Nomination for Bedford Building

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form No. 10-300 (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE FOR NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM RECEIVED JUN 2 6 1979 DATE ENTERED AUG 2 / 1979 5 SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS NAME HISTORIC The Bedford Building AND/OR COMMON Same LOCATION STREET & NUMBER 89-103 Bedford Street CITY.

TOWN Boston STATE -- VICINITY OF CODE 025 NOT FOR PUBLICATION CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 9th COUNTY Suffolk CODE 025 Massachusetts CLASSIFICATION CATEGORY DISTRICT XBUILDING(S) STRUCTURE SITE -OBJECT OWNERSHIP PUBLIC XXPRIVATE _BOTH PUBLIC ACQUISITION IN PROCESS EBEING CONSIDERED STATUS XOCCUPIED _UNOCCUPIED _WORK IN PROGRESS ACCESSIBLE _YES: RESTRICTED -YES: UNRESTRICTED PRESENT USE AGRICULTURE -_MUSEUM *_COMMERCIAL :PARK _EDUCATIONAL __PRIVATE RESIDENCE __ENTERTAINMENT _RELIGIOUS _GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC -INDUSTRIAL _TRANSPORTATION _MILITARY _OTHER: OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME Bay-Bedford Company STREET & NUMBER 184 High Street CITY. TOWN STATE Massachusetts Boston 2 VICINITY OF LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS,ETC.

Registry of Deeds Suffolk County Courthouse 02110 STREET & NUMBER Pemberton Square CITY, TOWN STATE Massachusetts Boston REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS Inventory of the Historic Assets of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts DATE October 1978 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS CITY,TOWN FEDERAL XSTATE COUNTY LOCAL Massachusetts Historical Commission Boston STATE Massachusetts 7-DESCRIPTION CONDITION -EXCELLENT _GOOD XXFAIR -DETERIORATED RUINS _UNEXPOSED CHECK ONE _UNALTERED XALTERED CHECK ONE ZORIGINAL SITE DATE. DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

The Bedford Building is located at the intersection of Boston's financial and shop- ping districts and transportation centers at Church Green and Dewey Square (also the location of South Station Headhouse NR-1975). The area surrounding the building is charac- terized by a mixture of late 19th c., post-fire five-story commercial buildings and modern high-rise buildings. Erected in 1874, the Bedford Building is a four-story plus mansard masonry structure. The building is trapazoidal in plan and appears freestanding; in fact, its rear elevation is attached to a later 20th c. parking structure. The two major dressed facades, bordering on Bedford and Lincoln Streets, meet at a beveled corner fronting on Church Green. Original- ly, this corner provided the major entrance to the building:..

20 Built in the Ruskinian Gothic style, the building is distinguished from its connez)] temporary structures in the vicinity by the use-of polychromatic materials and gothic detailing. Granite, marble, and brick are utilized in various combinations with degrees of ornamentation to create the unified yet distinct facades. Originally, the building was constructed with rough-hewn rusticated red granite ground floor bearing walls fitted with large storefront windows. Many ground floor elements remain. The upper walls are faced with polished white Vermont marble ornamented with bands of red polished granite, terra- cotta panels, and red pressed brick. Of the two dressed facades, the Bedford Street facade is by far the most elaborate.

It is twelve bays wide; two triple bay corner pavilions project slightly from the main plane of the facade and are emphasized at the roof level by peaked gable dormers fitted with pointed arch window openings. Between the pavilions, the fenestration pattern is symmetrical and consists of two triple window bays, each flanked by single bays. On the third story of the Bedford Street facade, polychrome voussoirs of thensegmental arches, which bind the triple bays, provide a strong counterpoint to thesseries ofohorizontal band courses. The ground floor has been completelycaltered with modern storefronts. Although altered, the beveled corner provides transition from the Bedford Street to the Lincoln Street facade and still projects the dramatic qualities of the original entrance tower.

Pairs of windows, separated by an engaged columnette, occupied each floor of the beveled corner which ended with elaborate clock face in the mansard level topped originally by a peaked roof. This treatment remainsat the third and fourth floors. Around the corner on Lincoln Street, the sense of symmetry vanishes: The nine bay wide facade is organized in three unequal units separated by two projecting chimnies. Hip-roofed dormers protrude from the mansard roof, and along with the tall ornamental chimney stacks retain the lively roof silhouette despite the disappearance of the entrance tower roof. Like the Bedford Street facade, the Lincoln Street facade is faced with white marble and red granite banding. The original rusticated red granite ground level is intact.

Granite piers flank large display windows, which are largely unaltered, and the rear entrance formed by a gothic arch set into the rusticated granite remain as originally constructed. Most of the Columbia Street elevation, also nine bays, is brick faced with granite banding and trim. The two bays at the Bedford Street corner continue the dressed marble of the major facades. Columbia Street provides the two service entrances. At both en- trances, the granite Gothic arch treatment found on Lincoln Street is duplicated. A third modern service door leads to the rear shipping rooms. The fenestration pattern of the upper floors essentially repeats that of the Lincoln Street facade.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD _PREHISTORIC -1400-1499 -1500-1599 -1600-1699 _1700-1799 x-1800-1899 _1900- ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC AGRICULTURE XARCHITECTURE ART XCOMMERCE -COMMUNICATIONS AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW _COMMUNITY PLANNING -LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _CONSERVATION -LAW ECONOMICS -LITERATURE _EDUCATION -MILITARY LENGINEERING _MUSIC _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT -PHILOSOPHY LINDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT -INVENTION -RELIGION SCIENCE _SCULPTURE -SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN -THEATER -TRANSPORTATION -OTHER (SPECIFY) SPECIFIC DATES 1874 BUILDER

Statement of significance

/ARCHITECT Charles Amos Cummings Willard T. Sears STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Bedford Building retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship and is significant as an outstanding example of post-fire commercial architec- ture in Boston. Built-in 1874, it is the best example of the remaining five or six = og: Ruskinian Gothic style commercial buildingsrin Boston's central business district. .It .29Y successfully adapts elements of neo-gothic style te available materials and post-fire technological innovations in order to meet the requirements of the growing commercial economy of the late 1800's. Red granite from St. George, New Brunswick, utilized for the first time in downtown Boston, white Vermont marble, and red Philadelphia brick were combined in polychromatic tradition.

In addition to its significance as a lasting representation of Ruskinian Gothic architecture, the Bedford Building is unique in its articulation of three distinct facades. Each facade utilizes different combinations of materials and varying degrees of ornamenta- tion to articulate both form and structure while simultaneously maintaining a conceptual unity throughout. The Bedford Building was designed by the firm of Cummings & Sears for Messrs. Henry and Francis L. Lee, members of arwealthyoand prominent Boston merchant family. Charles A. Cummings (1833*1906) and WillardT.Sears(1837-1920)were partnersofrom 1870-1889.oThey were well known for numerous public and residential commissions in Boston and its sur- rounding cities. The firm(is best known for the design of 0ld South Church of: 1876 in Copley Square (NHL) and the Cyclorama Building, built in 1884, in the South End (NR).

They completed relatively few downtown Boston commercial buildings, and several of these were in the Ruskinian Gothic style. The majority of the firm's commercial structures have been destroyed. The Bedford Building survives as their only remaining Ruskinian Gothic commerical design in Boston. Across Lincoln Street opposite the Bedford Building is the site of the start of the Great Fire of 1872, which entirely destroyed the center of Boston's commercial district. Seven hundred seventy-six (776) buildings in a 65 acre area were destroyed. Until the 1850's, the Church Green area was a desirable residential district centering on the New South Church designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1814. The growth of the new and increasingly prestigious Back Bay residential area and the increasing demand for commercial building space resulted in the change in land use patterns.

The area destroyed in the Great Fire was rebuilt in a massive reconstruction effort from 1873-1874. The Bedford Building and other monumental commercial structures along Summer, Devonshire, Franklin, and Otis Streets became known as the "new palaces of Boston merchants." The area primarily housed the city's dry goods and publishing industries. While the new buildings repeated the size, height and massing of their predecessors, they displayed a variety of later 19th c. archi- tectural styles-Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec, Panel Brick, and Ruskinian Gothic. This variety represents a significant departure from the homogeneity of the pre-fire granite and cast iron Italianate styled structures, which they replaced. As a result of the 1872 fire, the City of Boston instituted a Building Department and adopted numerous requirements intended to insure fire-resistant construction methods and

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 1. Atherican Institute of Architects Journal, Vol. VIII, No.8, Aug. 1920, p.311. 2. American Architect and Building News, Vol. I, July 8, 1976, p.220. 3. "Bedford Building", student paper prepared for Prof. E. Seklar, Harvard University, 1974. 4. Harrell, Pauline Chase; Smith, Margaret, Victorian Boston Today, Boston: New England Chapter of Victorian Society, 1975, p.4-5. 5. Withey, Henry F. & Elsie Rayburn, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased Los Angeles; New Age, 1956. 10 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY .4 - 15,971 sq.ft. UTM REFERENCES AL1,91 L33,9143,9 EASTING 14499899 NORTHING LILL BLJLLIl ZONE EASTING NORTHING Lhlu VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION Beginning at the northwest corner of the property running easterly along the property line along Bedford St.

to the corner of Lincoln St., thence turning and running southerly along the property line along Lincoln St., thence turning and running westerly along the rear lot line and party wall of the Bedford Building, thence turning and running northerly along the property line along Columbia St. until the beginning point.

LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE COUNTY CODE STATE CODE COUNTY CODE FORM PREPARED BY NAME/ TITLE Candace Jenkins, National Register Coordinator ORGANIZATION Massachusetts Historical Commission STREET & NUMBER 294 Washington Street CITY OR TOWN Boston By Bay-Bedford Company and Boston Landmarks Conmission February 1979 DATE (617) 727-8470 TELEPHONE STATE Massachusetts 02108 12 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS NATIONAL - STATE - LOCAL As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the_National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665).

I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and proceduresset forthby the National Park Service STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFIGER SIGNATURE otlue Rleloaska 6/11/74 DATE Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Commission FOR NPS USE ONLY 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS PROP FRTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER SDIRECTOR, OFFIG ATTEST: EOPARE KEEPER-OFTHE NATIONAL-REGISTER EOLOGLAND HISTOHIC PRESETVATION DATE DATE 4202% GPO 892-453 Form No. 10-300a (Kev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONALPARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY RECEIVED JUN 2 6 1979 DATE ENTERED AUG 2 | 1979 CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 1 to prevent a repeat of the holocaust.

Such structural innovations were included in the Bedford Building and are significant. Instead of undivided floor spaces leased to tenants, the building (and others like it) was divided vertically into four interior spaces by full height brick party walls. Each building housed light manufacturing and storage on the upper floors and commercial and display spaces on the ground and second floors. The resulting units, besides providing fire protection, were flexible enough to suit the needs of changing tenants. The Bedford Building is undergoing renovation and is in the process of certification of rehabilitation for purposes of the Tax Reform Act of 1976, as amended. The building is part of a larger area, informally known as the Commerical Palace district, which appears to meet the eligibility criteria of the National Register.

Because of the complexity of a downtown commercial district nomination and in order for the rehabilitation to proceed in a timely manner, the nomination of the Bedford Building is occurring first and separately. Individually, the building meets the eligibility criteria. Nomination of the rest of the Commercial Palace district will be undertaken at a future date. 72/6 7087 *26 KINGSION-BEDFORD PARKING GARAGE PARKING ARE A BEDFORD 89-103 Bedford St. BEDFORD BUILDING JUN 2 6 / Boston, Massachusetts UTM References:19/330430/4690800 ESSEX 120 126 128 9/25 COLUMBIA 20,757 1989 GARAGE PARKING ESSEX -LINCOLN 85 STREET 15971 LINCOLN STREET 2156 9112 1146 2834 2764 2854 2495 ARCH 409 35/2 1325 MADONNA 2728 CHAPEL 998 KINGSTON 06 108 4735 SUMMER 525/ 3562 11268 STREET 3093 5021.

OTIS 5500 STREET 19,/26 ANIRUNY'S MRINE 0 c/ UNASTERY & C..APELS 6684 STREET 3711 6070 103 105107 STREET 4495 2628 PARKING 3813 2 26: *91 209267 DEVONSHIRE 2990 STREET 10,412 NEWSPAPER AMERICAN RECORD 5985 4176 SQUARE WINTHROP GREEN CHURCH STREET 24C 2024 2096 3613 1752 1674 3579 WINTHRON PARKING 47,738 60,291 G 4500 SULLIVAN PL 00 SQUARE qil GARAGE Ctn. FEDERAL BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD BUILDING 19947 MILTON PL 23 2527 9605 891 12986 22 24 26 28 30 32 - HIGH 1192 352/ 576 />. STREET 5099 SUMMER 2850 2644 5287 STREET 5394 PARKING AREA ENTRANCE EXP. WAVERLY PARKING AREP 1997 PLACE 0-35 PARVNG 7996 Property Ske Bedford Buulduny statemass. Subfolk Working Number6.26.29.1545 TECHNICAL Photos Maps CONTROL OK 6!

26.29 HISTORIAN THE BEDFORD BULDING IS SIGNIFICANT AS THE BEST ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN SURVNING ELAMPE DE ANO COMMRCIAR BUILDINS BUILT IN THE RUSKINAN GOTHI TYLEH BOSTONSAND IS ALSO NOTABLE FOR ITS POLTCHROMED APPEARANKE ACHIEVEI ACLEPT THROUK,H THE USE OE DIFFERINS FARADE MATERIALS. IN ADDITIIN IT IS AN ExAMPLE MIDOUKAN 8/20/15 DT- POST 1872 FIRE CONSTRUCTION UTILIZANK, TECHNOLOGICAL INNOUATINA RCHEOLOGIST IT WILL EVENTUALLY BE PART DF A DISTRKT BÜTIS INDIVIDUALLY ELIGIBLE AS WELL- OTHER HAER Inventory Review REVIEW UNIT CHIEF ACCEPT UHE DOUSAL 8/20/3 BRANCH CHIEF KEEPER National Register Write-up Federal Register Entry OCT Send-back Re-submit Entered AUG 2 | 1979 UnitedStates Departmentofthe Interior - Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service Brothers Sationery (a COMPLETE OFFCE S SURLES I RARNITORE , Statiomerya ERS, INC. PAIRING 115 BUI!

Bedford Building Boston, Mass, buffolk Cousty, Mavachusetls Bay Development Corp. 184 High St., Boston Photo #142 View lodling southwesterly at Bedford and Lincoln St. elevations JUN 2 6 1979 AUG 2 | 1979 THE BEOFORD BUILDING BEDFURO AND LINCOLN ST edtord Bullaina Boston, Mass. gulpolk Count y, massachusett Bay Development Corp. 184 High St., Boston Photo #2 02 View looking southeasterly at Bedford and Columd and Columbia St. elevations JUN 2 6 1979 AUG 2 | 1979 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS Office of the Secretary of State 294 Washington Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 617-727-8470 MICHAEL JOSEPH CONNOLLY Secretary of State June 15, 1979 RECEIVED JUN 2 6 1979 NATIONAL REGISTER Mr. Ronald Greenberg, Acting Chief Registration Branch National Register OAHP, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service 440 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C.

20243 Dear Mr. Greenberg: Enclosed you will find the following nomination forms: - Boston - Bedford Building - Lynn - Masonic Hall - Lynn - Public Library All have been voted eligible by the State Review Board and have been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. Sincerely, Chustine soudiy Christine Boulding Survey Director Massachusetts Historical Commission ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE MASSACHUSETTS Date Entered AUG 2 | 1979 Name Location Bedford But1ding Lynn Masonic Hall Lynn Public Library Boston Suffolk County Lynn Essex County Lynn Essex County Also Notified Honorable Paul G. Tsongas Honorable Edward M. Kennedy Honorable John J. Moakley Honorable Nicholas Mavroules State Hlstoric Preservation Officer Mrs. Patricia L.

Weslowski Executive Director Massachusetts Historical Conmission 294 Washington Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108 NR Byers/bjr 8/22/79 For further information, glease call the National Register at (202)343-6401.