{"nrhp_refnum":"66000779","name":"Old State House","other_names":["Second Town House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Washington and State Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35871148500004,"lon":-71.05748257410181,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1960-10-09","areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick Georgian public building at the corner of Washington and State Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1712-13 as Boston's Second Town House and rebuilt in 1748 after a fire; the original architect is unknown.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the oldest surviving public building of Georgian design in the United States. It housed colonial and later state government and was the setting for events leading to the Revolution, including James Otis's 1761 argument against the Writs of Assistance and the 1770 Boston Massacre outside its east end. The Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston from its balcony in 1776.","narrative":"Standing at the corner of Washington and State Streets in Boston, the Old State House was built in 1712-13 as the city's Second Town House, replacing a wooden predecessor lost in the fire of 1711. It housed town, county and provincial government. Fire gutted it again in 1747, and it was rebuilt in 1748 within the surviving walls. The nomination describes it as the oldest surviving public building of Georgian design in the United States. Events tied to the road to revolution took place here: the 1761 argument by James Otis against the Writs of Assistance, the 1770 Boston Massacre at its east end, and the first Boston reading of the Declaration of Independence from its balcony in 1776. It served as the Massachusetts State House until 1798. Isaiah Rogers remodeled it in 1830 for use as City Hall. After a threat of demolition in the 1870s, it was restored in 1881-82 and now operates as a museum run by the Bostonian Society.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799","architect_builder":"Original work unknown; 1830 renovation by Isaiah Rogers","architectural_style":"Georgian (Late Georgian as rebuilt in 1748)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and used as a museum, owned by the City of Boston and leased to the Bostonian Society; open to the public.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:59:18.097047-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/61/7938/63793861/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000779_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000779/1aed3d5544-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000779/1aed3d5544-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.5","author":"Daniel Schwen","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_Old_State_House_1_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Schwen</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA_Old_State_House_1_MA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"15000195","name":"Boston National Historical Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/boston-national-historical-park-15000195/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793861","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_State_House_(Boston)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1320533"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/old-state-house-66000779/"}