Old State House
- Year
- 1713
- Style
- Georgian
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- colonial & revolutionary
Completed in 1713 as the Second Town-House, the Old State House is Boston's oldest surviving public building, hosting the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the Massachusetts provincial and state governments through the 18th century. At 65 feet, it was the tallest building in Boston until 1745, and it now sits on the Freedom Trail as a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1994.
the building
Two burned predecessors. The site had already seen two town houses lost to fire before this one: the First Town-House burned down in 1711, and this Second Town-House was itself gutted by fire in 1747 and rebuilt.
Life after the legislature left. When the Massachusetts General Court moved to the New State House in 1798, the building became Boston's city hall, refurbished for that purpose by Isaiah Rogers in 1830; after a newer city hall opened in 1841, it spent four decades let to commercial tenants before George A. Clough's renovation.
the style
The Old State House is built in the Georgian style, a rare survivor of the era's public architecture in a city that has lost most of its colonial-period government buildings.
More on Georgiansignificance
The building is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1994, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Boston Landmark; it is a stop on Boston's Freedom Trail.
nearby
- Second Brazer Building
- Ames Building
- Codman Building
- Old Corner Bookstore
- Boston City Hall
- Old City Hall