{"nrhp_refnum":"86001909","name":"Filene's Department Store","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"426 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35513611300007,"lon":-71.06039609099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-07-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Filene's Department Store is a large, eight-story Beaux Arts commercial building at 426 Washington Street in Boston's Downtown Crossing retail district, built in 1911-1912 to designs by Daniel H. Burnham & Co.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the city's best examples of early 20th century Beaux Arts commercial architecture and the last major work of Daniel H. Burnham. It has also housed one of Boston's oldest and largest department stores since it was built. Filene's was a pioneer in merchandising, labor and distribution practices during the great age of department stores.","narrative":"Filene's Department Store, at 426 Washington Street in Boston, is an eight-story steel-framed building clad in glazed terra cotta and brick, completed in 1912 and designed by Daniel H. Burnham & Co. of Chicago. Light gray terra cotta imitating granite frames a dark green grid of piers and spandrels with Chicago windows, and classical ornament such as lion heads, cartouches and garlands crowns the upper floors. The grid expressed the structure and admitted maximum light and air, which made the building seem modern in its day. It was Burnham's last major work. It also housed one of Boston's oldest and largest department stores, known for the Automatic Bargain Basement, employee profit sharing, an elected board of arbitration, a direct link from the basement to the subway, and the first store-wide air conditioning in New England. The upper stories remain largely intact, although the street-level storefront was altered in 1951.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific dates 1911-1912)","architect_builder":"Daniel H. Burnham & Co.; Wells Brothers and Co. of New York, contractors; Parker, Thomas, and Rice, consulting architects","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts commercial","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a department store; the storefront level was modernized in 1951, and a 1972-73 addition to the north is not part of the nominated property.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.39647-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/7967/63796742/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001909.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001909/e5f0971763-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001909/e5f0971763-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Swampyank at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filenes_Department_Store_Boston.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Swampyank at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filenes_Department_Store_Boston.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796742","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filene%27s_Department_Store","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5448382"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/filenes-department-store-86001909/"}