Nomination for Newspaper Row

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPSForm 10-900 (3-82) OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form See instructions in How to Complete National Register Forms Type all entries-complete applicable sections 1. Name For NPS use only JUN 8 1983 received date entered historic Newspaper Row and/or common Same 2. Location street & number #322-328 Washington St., 115-23 Milk St., 411 Hawlex St. N/A not for publication city, town Boston N/Avicinity of state Massachusetts 3.

Classification code 025 county Suffolk code 025 Category - district x building(s) _ Structure site _ object Ownership - public X private both Public Acquisition N/A in process being considered Status X occupied unoccupied X work in progress Accessible X yes: restricted - yes: unrestricted no Present Use - agriculture * commercial educational _ entertainment - government .industrial - military _ museum - park private residence _ religious _ scientific .transportation _ other: 4. Owner of Property name Mixed, see continuation sheet street & number city, town Boston N/Avicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state N/A courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Suffolk County Registry of Deeds street & number Pemberton Square city, town Boston state Massachusetts 6.

Representation in Existing Surveys a) Inventory of the Historic Assets of title the Commonwealth (see continuatibaf this property been determined eligible? yes X no sheet) date 1979 federal X State county local depository for survey records Massachusetts Historical Commission city, town 294 Washington Street, Boston state Massachusetts 7. Description Newspaper Row, Boston, MA Condition X excellent Xgood _ fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one _ unaltered X altered Check one X original site - moved date N/A Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

Newspaper Row is a group of four contiguous commercial buildings located in downtown Boston on Washington, Milk, and Hawley Streets. Prominent are four-to-six story, 61 to 82 feet high, granite-faced or cast-iron fronted buildings, constructed out to the property line, and erected immediately after the Great Fire of 1872. The group is in close proximity to the city's retail and financial areas, with its immediate vicinity characterized by a mix of eight to fifteen story turn-of-the-century elevator office buildings, modern department stores, and high-rise office towers. Newspaper Row is adjacent to the Old South Meetinghouse (NHL) and within a block radius of several other landmarks including the Old Corner Book Store (NR),. Old City Hall (NHL), the Winthrop Building (NR), and the International Trust Company Building (NR).

The group diagonally faces the new Boston Five Cents Savings Bank and the landscaped sitting area at the realigned Washington and School Streets intersection. (1-photo #l) The Transcript Building at #322-328 Washington Street and #5-11 Milk Street, is a rectangular three-by-five granite-faced commercial block, four stories plus mansard high and measuring approximately 41 feet along Washington Street and 75 feet along Milk Street and measuring approximately 15 feet from a sidewalk to upper cornice. Completed in 1873, the building was designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant and Louis Rogers as the home of the Boston Evening Transcript, then the largest circulating daily in New England. The present building is the replacement for an earlier structure erected on Washington Street just nine months prior to the 1872 fire.

Although that earlier building was heavily damaged through dynamiting in the effort to save the Old South Meetinghouse, an extensive section of the pre-Fire Washington Street facade did remain standing and was incorporated by Bryant (also the architect of the earlier building) into the present structure. Acquisition by the Transcript's publishers of the abutting corner site at Washington and Milk Streets right after the Fire permitted the construction of a considerably enlarged building now with two prominent facades. The pre-Fire facade exists as the central four bays of the second, third, and fourth floors of the Transcript's Washington Street front. The Transcript Building is a French Second Empire style commercial block organized into a symmetrical plan with its Washington Street front treated as one of the slightly advanced side pavillions of the Milk Street facade.

Both facades of the building are divided horizontally by string courses and heavy bracketed mouldings. The fenestration pattern of the five sets of paired rectangular windows along Milk Street and the run of six rectangular windows along Washington Street is repeated on the second, third, and fourth floors, with differentiation expressed through subtle variations in emphasis and detail. Relieved detailing including rusticated corner piers, panelled pilasters piersd, and architraves, bracketed mouldings, and carved window heads and enframements are confined to Washington Street and the Milk Street pavillions and are contrasted to the smooth faced masonry of the broad central section of the Milk Street facade.

Ornamenting the secondfloor centralbay of both facades are bracketedpediments which enclose, on a carved floral ground, the letter D (tor Dutton, the publisher) ana surmount in raised block lettering the title "TRANSCRIPT BUILDING" The iron framed and iron trimmed mansard roof is faced with fish scale slate and is capped by a heavy projecting cornice which is carried across the dormers where it is supported by brackets.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance Newspaper Row, Boston, MA Period - prehistoric 1400-1499 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 X 1800-1899 1900 Areas of SignificanceCheck and justify below - archeology-prehistoric community planning - archeology-historic conservation agriculture - economics X architecture education art engineering X commerce .exploration/settlement X communications - industry _ invention Specific dates 1873 and 1874 Statement of Significance

Statement of significance

(in one paragraph) landscape architecture religion law literature military music - philosophy politics/government science - sculpture - social/ humanitarian .theater transportation other (specity) N.J. Bradlee, Gridley J.F. Bryant, Builder/Architect Peabody & Stearns Newspaper Row, possess integrity of location design, setting, materials, and workmanship. It is directly associated with the nineteenth century offices of two influential Boston daily newspapers and remains as the only extant portion of the city's former publishing district. The four buildings are all the work of major Boston architects and represent the high quality of Boston's commercial architecture after the Great Fire of 1872. Thus, Newspaper Row meets criteria A, B, and C of the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1873, the Transcript Building (1) is the work of Gridley J.F.

Bryant (1816-1899), who was described at the time of his death as being for "many years the most noted architect in Boston." (AABN) Bryant, the son of the engineer who designed the Granite Railway in Quincy, received his architectural training in the office of Alexander Parris. He was very active in Boston during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, gaining a considerable reputation for his large scale granite Italianate and French Second Empire style conmercial, institutional, and public buildings which include the Suffolk County Jail, the Mercantile Wharf Building, the State Street Block, Boston City Hospital, and, with Arthur Gilman, Boston City Hall. Many ot the granite warehouses and conmercial blocks that lined the streets of downtown Boston in the 1850's and 1860's, and that were rebuilt after the Fire, were constructed from his designs.

The Transcript Building survives as a major example of French Second Empire architecture in Boston and is a significant representative of Bryant's post-Fire conmercial work in this style. Notable for the retention of much of its original exterior appearance, the Transcript is one of a handful L of large-scale granite Second Empire Buildings still standing in Boston. The Boston Post Building (2) is significant as an early work of the nationally active Boston architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns, and as a cast-iron fronted conmercial building, a building type that is almost extinct in Boston. Of the almost two dozen cast-iron buildings that existed in downtown Boston in 1888, only six survive today.

Historically, the building is notable for its commemorative value as the site of the birthplace of Benjamin Franklin, an association that has been furthered by the inclusion Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917) and John Goddard Stearns, Jr. (1843-1917), the architects ot the building, tormed their partnership in 18/0 after meeting as apprentices in Henry Van Brunt's office. Peabody receivedhis early training with Gridley J.F. Bryant and studied between 1867 and 1870 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The firm maintained and active and extensive architectural practice for almost fifty years producing "an aggregrate of work unsurpassed in terms of quality and quantity by more than a handful of contemporary architectural firms in the United States." Holden) Their non-residential work includes Matthews Hall at Harvard, the old Park Square Railroad Station, the old Museum of Fine Arts in St.

Louis, the Massachusetts State Building and Machinery Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Boston's Custom House Tower. The Post is an example of the imaginative Victorial . Gothic and Queen Anne 9.

The rest of the file

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

Major Bibliographical References Boston Evening Transcript. February 9, 1874, p.1. Boston Post.August 31, 1974, p.3. Holden, Wheaton A., Robert Swain Peabody of Peabody and Stearns In Boston The Early Years (1870-1886), Boston University Graduate School, Fine Arts Dissertation, 1969. p.56-7 and p. 208 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property 11,902 sq. ft. Quadrangle name Boston So. UT M References 1,9 [3|31014,2,9 Zone Easting 1416/911/2210 Northing LlLLiL Quadrangle scale 1:25,000 B Zone DLJ LaLu Easting LiaL Northing LLMAL F HL LL LILILLl Verbal boundary description and justification The Row is generally bounded by Washington St., Milk St., Hawley St., the backlot lines of Assessor's parcels $4639, and 4638, and the back- lot line and southwesterly property line parcel #4636; and it includes parcels #4636, 4637, 4638, and 4639.

List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state N/A code county code state code county code 11. Form Prepared By name/title Candace Jenkins, Registration Director Rosalind Pollan and Boston Landmarks Commission organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date January 1983 street & number 294 Washington Street telephone (617) 727-8470 city or town Boston State Massachusetts 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 procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature tuuà K.Wedowski State Historic Preservation Officer title Massachusetts Historical Commission date 5/26/83 For NPS use only I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register AeloresByen Intered in the Reeper of the National Resisiter date Hattonal Register 7/1/83 Attest: date Chief of Registration NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Newspaper Row, Boston MAtem number 4, 6, 9 Section 4. Owner of Property map ref no name of property assessors parcel no. #1 Transcript Bldg. 4637 2980 #2 #3 Boston Post Bldg. 4638 3634 Goddard B1dg 4639 #4 4636 1671 OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered Page 4 premise parcel no.

mailing address & owner of record 322-328 Washington One Milk St. Associates St. & 5-11 Milk St. Burlington Executive Center II P.O. Caller Box 542 Burlington, MA 15-17 Milk St. One Milk St. Associates c/o Michael 0'Conne11 1l1 Middlesex Ipke Burlington, MA 01803 19-21 Milk St. & 5-11 Hawley St. Richard L. Kanter, Paul I. Feinberg, Trustees of 19-21 Milk St., Realty Trust c/o Kanter, Kanter & Garrett 19 Milk Street Boston, MA 02109 332-334 Washington George M. Colon Kisel Hardware Bldg. Scarsdale, NY 10583 6. Representation in Existing Surveys b) Comprehensive Boston Preservation Survey - CBD 1979 - local Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston City Hall Boston, MA 9. Bibliography (continuation) King, Moses. King's Handbook of Boston. Cambridge: Moses King, 1879. p. 146-147.

NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 Far NPS use only received date entered Continuation sheet Newspaper Row, Boston MA Item number 7 Page 1 Section 7. Originally, the basement level of the Transcript Building was used to house the presses and machinery of the newspaper's printing plant. Most of the ground floor was set aside as office space for cashiering and business functions, while editorial, reporting, and proof-reading operations were housed on the fourth floor. The fifth floor (mansard roof) was used for composition and type setting. Remaining suites in the building were designed for lease as insurance, banking, brockerage, and legal offices.

Access to the upper floors was provided by elevator and by an entry and stairs from Milk Street and, from Washignton Street, by a side entry and stairway. The transcript retained much of its original appearance with exterior alterations generally restricted to the construction of modern shop fronts. Some of the early ground floor granite and cast-iron piers, however, been left in place and filed with modern but compatible glazing. The building's ornamental iron roof cresting has been removed, and various window sash replaced uniformly with appropriate two over-one sash. The Transcript is in sound physical condition and has been used as an office building with ground floor retailing since the newspaper ceased publication in 1941.

(2-photo #2) The Boston Post Building (birthplace of Franklin Building) at #15-17 Milk Street is a narrow rectangular three-bay, cast-iron fronted building, six-stories high with flat roof, and measuring approximately 30 feet along Milk Street and approximately 82 feet from sidewalk to cornice. The Post Building is constructed of brick walls with a cast-iron facade on Milk Street, brick load bearing walls and wood frame. At its completion in 18/4, the Post Building was a 5 story building with bracketed cornice and central gable projecting through the roofline. A six story was later added to which the central gable was reattached. The fourth, fifth and sixth stories were subsequently altered by covering the upper stories with metal. The ground floor modernizations of c. 1930 have recently been removed, and the piers reconstructed using available documentation.

The building has also been painted a light stone color, and new double-hung sash installed. The Post Building was designedby the architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns for Beals, Greene and Company, publishers. The building is Victorian Gothic in style and utilizes Eastlake and Neo Grec elements in its detailing.The facade is characterized by its skeletal emphasis, one-two-one window bay arrangement and profusion of freely treated medieval and classical forms expressed as sculptural and linear ornament. The original facade of the building remains intact on the second, third and lower half of the fourth floor, with vertical progression of short palmette pier colonettes marking the central axis of the building, continuing through the fifth floor.

Between the second and third floors and incorporated into this vertical colonette progression is a portrait of Benjamin Franklin set in a gothically detailed niche. "BIRTHPLACE OF FRANKLIN" in raised antique capital letters is equally divided over the central second Iloor windows on either side of the niche. The unusual mix of stylistic sources characteristic of the design of the Post Building is particularly apparent on the second floor with its shallow classically derived, Neo Grec entablature supported by gothic buttress-like forms resting on slender paired medieval colonettes. Eastlake detailing of boss, stud, fan and circular motives that are incised into or applied to pier and spandrel surfaces are predominant on the third floor. NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places nventory - Nomination Form No.

1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered Continuation sheet Newspaper Row, Boston MAtem number 7 Page 2 Section 7. to the building and ornament.The earlier organization ofre and ornament. pistm atd vindos hs rerained, the tworandae story fluted pilasters connecting the fourth, fifth and sixth stories continue the verticality of the building's original design and the applied rosettes between the fifth and sixth floors repeat in their placement and form, the third floor stud and boss motives. Interior functional arrangements of the Post Building were similar to that of the Transcript and included rental suites on the second and third floors. After the Boston Post left the building in 1905 and moved to larger quarters, the Transcript acquired the building and used it in conjunction with its own until its bankruptcy in 1941.

Building is in sound physical condition and was recently used as an office building with ground floor retailing. Both the Transcript and Post Buildings are undergoing major rehabilitation using the preservation incentives of the Economic Recovery Act of 1981. Abutting the Transcript and Post Building (and contemporary with them) are the granite-faced commercial buildings at #19-23 Milk and #322-4 Washington Street. Although these buildings are of lesser architectural quality and historical significance, they orovide a strong 1870's context for the Transcript and Post and are related to them in torm, scale, architectural style, and detailing, and contribute to the district. Both buildings were designed by N.J. Bradlee and constructed in 1873 to 1874.

(3-photo #3) The Goddard Building (now Home Owners Federal Savings Bank) at #19-23 Milk Street, corner of Hawley Street is a six story, four-by-six bay granite-faced commercial building measuring approximately 40 feet along Milk Street and 90 feet along Hawley and measuring approximately 86 teet trom sidewalk to cornice. The Goddard Building was originally a four-story building with mansard roof over the slightly projecting corner bay at Hawley and Milk Streets. The existing fifth and sixth stories were added to the building by the 1890's. Distinguishing the Home Owners is the design of its granite trimmed, red brick Hawley Street facade with slightly projecting granite-faced side pavillions, its segmentally arched third and fourth floor windows, and its classically detailed window frames, mouldings, and cornices.

The first and second floors of the Milk Street facade have undergone extensive modernization. The building is currently used for banking and office (4-photo #4) The stone-faced three-bay four story, Neo Grec style commercial building at #332-4 Washington Street, measures approximately 24 feet along Washington Street and approximately 41 feet from sidewalk to cornice. It has been altered through the installation of a late nineteenth century iron mullioned plate glass window on the second floor, the removal of its pedimented cornice, and the modernization of its ground floor. The building, however, gives extension to the Washington Street facade of the Transcript and is related to it in floor heights, proportion, and detailing. #332-4 Washington Street has been painted brown. NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) No. 1024-0018 Exp.

10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Far NPS use only received date entered Newspaper Row, Boston, MA Continuation sheet Item number 8 Page 3 Section 8. style designs associated with the firm during the 1870's and 1880's and is one of their fee surviving early conmercial buildings. The two buildings Planking the Post and Transcript Buildings (3& 4) were designedin1873-74 by N.J. Bradlee in partnership with Walter T. Winslow. Both are constructed of granite with Neo-Grec detail and both have alterations. Nevertheless, they are important to the context of the Transcript and Post Buildings, echoing their scale, materials and design elements.

Together, these buildings represent, in capsule, the post Civil War architectural trend in Bostonwhich was generally characterized by its stylistic variety and co-existence of academic and individualistic construction. The re-building of the burned district provided Boston with an excellent opportunity for the expression of this new stylistic diversity. The Transcript, with its roots in classical forms, Boston's earlier Granite Style, and "French Renaissance" architecture, is an example of the continuation of the formal mansard style of the Civil War years into the 1870's. The Post's eclectic combination of the classical, Gothic, and contemporary English forms represents the emerging era of more personal and inventive architecture. This combination is well represented by Bradlee's other two buildings (3 & 4) with their Neo Grec vocabulary.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the east (even numbered) side of upper Washington Street, from Milk to State Street, and its immediate vicinity became known as Newspaper Row through the establishment along the stretch, of all of Boston's major dailies. During his period, the Transcript was the largest circulating daily in New England and the Post was Boston's leading Democratic newspaper. Located in the "Row" were the Boston Evening Transcript, the Boston Post, the Boston Journal at #264 Washington Street, the Daily Advertiser at #248 and opposite, the Boston Herald at #251 Washington, the Boston Globe at #244, and the Daily Evening Traveller at #31 State.

The Transcript and Boston Post Buildings are all that remain of this late nineteenth century newspaper publishing district, and are monuments of Boston's development into an important printing The other two buildings housed a variety of commercial establishments. Dennison & Company, tag and Label manufacturers, located in the Goddard Building from 1875 through the early 1880's. During the twentieth century, the Goddard Building has been occupied continously by a succession of banks. 1050 PROVINCE 4889 1050 's 19177 1835 3/56 STREET DTrE STREET 2760 1743 1643 2027 FRANKLIN 1947 2357 33J7 5565 WM. 18,277 ¡FILENE'S SONS DEPT. STORE 24,234 4488 HAWLEY 12.,647 11,409 654/ 9064 MILKSP 8500 OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE 24,200 1099 5052 5/56 443 389 855 831 325 827 WASHINGTON MILK 2980 3634 7091 36/7 174/ 3742 2843 5391 948/ 13381S 1729 990 1785 5858 RAYMONDS DEPT.

J1OO STORE 4/87 1101 948 1049 6689 2663 116l 3913 2760 3398 2799 3113 PARKING AREA 3821 7394 3338 HAWLEY PI 6800 4834 1102 4901 8b/4 602% 12,000 SAFE BOSTON 8 TRUST DEPOSIT CO 100 49 82 11 00 91 12 12 FRANKLIN SNOW ST. THOMAS MORE 3050 ORATORY 3050 56 05 5964 4831 ARCH PLACE HARTFORD .BLDG LIFE INS. 6573 3418 1162 7009 14997 BUSSEY PI Pi9,126 4176 154V- 12 COURT HOUSE 48,382 1160 STREET 23.42 FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF BOSTON 33,263 1234 FEDERAL STONE 8 WEBSTEF COMPANIES 21,050 STATE ST. BATIK 8 TRUST CO.

1235 PARKING AREA 11, 2524 QUARE 5800 56/6 1920 = 1233 6488 NEWSPAPER ROW DISTRICT Boston, Massachusetts Boston Assessor's Map 1980 1"=100' P CONGRESS NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Untrod stertos Dopartmant el thra Iatorien National Park Service Newspaper Row Suftolk County MASSACHUSETTS EYALUATION/ RETURN SHE resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Rovlow: Roviower's comments: Working No. JUN 8 1983 Fed. Reg. Date: 2-1-84 Dato Due: 2/2/83 7/2:63 Action: L ACCEPT2/2/83 ctsred in the - RETURN ratiooal Feeteter_ .REJECT- Foderal Agoncy: -sample - request _ appeal - NR decision -Nomination returned for: Recom. /Criteria. Reviower_ Discipline. Date . Be- CORtinuation sheet _technical corrections cited below -substantive reasons discussad below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Ponorehe nte ker 4. Owner of Property rasond Uao 5.

Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys ai property hewn emonetmen otigess 7. Description Tosk em nanered Mered - movec possat and artyladd (ll caomad plndad cmsaseranso summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection 8. Significance portor bpseie dorao atomont ed stonipe astlfy bater summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas Checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of excepticn other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data lersage el nominasad property. duedrangio reme _ UMT Retarenoss Verkel besoadary daac justifteatien 11. Form Prepared By 12.

State Historic Preservation Officer Certification Thoo oveluosad signinicence of thile property aithin ihe aceda is: - netionel - sate locat Peta Hatonc Proservetton Omficer signature 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed . Date _ Phone: 202 272-3504 Comments forany item may be continued on an attached sheet PIRE Photo #10F5 Newspaper Row Boston, MA View from west of Transcript Building and 332-334 Washington St. Photo: Boston Landmarks Commission, 1982 Boston City Hall, Room 805 BUILDING Photo #2 OF Newspaper Row Boston, MA View of Post Building from north Photo: Boston Landmarks Commission, 1982 Boston City Hall, Room 805 HOME OWNERS FEDERAL SAVINGS FomeO) Photo #3 0F5 Newspaper Row Boston, MA View of 19-21 Milk St., Post Building and Transcript Building from north.

Photo: Boston Landmarks Commission, 1982 Boston City Hall, Room 805 Photo #4 oF5 Newspaper Row Boston, MA View of 332-334 Washington St. and Transcript Building from south. Photo: Boston Landmarks Commission, 1982 Boston City Hall, Room 805 EMPIRE LINEN SERVICE SOWFLETRENTAL Photo #5 OF 5 Newspaper Row Boston, MA View of Transcript Building, Milk St. elevation from west. Photo: Boston Landmarks Commission, 1982 Boston City Hall, Room 805