Union Oyster House
- Year
- 1826
- Style
- Georgian
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- colonial & revolutionary
Union Oyster House has served diners at 41–43 Union Street since 1826, making it the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States. The building itself is older still: the original structure, now part of the Blackstone Block Historic District, went up around 1716, its angled front tracing the separate courses of Union Street and Marshall Street. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
the building
The angled footprint. The building's odd shape comes from its site: a three-bay front follows Union Street while a two-bay section follows Marshall Street, meeting at an angle rather than a square corner. A vertical joint in the brickwork between the two sections has led some historians to think the Marshall Street portion was added later, though matching floor-joist framing suggests the two were actually built at the same time.
the style
The building is identified as Georgian architecture, the style current in the colonial Boston of its early-18th-century construction, long before it became a restaurant in 1826.
More on Georgiansignificance
Union Oyster House is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 2003, and is recognized as the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States.
nearby
- Faneuil Hall
- Boston City Hall
- Quincy Market Building
- John F. Kennedy Federal Building
- Ames Building
- Old State House