Revere City Hall and Police Station
Also known as: Revere Town Hall
Why it's listed
At the corner of Broadway and Pleasant Street in Revere, Massachusetts, two red-brick municipal buildings share a landscaped lot. The larger is City Hall, built in 1897-1898 after fire destroyed the 1834 town hall. Boston architects Cobb and Greenleaf designed it in a blend of Classical and Colonial Revival styles, with a copper belfry loosely based on the Choragic Monument in Greece. Its seal, lettering and interior art refer to Paul Revere's ride, and the building was meant as a memorial to him. It was renamed City Hall when Revere became a city in 1915. The second building, the 1909 police station by Hurd and Gore, is a more modest Colonial Revival design whose masonry complements City Hall. The station is now unoccupied, while City Hall remains in government use after a 1998 exterior rehabilitation. Both were built to accommodate horse-drawn vehicles shortly before the automobile age, and they mark Revere's growth from a farming community into a municipality known for its public beach.
Significance in brief: The City Hall is a sophisticated Classical/Colonial Revival design by Boston architects Cobb and Greenleaf, built to commemorate Paul Revere after the previous town hall burned in 1897. The Hurd and Gore police station complements it as a Colonial Revival municipal building. Together they reflect Revere's shift from an agricultural town to a known seaside municipality and were built for horse-drawn vehicles on the eve of the automobile age.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 12000070, listed March 7, 2012. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 281 Broadway & 23 Pleasant St., Revere |
|---|---|
| County | Suffolk County |
| Listed | March 7, 2012 |
| Reference number | 12000070 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architect / builder | Cobb and Greenleaf (Albert W. Cobb and Luther C. Greenleaf), City Hall; Hurd and Gore, Police Station |
| Architectural style | Late 19th/Early 20th Century Revival: Classical/Colonial Revival |
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Art, Community Planning and Development, Politics/Government |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | City Hall still serves as the seat of local government; the police station is described as presently unoccupied. City Hall had a major exterior rehabilitation in 1998. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 42.40967, -71.01213 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For a publicly owned building or structure, listing mainly matters when federal funds, permits or licences are involved: projects then go through Section 106 review so effects on the property are considered. Listing also strengthens applications for preservation grants and, for leased income-producing uses, can enable the federal rehabilitation tax credit.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 12000070.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q16899256
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.