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Old City Hall

Architect
Gridley James Fox Bryant
Style
Second Empire
City
Boston, MA
Old City Hall
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0
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Old City Hall at 45 School Street was built between 1862 and 1865 to designs by Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman, and housed the Boston City Council from 1865 until 1969. It was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire style built in the United States, a choice that then rippled outward - the style went on to shape public buildings across the country, from Providence and Baltimore City Halls to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.

the building

A site with layers of government. The building stands on ground with a long civic history: the Boston Latin School operated here from 1704 to 1748, and the Suffolk County Courthouse, built in 1810, served as Boston's second city hall from 1841 until this building replaced it twenty-four years later.

Mayors who served here. Thirty-eight Boston mayors held office in the building over its more than a century of use as City Hall, including John F. Fitzgerald, Maurice J. Tobin, and James Michael Curley.

the style

Old City Hall was one of the first buildings in the United States built in the French Second Empire style. Its success helped launch the style's spread through American public architecture, influencing city halls in Providence, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, as well as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

More on Second Empire

the architect

Gridley James Fox Bryant, working with Arthur Gilman, designed Old City Hall between 1862 and 1865, giving Boston one of the country's earliest examples of the Second Empire style applied to a major public building.

significance

Old City Hall is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and sits on Boston's Freedom Trail between the Old South Meeting House and King's Chapel. It served as the seat of Boston city government from 1865 to 1969.

nearby

All 282 buildings in Boston