Custom House District

This 15.9-acre district in downtown Boston grew from the city's old waterfront, where State Street, Long Wharf, Broad Street and Milk Street met the harbor. In 1805 the Broad Street Association, led by Uriah Cotting with Charles Bulfinch as planner, filled land south of Long Wharf and laid out wide streets lined with uniform brick buildings. The oldest surviving buildings, from about 1810, are four-story Federal-style structures on Broad and Milk Streets, along with the remaining units of Central Wharf of 1819. Later additions include the Greek Revival Custom House by Ammi B. Young, built 1834-47 and topped by a tower in 1913-15, the Romanesque Revival Grain and Flour Exchange, massive granite warehouses, mansard-roofed Victorian buildings, and a cast-iron storefront. The district was listed because it shows how planned development allowed a varied but cohesive group of commercial buildings to evolve alongside Boston's mercantile growth.