Hayden Building
- Architect
- Henry Hobson Richardson
- Year
- 1875
- Style
- Romanesque Revival
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- richardson romanesque
The Hayden Building at 681-683 Washington Street was built in 1875 to designs by Henry Hobson Richardson, the first commercial building in his signature Richardsonian Romanesque style and the only one of his commercial designs still standing in Boston. Countless commercial buildings across the country later copied the style Richardson introduced here.
the building
Quarry-faced brownstone. The four-story building is built of Longmeadow brownstone, sparsely detailed with granite lintels and round-arched openings, quarry-faced ashlar and round-arched fenestration that became the hallmarks of Richardsonian Romanesque commercial architecture nationwide.
the style
The Hayden Building shows little of the heavy ornamentation usually associated with Richardson; instead it introduced the quarry-faced stone and round-arched openings of Richardsonian Romanesque to commercial architecture, a sparer vocabulary that later builders across the country copied freely.
More on Romanesque Revivalthe architect
Henry Hobson Richardson designed the Hayden Building in 1875; it is the only surviving commercial building he built in Boston, and was not identified as his work until architectural historian Cynthia Zaitzevsky's later research established the attribution.
More on Henry Hobson Richardsonsignificance
The Hayden Building was designated a Boston Landmark in 1977 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It stands today as the sole surviving commercial building Richardson designed in Boston.
more by Henry Hobson Richardson
nearby
- Gordon's Olympia Theatre
- Boylston Building
- Boston Young Men's Christian Union Building
- Charles Playhouse
- Wilbur Theatre
- Wang Theatre