ARCHITECTURES IN BOSTON

BY NUNTACHAT MONGKOLCHAI
One of America’s oldest continuously occupied cities,
Boston is made up of buildings constructed in many
different ways over a period of more than three centuries.
New architectural styles appeared while others became
old-fashioned and died out, but sometimes buildings in
different styles were built at the same time. Familiarize
yourself with the styles of various periods and the city’s
layers of history will explain themselves to you as you
stroll through any Boston neighborhood.
The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge
 The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill
Memorial Bridge



The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge is one of the
widest cable-stayed bridges in the world. The Bridge serves as the
northern entrance to and exit from Boston. The Bridge is named after civil
rights activist Lenny Zakim and the American colonists who fought the
British in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

I chose this architecture because the Zakim Bridge is a very

impressive modern structure and it is part of The Big Dig Project in
Boston. The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge is quickly
becoming one of the most iconic landmarks of Boston, notable for
exceptional design and functionality.

This magnificent structure stand as a symbol of unity, hope and

respect for all Bostonians. They celebrated the ideals of patriotism,
freedom and diversity by dedicating this bridge in their honor. This remind
all of the difference that one person's decision to stand up to injustice and
fight for freedom, respect and diversity can make in the lives of others
and in the history of nation.

www.leonardpzakimbunkerhillbridge.org
Quincy Market
 I’ve heard about Faneuil Hall Marketplace or called Quincy Market before. It offers 100+ stores, artisan
pushcarts, restaurants, and pubs right on Boston's famed Freedom Trail.


Faneuil Marketplace consists of four historic buildings dating back to the 1800s, including Quincy Market
Quincy Market and Freedom Trail site, Faneuil Hall where the Boston Tea Party rebellion against British Taxation began.

Opened in 1826 to the public, Quincy Market is still serving both locals and visitors of Boston today.
Its role has changed from fresh produce retail originally to wholesale and then become a festival marketplace
in the 70s.
www.quincymarket.com
The Old State House
 The Old State House

The Old State House is the oldest and most important public building in
American history prior to the Revolution. It has stood as an emblem of liberty
in Boston for over 300 years! Built in 1713 to house the colony’s government.
It stands on the site of Boston's first Town House of 1657-8, which was
destroyed by fire in 1711. As the center of civic, political, and business life,
the Old State House was a natural meeting place for the exchange of
economic and local news that sparked the American Revolution. The National
Historic Sites Commission has called the Old State House one of the most
important public buildings in Colonial America.

www.bostonhistory.com
South Station
 South Station

South Station is Boston's downtown railroad terminal serving Amtrak

and MBTA commuter rail lines to points south and west. There are
underground connections to the subway system with platforms on the
Red and Silver Lines. South Station is the largest railroad terminal in New
England in terms of traffic, and the building itself is a National Historic
Place. The main station, or Head House, was completely renovated in the
1980s, which revitalized the building and allowed the management
company to lease a variety of specialty shops and offer public exhibits
and concerts.

South Station opened on January 1, 1899 with great fanfare. The

building was reportedly the largest railroad station in the world at that
time. By the 1960s, South Station was dilapidated and slated for
demolition. The building was a haven for homeless people, with
abandoned office spaces, storage vaults, and tunnels. The infamous
murder of a six-year old boy took place here in 1970. Thankfully, the
MBTA purchased the building in 1978, and a multi-million dollar
renovation took place from 1984 to 1989. The Head House (main station)
and Train Shed (berths) were completely upgraded to modern standards,
with much of the historic original main building preserved. Today, there
are several eateries and shops located in South Station, as well as public
exhibits and concerts in the rejuvenated Grand Concourse.

www.celebrateboston.com
Old South Meeting House
 Old South Meeting House

On December 16, 1773, more than 5,000 colonists met at Old South Meeting
House to decide the fate of three shiploads of Tea Docked in Boston Harbor

When the Old South Meeting House was built in 1729, its Puritan congregation
could not foresee the role it would play in American history. In colonial times,
statesman Benjamin Franklin was baptized here. Phillis Wheatley, the first
published black poet, was a member, as were patriots James Otis, Thomas
Cushing, and William Dawes. When rumblings started to shake the colonies and
the Revolution grew imminent, patriots flocked to Old South to debate the most
pressing issues of the day. They argued about the Boston Massacre, and they
protested impressment of American sailors into the British Navy. And then, on the
night of December 16, 1773, they acted. Some 5,000 angry colonists gathered at
Old South to protest a tax on tea. When the negotiations failed, disguised men took
action and destroyed over 1.5 million dollars worth of tea in today's money.



The punishment for the Boston Tea Party meant a return of British soldiers, a
closure of the economically vital Boston Harbor, and many restrictions to local
government and public meetings by June of 1774. War broke out hardly a year after
this punishment for the Tea Party took place. During the occupation of Boston by
British troops, the British avenged the night of the tea party by turning Old South
into a riding stable. They ripped out the pews, installed a bar in the first balcony,
and used Old South as a riding school for the British Cavalry. Though the British
forces evacuated Boston in the March of 1776, it wasn't until 1783 that Old South
was at last restored by the congregation as a place of worship.



A century later, and after surviving the 1872 Great Fire of Boston, the Old
South congregation sold the building and moved to Boston's Back Bay
neighborhood. Old South narrowly escaped the wrecking ball as a result of one of
the first successful efforts to preserve a historic structure. Leaders in the effort were
philanthropist Mary Hemenway, abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and the writers Julia
Ward Howe and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The movement to save Old South helped
to usher in the nation's historic preservation movement, which has led to the
preservation of thousands of historically significant buildings nationwide.



Since 1877, Old South has served as a museum, historic site, educational
institution, and a sanctuary for free speech. In the 1920s, Old South enacted a
policy to grant the use of the building to groups otherwise denied a public platform.
Old South continues to serve as a catalyst for intellectual thought and energy by
sponsoring public forums, debates, concerts and theatrical presentations year
round. It's ongoing exhibit "Voices of Protest" tells the inspiring, sometimes
disturbing, and frequently controversial story of the Old South Meeting House
through the voices of the men and women whose achievements have shaped its
history.
www.nps.gov
Boston Public Library (BPL)
 Boston Public Library (BPL)

Established in 1848, by an act of the Great and General Court of

Massachusetts, the Boston Public Library (BPL) was the first large free
municipal library in the United States. The Boston Public Library's first
building of its own was a former schoolhouse located on Mason Street
that was opened to the public on March 20, 1854. The library's collections
approximated 16,000 volumes, and it was obvious from the day the doors
were first opened that the quarters were inadequate.

In December of that same year the library's Commissioners were

authorized to locate a new building upon a lot on Boylston Street. The
present Copley Square location has been home to the library since 1895,
when architect Charles Follen McKim completed his "palace for the
people."


Intended as a “palace for the people,” the granite Renaissance
Revival building, with its grand architecture, cathedral-like reading halls,
and lavish art collection, became an influential example of what a civic
building could aspire to achieve.



Inside, murals by John Singer Sargent and sculptures by other
notable American artists make the library a destination for art lovers. This
artist-architect collaboration (seen also in Trinity Church) became a model
for other civic buildings in the decades to come.



A 1972 addition by architect Philip Johnson further sealed the
Boston Public Library’s reputation as an important architectural
achievement.

www.bpl.org

www.freetourbyfoot.com
Trinity Church
 Built from 1872 to 1877, Trinity Church is part of the Episcopal Diocese of The church actually rests on over 4,000 wooden piles that were put underneath
Massachusetts parish. After the parish’s church on Summer Street had burned down fill and clay to keep the church’s foundation strong. Inside Trinity Church, there are
in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, construction on the new church began – one in the brightly colored murals that cover over 20,000 square feet (nearly 2,000 meters
shape of a modified Greek cross – under the direction of Rector Phillips Brooks, a squared). While the windows were clear glass at first, they are now beautiful stained-
well-known preacher at the time.
 glass murals. The church is considered one of the “Ten Most Significant Buildings in
the United States” and is the only church in the nation with that honor.
Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in a Richardsonian Romanesque style,
Trinity Church is considered the birthplace of this architectural style, and its signature
features include a clay roof, arches, rough stones, and towers. The style has since
been used in many other buildings in the United States.




www.theculturetrip.com
Paul Revere House
Paul Revere House

Built around 1680, the Paul Revere House is the oldest remaining structure in downtown Boston and the only home on the Freedom Trail. Paul Revere
purchased the former merchant's dwelling in 1770, when he was 35 years old. He and his family lived here when Revere made his famous messenger ride to
Lexington on the night of April 18-19, 1775 that would be immortalized by Longfellow’s famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride.
At various times, Revere shared this house with his mother and nine of his children from two marriages. His first wife, Sarah, died following the birth of their eighth
child and Rachel, his second wife, bore him another eight. Throughout the 19th-century the home served as a boardinghouse for sailors and tenement for Irish,
Jewish, and Italian immigrants who lived in the North End.

www.paulreverehouse.org
Worcester Art Museum
 Founded in 1896, the Worcester Art Museum’s encyclopedic 37,500 piece collection covers 51 centuries of art. Highlights include
the Medieval Chapter House, Renaissance Court, and Worcester Hunt Mosaic, as well as the recently integrated John Woodman
Higgins Armory Collection of arms and armor. The Museum is internationally known for its collection of European and American art. It
was the first in America to acquire paintings by Monet and Gauguin and one of the first to collect photography. As the first U.S. museum
to focus on collaborating with local schools, it has been at the forefront of engaging audiences and giving them a meaningful and
personal experience.


www.worcesterart.org
Boston Athenaeum
 Founded in 1807, the Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest and most distinguished independent libraries and cultural institutions in the United States. It
grew out of a slightly earlier organization known as the Anthology Society which had been formed in 1805 by a group of Bostonians with the primary purpose of
producing a magazine that they called The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. In creating the Boston Athenæum, their purpose was to form "an establishment
similar to that of the Athenæum and Lyceum of Liverpool in Great Britain; combining the advantages of a public library [and] containing the great works of learning
and science in all languages." The new Athenæum flourished in culture-starved Boston and, as it voraciously acquired books, art, and artifacts, it grew rapidly. In
1827, it added an Art Gallery and began a series of yearly exhibitions of American and European art. For nearly half a century the Athenæum was the
unchallenged center of intellectual life in Boston, and by 1851, had become one of the largest libraries in the United States. Today its collections comprise over
half a million volumes, with particular strengths in Boston history, New England state and local history, biography, English and American literature, and the fine and
decorative arts. The Athenæum supports a dynamic exhibition program and sponsors a lively variety of events such as lectures and concerts. It also serves as a
stimulating center for discussions among scholars, bibliophiles, and a variety of community-interest groups.

www.bostonathenaeum.org