{"nrhp_refnum":"70000687","name":"Old City Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"School and Providence Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35801311050005,"lon":-71.05941513321112,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-12-30","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1970-12-30","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Old City Hall is a monumentally scaled granite municipal building at School Street and Providence Street in Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1862-65 in the French Second Empire style.","why_significant":"Designed by Gridley J. F. Bryant and Arthur D. Gilman, it was one of the first major structures in the United States built in the French Second Empire style. Its success helped set off a nationwide program of public building in the Second Empire mode during the 1870s and 80s.","narrative":"Old City Hall in Boston is a granite government building at School Street and Providence Street, raised between 1862 and 1865 to designs by Gridley J. F. Bryant and Arthur D. Gilman. Roughly 150 feet wide and 100 feet deep, it rises four stories plus an attic under a tall mansard dome about 156 feet above the street. Its design draws on the Renaissance detail of the Louvre in Paris, with a projecting pedimented central pavilion, paired columns and pilasters, and round-arched windows. Inside, a grand double staircase of iron and oak rises to the fifth story beneath coffered skylights. The building matters because it was among the first major American structures in the French Second Empire style, and its success helped inspire public buildings in that mode across the country in the 1870s and 80s. After a new city hall opened in 1968, plans were made to reuse the old one for shops, restaurants, exhibits and offices, and renovation was underway at the time of listing.","period_of_significance":"1862-65","architect_builder":"Gridley J. F. Bryant and Arthur D. Gilman","architectural_style":"French Second Empire","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition and undergoing renovation for reuse with restaurants, retail stores and exhibit space on the ground floor and offices above; expected to open to visitors when work is completed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.831138-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/37/7938/63793837/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/70000687_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000687/f4358d38f6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000687/f4358d38f6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Kenneth C. Zirkel","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_City_Hall_in_Boston,_Massachusetts.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kenneth C. Zirkel</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_City_Hall_in_Boston,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793837","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_Hall_(Boston)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083686"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/old-city-hall-70000687/"}