Second Brazer Building
- Architect
- Cass Gilbert
- Year
- 1897
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Boston, MA
The Second Brazer Building at 25-29 State Street is an eleven-story steel-frame skyscraper built in 1897 to designs by Cass Gilbert, his only work in Boston, completed the same year he won the commission for the Minnesota State Capitol. It replaced an 1842 Greek Revival building on the same site designed by Isaiah Rogers for the heirs of merchant John Brazer, which itself stood on the site of Boston's first meeting house, built in 1632.
the building
Steel frame with curtain walls. The 125-foot tower has a trapezoidal plan with identical fenestration on its northern, eastern, and southern facades, and is an early local example of steel-frame construction carrying curtain walls rather than load-bearing masonry.
Limestone below, terra cotta above. The exterior is faced in limestone for the first three stories, switching to terra cotta for the floors above.
Plaque to the first meeting house. A plaque on the building's north facade marks the site of Boston's first meeting house, erected in 1632, on ground later owned by merchant John Brazer before his heirs built an earlier Brazer Building here in 1842.
the style
The Second Brazer Building is a locally significant early example of Beaux-Arts design, built the same year Cass Gilbert won the commission that would make his name nationally, the Minnesota State Capitol.
More on Beaux-Artsthe architect
Cass Gilbert designed the Second Brazer Building in 1897, his only work in Boston, the same year he won the Minnesota State Capitol commission; Gilbert would later design the Woolworth Building in New York, one of the great early American skyscrapers.
significance
The Second Brazer Building is an approved Boston Landmark (BLC #61, designated July 9, 1985) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Old State House
- Ames Building
- Codman Building
- Old Corner Bookstore
- McCormack Federal Bldg/Post Office/Courthse
- Faneuil Hall