State Street Block (Boston)

State Street Block (built 1857) is a granite building near the waterfront in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts.[2] Architect Gridley James Fox Bryant designed it. In the 1850s "the Long and Central Wharf Corporation ... sold each bay to individual owners, requiring that 'the granite to be used for the sidewalk & facade of each bay must be purchased from the Corporation & erected according to the architect's plan.'"[3]

State Street Block
State Street Block, Boston, ca. 19th c. (Custom House at left edge)
Location177-199 State Street
Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°21′33.38″N 71°3′10.27″W
Built1858
ArchitectGridley James Fox Bryant
Architectural styleItalianate
Part ofCustom House District (ID73000321)
Designated CPMay 11, 1973[1]

Walt Whitman visited Boston in 1860, and wrote about what he saw: "Noblest of all State Street Block, east of the Custom House, rough granite. The above probably one of the finest pieces of com[merical] architecture in the world."[4] Another visitor travelling through Boston (in 1859) called it "a magnificent block."[5]

In the mid-20th century, "nearly three-quarters of the original 22-bay building ... was amputated for construction of the Central Artery ... and the roofline of the remainder has been destroyed."[6] The surviving portion of the block was added as part of the Custom House District to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]

References
  1. Massachusetts Historical Commission (1973). "Custom House District - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form". Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. Retrieved 27 April 2016.; Boston Landmarks Commission (1980). "State Street Block - MHC Inventory Form". Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  2. Boston Directory. 1858
  3. Boston Landmarks Inventory File, quoted in: Mary Melvin Petronella, Edward W. Gordon. Victorian Boston today: twelve walking tours. UPNE, 2004; p.10.
  4. Clifton Joseph Furness and Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman Looks at Boston. New England Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jul., 1928), p.357.
  5. Charles Edward Bolton and Charles K. Bolton. A Journey to Maine in 1859. A Diary of Charles Edward Bolton. New England Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Mar., 1936), p.121.
  6. Petronella and Gordon. 2004; p.10.

Further reading
  • Southworth & Southworth. AIA Guide to Boston, 3rd ed. 2008.

Images
  • State St. Block, ca.19th c., looking from waterfront
  • Detail of 1870 overview of Boston, showing Custom House, and State Street Block at waterfront
  • The view of Boston Harbor from State Street Block, ca.19th c.
  • State Street and State Street Block, 2008
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