{"nrhp_refnum":"74000382","name":"Ames Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Court St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.358958759000075,"lon":-71.05815331699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-04-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A thirteen-story granite, sandstone and brick office building at One Court Street, corner of Washington Mall and Court Streets, Boston, Massachusetts, completed in 1889 and designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it Boston's first skyscraper and a response to the growing demand for office space in the late 1800s. It is a notable example of Richardsonian Romanesque commercial architecture with Italian Renaissance Revival influence. Its hydraulic elevator plunger extended 126 feet into rock, using the newest elevator technology of its day.","narrative":"Rising thirteen stories and 196 feet at the corner of Washington Mall and Court Streets in Boston, this office building dates to 1889 and was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the successors to Henry Hobson Richardson. A base of massive Milford granite blocks supports a superstructure of Ohio sandstone and brick, with arcaded bays, polychrome mosaic bands and a heavy projecting cornice. It is described as Boston's first skyscraper, built to meet rising demand for office space as business activity grew in the late nineteenth century. Its builders used a hydraulic elevator plunger whose pistons reached 126 feet down into rock. The design mixes Richardsonian Romanesque forms with Italian Renaissance Revival features, and the critic Montgomery Schuyler praised it as a successful adaptation of Romanesque to tall elevator buildings. Interior changes include a divided banking room and a heavily altered ground floor, though some original doors remain. The design also guided the architect of the neighboring Government Center parcel.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1889)","architect_builder":"Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge","architectural_style":"Richardsonian Romanesque with Italian Renaissance Revival influences","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent but altered; ground floor severely altered, banking room divided into two floors, aluminum front doors added in 1952; form marks it occupied and in commercial use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.261127-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7967/63796702/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74000382.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000382/f42e0239f8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000382/f42e0239f8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Kenneth C. Zirkel","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ames_Building,_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:Ames_Building,_Boston,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796702","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q470245"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/ames-building-74000382/"}