The Bedford Block or Bedford Building is an historic commercial building at 99 Bedford Street

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, in an area called Church Green. Built in 1875 to a design by

Charles Amos Cummings Charles Amos Cummings (June 26, 1833 – August 11, 1905) was a nineteenth-century American architect and architectural historian who worked primarily in the Venetian Gothic style. Cummings followed the precepts of British cultural theoris ...

and

Willard T. Sears Willard Thomas Sears (November 5, 1837 – May 21, 1920) was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles. In 1861, Sears opened ...

, it is a rare local example of a style promoted by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

called

Venetian Gothic Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...

. The building was added to the

National Historic Register The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1979.

Description and history

The Bedford Block is located in the southern part of Boston's downtown, at the northeast corner of Bedford and Lincoln Streets facing the triangular intersection known as Church Green. The Bedford Block's exterior is constructed of

polychromatic Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and a ...

bands of

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

red

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, Tuckahoen marble, and pressed terra-cotta panels manufactured in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It was the first building after the Great Fire to use

red

as a material. The first floor features rough rustic blocks. Upper floor details include arched bay windows, Viollet-le-Duc inspired iron

balconet Balconet or balconette is an architectural term to describe a false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window-opening reaching to the floor, and having, when the window is open, the appearance of a balcony. They are common in France, Por ...

s and flat column

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. Each roof gable is topped with a

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

crown. There is a glazed tile clock is located in a 5-story tower at the northeast corner. The building was designed by

and

for Henry and Francis Lee as a retail shoe center in an area that had been destroyed by the

Great Boston Fire of 1872 The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a co ...

. It included fire-prevention features added to Boston's building codes in the wake of the fire, including fire blocking internal brick walls. The building was renovated in 1983 in conjunction with the Bay-Bedford Company.

Footnotes

References

*Morgan, Keith N., editor, Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, et al. ''Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston.'' University of Virginia Press: 2009. . *Placzek, Adolf K. Macmillan. ''Encyclopedia of Architects.'' 4 vols. Free Press: 1982. . *Shand-Tucci, Douglas. ''Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800–2000.'' The

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

: 1999. . *Withey, Henry F. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased).'' Hennessey & Ingalls: 1970. {{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Commercial blocks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Cummings and Sears buildings Buildings and structures in Boston Commercial buildings completed in 1875 Neoclassical architecture in Massachusetts Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts Victorian architecture in Massachusetts Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Boston

Description and history

See also

Footnotes

References