Boston Young Men's Christian Union Building
- Architect
- Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee
- Year
- 1875
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Boston, MA
The Boston Young Men's Christian Union Building at 48 Boylston Street was built in 1875 for a Unitarian youth group founded in 1852 after Harvard students were excluded from the evangelical Boston YMCA. The organization raised $270,000 to build its own High Victorian Gothic headquarters, designed by Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, with ground-level retail built into the plan.
the building
Ground-floor retail. Bradlee's design set street-level shops into the building's High Victorian Gothic base, letting rental income from retail tenants help support the YMCU's headquarters above.
the style
Bradlee worked in High Victorian Gothic, the muscular, polychromatic strain of Gothic Revival popular for civic and institutional buildings in 1870s Boston.
More on Gothic Revivalsignificance
Designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission on October 27, 1977, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980; the building later operated as the Boylston Street Athletic Club and the Boston Union Gym.
nearby
- Boylston Building
- Gordon's Olympia Theatre
- Hayden Building
- Charles Playhouse
- Wilbur Theatre
- Wang Theatre