Nomination for Vermont Building

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 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 received OCT 9 1984 date entered NOV |3 1984 historic Vermont Building same and/or common 2. Location street & number 6-12 Thacher Street N/A not for publication city, town Boston, N/ Avicinity of state MA. 3. Classification Category Ownership - district public X building(s) X private - structure both .

site Public Acquisition _ object N/A in process being considered code 025 county Suffolk code 025 Status X - occupied unoccupied work in progress Accessible X yes: restricted yes: unrestricted - no Present Use agriculture commercial educational entertainment government industrial military X museum park private residence . religious scientific transportation -otherrental/apart. 4. Owner of Property name Marketplace Lofts Limited Partnership street & number 31 Brook Street city, town Wellesley N/Avicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state MA. 02102 courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Suffolk County Registry of Deeds street & number Court House, Pemberton Square city, town Boston, state MA. 6. Representation in Existing Surveys title North End/Waterfront Draft Survegs this property been determined eligible?

_yes X no date July 1980 - federal - - state - _ countyx local depository for survey records Boston Landmarks Commission city, town Boston, state MA. 7. Description Vermont Building Condition X excellent good fair deteriorated . ruins unexposed Check one X unaltered altered Check one X original site _ moved date N/A Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

The Vermont Building is located on the corner of Thacher and North Margin Street in Boston's North End district. Rising to six stories in height, this commercial building stands in marked contrast to the surrounding residential neighborhood of 3-5 story brick rowhouses. set close to the street and fully occupies its irregular shaped lot. Designed by Boston architects Arthur H. Bowditch and Edward B. Stratton and constructed in 1904 by W. A. and H. A. Root, the Vermont Building is a red brick pier and spandral Commerical Style structure with prominent Beaux-Arts influenced marble detailing. Asymetrical in plan, the building contains three bays on the North Margin Street facade and five bays on the Thacher Street facade.

The structure rises to a flat roof which is encircled by a deep cornice and highlighted by brick corbelling and marble modillions between large, paired bräckets centered above each pier. This commercial structure contains seven storefronts on Thacher and North Margin 'Streets which' are set off from the upper stories by a continuous dentillated cornice. Each storefront forms a unit with two mezzanine level windows above it and is defined by banded brick piers with granite bases. The storefronts themselves are constructed of wood and glass and incorporate a curious defect which has become increasingly evident over the years. The wooden header over each storefront is bowed because it bears the otherwise unsupported weight of the center sash of the two double hung mezzanine windows directly above.

Framed between two storefronts, the building's recessed entrance is centered on the Thacher Street facade. It is set into a round-arched surround of rusticated granite and brick on a granite base. Above it, at the mezzanine cornice line, is an arched stone hood supported on heavy stone brackets. Floors three through six of the two major facades (Thacher and North Margin Streets) are organized into multi-level arcades by brick piers rising from marble bases. Above the sixth floor the piers form heavy segmental arches with alternating brick and marble voussoirs. Spandrals of brick and marble demarcate floor levels within each arcade. In contrast, the other elevations of the building are plain brick, and windows on all levels are segmentally arched with marble sills.

Fenestration on the two principal facades of the building (Thacher and North Margin Streets) consists of very large scale, 5' X 8', double-hung, 6/6 paired windows with wood sash. Mezzanine (or second story) windows on these elevations are 6/9, double hung. Windows on the remainder of the building are generally 2/2, double-hung with some 3/3 and 4/4 in a vertical configur- ation. They are counter-balanced and have metal-clad wood sash. Windows on the first and second stories of all but the two major facades have wire glass lights. On the Thacher and North Margin Street facades, the top member of each spandral functions as a marble sill while the bottom member constitutes a flat window head, except in the sixth story. On the six secondary elevations of the building double-hung windows have marble sils and are capped by brick segmental arches.

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 VERMONT BUILDING Item number 7 OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered Page NOV 1 3 984 1 The fifteen-bay Lombard Place (northeast) elevation of the Vermont Building includes a recessed loading dock and eight freight doors closed by metal clad wood fire shutters. The interior of the Vermont Building features a plan that is entirely open on floors two through six to either side of the main elevator core, except for square wooden columns (14" square at the first floor) rising to the exposed structural system. Beams are typically 10" x 14", while joists are 6" X 12". Structural bays are 10' X 14'.

Brick perimeter walls are unfinished on the interior except for having been painted several times over the years. The Vermont Building remains largely as constructed, both on its interior and exterior, and stands as described in the following newspaper article which heralded its construction: The building will be six stories and will cost completed $200,000. Designed for manufacturing purposes, it will be constructed along lines which will give the greatest possible strength, being framed to carry a load of 250 pounds per square foot. The lower floor will be devoted to small stores, while the upper stories will be so constructed as to form two large chambers of 5500 square feet each which will have light on all sides. These areas may be subdivided to suit the requirements of the lessees.

There will be an elevator of the most improved type for passenger service, and two large freight elevators. The building will be heated by steam and lighted by electricity. A fully equipped power and lighting plant will be installed.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance Vermont Building Period prehistoric 1400-1499 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 1800-1899 X 1900 Areas of Significance - Check and justify below - archeology-prehistoric - community planning archeology-historic _ conservation agriculture economics X architecture education art _ engineering commerce _ exploration/settlement communications X - industry _ invention landscape architecture law literature military music philosophy politics/government a:2o religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Specific dates 1904 Builder

Statement of significance

/ArchitectArthur H. Bowditch & Edward B. Stratton Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Vermont Building was erected in 1904 for Redfield Proctor, founder of the Vermont Marble Company, and one-time Vermont governor, U.S. Senator (1891-1908), and President William Harrison's Secretary of War. Possessing integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship, this mercantile structure meets National Register Criteria A and C for its distinguished Beaux Arts style design and innovative plan, as well as for its association with the early development of a nationally recognized marble manufacturing company. Designed by Boston architects Arthur H. Bowditch and Edward B.

Stratton and lavishly trimmed with marble from the home state of its original owner/builder, the 67,000 square foot Vermont Building is a truly impressive structure and serves as a fine advertisement for the company which it housed. story brick pier and spandrel Commercial Style structure with robust Beaux Arts marble detailing, the building is particularly unusual in its extensive use of marble trim which may well be unique in the Boston area. The structure when designed was also innovative in plan and use. Built primarily as the branch office and finishing plant for the Vermont Marble Company, the building contained the company's operations on the ground floor and had open, unfinished space on the upper levels which could be subdivided and converted to office space in order to provide rental income.

This building format, although common for industrial structures by World War II, was quite unusual at the time of the Vermont Building's construction and represented a pioneering business concept. Vermont Marble Company. Redfield Proctor, the leading force behind the development of the Vermont Marble Company, merged several small marble operations in 1870 to form the Sutherland Falls Marble Company. In 1880 this became the Vermont Marble Comapny. Additional quarries were acquired and new ships built as Sutherland Falis developed into the manufacturing village of Proctor, Vermont. During the late nineteenth century the Vermont Marble Company pioneered the improved handling, finishing and installation of huge marble blocks for monolithic structures.. Cass Gilbert's United States Supreme Court Building (1933-35) and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, both in Washington, D.C.

are somewhat later examples of this use of Vermont marble. The company continued to grow under the direction of Redfield Proctor's heirs, and branch offices were opened early in the twentieth century in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, and San Francisco. By the mid-1930s, the Vermont Marble Company owned 28,000 acres of land and operated quarries not only in Vermont, but also in Tennessee, the Colorado Rockies, Montana, Canada and Alaska. With a payroll of 3,500, it was thought to be the largest manufacturing -1904 newspaper article obtained from the Vermont Marble Company, Proctor.

The rest of the file

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

Major Bibliographical References -City of Boston, Building Department Documents; -Boston Public Library Fine Arts Department; -C.E. Crane, Let Me Show You Vermont. Ndw York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937; -Walter Hill Crockett, Vermont, the Green Mountain State. NY; The Century History Company, Inc. I923; -Boston City Directories; 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property 15,617 sq. ft. Quadrangle name - Boston South, Mass. UT M References Quadrangle scale 1:25,000 A 119 3/ 30/5,50 Zone Easting cL1 ELu LLLLL GLI 14/6912/2010 Northing LILL LLLL B Zone Easting Northing LLLLLL LL LILL Verbal boundary description and justification The boundary is that of the 15,617 sq. ft. polygonal lot which the Vermont Building entirely occupies. Lot and building are bounded by North Margin Street, Thacher Street, Lombard.Place, Lombard Court and, on the southwest, by abutting properties.

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 Kathryn Kubie, Preservation Planner with Anne Booth, Boston Affiliates Boston Landmarks Commission organization Massachusetts Historical Commissionate June, 1984 street & number 294 Washington Street telephone... .(617). 727-8470 city or town Boston, state.: a MA. 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 Nátional 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 thee criteria and procedures-set forth by the National Park Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature Valmi A. almage Executive Director, State Historic Pres. Officer For NPS use only I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register Entered in tha National Register date Siptemter 27,1984 11-13-84 date date Attest: 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 VERMONT BUILDING 8 Continuation sheet Item number OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered NOV 1 3 984 Page 2 company in Vermont. There were marble shops and mills in Proctor, with other plants at Rutland, Brandon, Middlebury, Swanton, Roxbury, Danby, Dorset, and Manchester. Later the company also imported marble from France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Italy, and Israel.

With the advent of modern panel wall construction, the Vermont Marble Company pioneered fabrication and installation techniques that afforded architects and builders new opportunities to employ marble in ways never before possible. An outstanding example of this is the Beinecke Library (1963) at Yale University. There, 14 inch thick Vermont marble was used in place of windows to protect rare books and manuscripts from direct light. Today, the company's marble is seen on buildings and monuments all over the world. Vermont Marble Company's plant in Proctor is one of the most complete and modern marble finishing operations in the industry. Thacher Street Site. land in Boston on which the Vermont Building was later constructed was acquired in about 1874 as part of the expansion of the Sutherland Falls Marble Company.

The Thacher Street property was then sold to Redfield Proctor by Vermont Marble in 1888 for $20,789. During the later nineteenth century the property, with miscellaneous frame structures on it, continued to be used by the company as a branch marble yard serving the Boston area. Senator Proctor was no doubt aware of the turn-of-the-century boom in mercantile and furniture manufacturing development taking place near expanding railroad facilities on the northern edge of Boston's central business district. In 1904 he had whatever structures that still stood on the site removed and the Vermont Building was constructed by contractors W. A. and H. A. Root at a cost of $200,000. From 1904 to 1926, the Vermont Marble Company occupied the first floor of the Vermont Building, using it for marble polishing and storage purposes.

A concrete slab ramp or "runway" from Lombard Place allowed access for the marble, which was brought from Vermont via the nearby railroad. On the second, or mezzanine, floor at the corner of Thacher and North Margin Streets, was the company office. The Vermont Building is thus associated with the early period of tremendous growth of the Vermont Marble Company The Architects. For his Boston office Proctor retained architects Arthur H. Bowditch and Edward B. Stratton. Bowditch (d. 1941) was a successful and prolific early twentieth century Boston architect. He designed numerous large-scale downtown commercial buildings including the Merchants Building (1901), Old South Building (1902-04), and Washington-Essex Building (1906).

He frequently used architectural terra cotta for these early skyscrapers, which are lavishly decorated in the Beaux Arts tradition and display consistently high standards of design and craftsmanship. On the Vermont Building, Bowditch had an abundance of marble at his disposal with wonderful Bowditch also designed a number of hotels and apartment buildings including the Essex (1900), the Lenox (1901), and the Somerset Hotels, Myles Standish Apartments, the Pelham Hall Apartments; and in 1932, the Paramount Theatre. Bowditch and Stratton worked together from 1903 to 1907.

N VERMONT BUILDING 6-12 Thacher Street, Boston, MA UTM References: 19/330550/4692220 City of i Boston Photogrammetric Series 1"= 100' 838 101760 70 |760 790 800 00 700 65 !97, HACHER - 38 36 79 79 1047 723 1220 1981 70 -73L 963 0752 966 783 918 900 800 1050 650 69 5931629 10950 25½ DONE:AL 7707 160 60' .1690 1660 MARGIN ENDICOTT 165 9 5 2 1106 1043 1809 1760 2127 157'/½ 1438 19/2 975 11772 19 13 500 8 1044) 1264 °g Gg THACHER 12 10 8 6 OMBARD 57 9, 2345 8894 PRINCE 508 STREET 1,860 1030 1002 640 1002 NORTH 472 13,614 LYNN DOUGL AS CT 640 11024% 145 2065 1041 2717 2674 1609 47 B 47 1695 WALL 51428 1650 64 51428 1064 9 5,380 1329 23,837 1345 1330 1743 1700 1700 $720 712 17 4 1468 680 680 STREET COOPER us 52 50 2788.

1656 ILL PARKING *82,8 8 º82 8 "82 8 828 430/ 120 1330 1380 5951595l 1202 POND 13/119 880 32 MARGIN 109 07/017 43 41 39 9671 1496 106 1066 1086 98 1086 96 92 1086 10 86 10 86 1086 STILLMAN PARKING STREET 18:7166 1060 971060 95 93/06 8 9 1060 87 13,954 831060 21041 1716 6967 6370 923 MORTON 51284 $1500 STREET OF BOSTON HEALTH UNIT 14,890 1570 1435 750 700 6260 MEL9 26|24 22/20 E86 19 4451 2a NIGET - 1140 1833 STREET 916, 16 24 22 20ji8 1815 W0001 - 11,365 2530 {O51 1537 °oi 38> 1225 235 3780 1907 3738 2767472 134 953 g NOYE S PI ACE 360 128 1/2> 1160 1165 2080 BALDWIN 31/2 900 120 989 089 PLACE 2/22 3692 1088 <6g 8E6 1462 13/9 116 JERUSALEM 417 T1a 2393 898 {001 1485 145/ 1472 STREET 6/9 500 228 li720E 3400 BARTLET 883 |2 PL 900 10 158 228 152 102,% 968, 95 STREET 92 3449 COLLANURE 21290 1700 7793 STREE (52> 2519 9,5E5 '52 STREE 1248 $1602 1408 199% 69 67 LEYSEI 195 1000 2508 2179 4828 31> LII 9H 1300 1300 1250 e 1117 ON PARMENTER 844 CHRIST 5032 2856 500 55/ WASO Form - 177 ("R" June 1984) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Vermont Building Suffolk County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviewer's comments: Lsample -request Working No.

OCT /9 1984 FedRegDate:7 86 Date Due:_// 11/23/x1 Entered in thoAction: ZACCEPT . 11-13-84 National Register -RETURN _ REJECT_ Federal Agency: _ Lappeal LJNR decision Recom./Criteria Reviewer Discipline Date ,see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: _ technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? yes no 7. Description Condition excellent good fair deteriorated ruins unexposed Check one unaltered altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one - original site moved date 8.

Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state local State Historic Preservation Officer signature date title 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed - Date .

Phone: Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet The Vermont Building 6 - 12 Thacher Street, Boston, MA. Photo: Anne Booth 3/30/84 Neg: Marketplace Lofts Limited Partnership 31 Brook Street, Wellesley, MA. 02102 Photo no. 1 of 2 Thacher Street and North Margin Street facades The Vermont Building 6 - 12 Thacher Street, Boston, MA. Photo: Anne Booth 3/30/84 Neg : Marketplace Lofts Limited Partnership 31 Brook Street, Wellesley, MA. 02102 Photo no. 2 of Z Thacher and North Margin Street facades taken from Thacher Street