Boston Transit Commission Building
- Architect
- William G. Preston
- Year
- 1903
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Boston, MA
Built in 1903-04 at 15 Beacon Street, this ten-story Beaux-Arts building was designed by William Gibbons Preston as headquarters for the Boston Transit Commission -- the nation's first public transportation agency, created to build Boston's original subway system, later inherited by the MBTA. It rose on the site of merchant Edward Bromfield's 1722 mansion.
the building
From commission to hotel. The Transit Commission occupied the building until the agency dissolved in 1916. The City of Boston took the property by eminent domain in 1920 and used it to house the Boston School Committee; the city sold it in 1998, and it was converted into XV Beacon, a 63-room luxury hotel whose art collection includes works by Jules Olitski and Gilbert Stuart.
The sidewalk protest. In 1965 the building was the site of a 114-day protest by Reverend Vernon E. Carter, who lived on the sidewalk outside it.
the style
The Beaux-Arts, or Classical Revival, design gave a brand-new government agency the monumental civic presence of a much older institution.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As XV Beacon, the building is a member of the Historic Hotels of America.
nearby
- Boston Athenæum
- Chester Harding House
- Suffolk County Courthouse
- Tremont House
- Massachusetts State House
- King's Chapel