°W / 42.3581111; -71.0593306
Built	1862–1865
Architect	G. J. F. Bryant, A. D. Gilman
Architectural style	Second Empire
NRHP reference #	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, such as the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., as well as other city halls in Providence, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The building's architects were Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman.

History

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.

Boston City Hall habituées, 1910

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 architecture firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc completed the adaptive use and renovation.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970.^[2][1]

A courtyard statue.

Points of architectural interest

• The granite exterior characterized by ornamented columns, the mansard roof, and the projecting central bay


• The massive front doors, unusual in the use of different wood, as well as the inlay of the marble circle in each door


• The murals in the building entrances on School Street and Court Square illustrating the history of both the building and the site


• The marble plaque in the first floor lobby commemorating the laying of the cornerstone in 1862 by Mayor Joseph Wightman and the dedication of the building in 1865 by Mayor Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.
  


• The hopscotch in the School Street sidewalk recognizing this as the site of the Boston Latin School
  


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  The statues in the courtyard:
  
  
  
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    Benjamin Franklin, who attended school on this site. Scenes of Franklin's accomplishments appear in bas-relief on the square pedestal of the statue. The statue (1856) was the first portrait statue to be erected in Boston. Franklin is depicted as he would actually appear, rather than draped in toga, cloak, or classical attire. The statue was designed by Richard Saltonstall Greenough, as are two of the bas-reliefs.
  
  
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    Josiah Quincy III, Boston's second mayor; the statue (1879) was designed by Thomas Ball.
  
  
  • A donkey, signifying the Democratic Party, with two bronze footprints in front of it labeled "stand in opposition" and a plaque explaining the origin of the donkey as the party's symbol.
  
  
  
  

Old City Hall Today

Underscore VC's Office inside the former Mayor's office in Boston's Old City Hall

In 2017, Synergy Investments purchased Old City Hall for $30.1 million.^[3] With more than 83,000 square feet 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.

Mayors who served in Old City Hall

See also

• Boston City Council


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  Boston City Hall – current city hall


• List of mayors of Boston


• Past Members of the Boston City Council


• List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston


• National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts

Image gallery

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  Old Suffolk County Courthouse and Boston's City Hall 1841 to 1865
  

  
  

  
  


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  Franklin statue, c. 1860. Photo by Deloss Barnum
  

  
  

  
  


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  Boston Old City Hall, 1865
  

  
  

  
  


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  Old City Hall, c. 1868 in a stereograph view
  

  
  

  
  


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  Boston City Council office, City Hall, 1940^[4]

  
  

  
  


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  James Curley at Boston City Hall, 1913
  

  
  

  
  


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  Boston City Council chambers, City Hall, c. 20th century
  

  
  

  
  


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  Courtyard and entrance, 10/2006
  

  
  

  
  


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  Benjamin Franklin Statue in Old City Hall
  

  
  

  
  


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  Old City Hall, Front View
  

  
  

  
  

References

Further reading

• Boston City Council. Memorial of the inauguration of the statue of Franklin. 1857.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old City Hall, Boston.

• Official site


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  Library of Congress. Historic American Buildings Survey.