National Register of Historic Places

Roughan Hall

Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 14, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82004448

About this property

Roughan Hall is a historic commercial building at 10 City Square, the historic central square of the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1892 and enlarged in 1896, it is the square's only surviving 19th-century commercial building, and a distinctive example of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival architecture. Its upper levels now serve as the headquarters of the Appalachian Mountain Club. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. City Square is a public park at the southern end of the Charlestown peninsula, lined on the southwest and southeast by major traffic arteries. Roughan Hall is located on the park's northeast side, between Main and Park Streets. It is a four-story yellow brick building, with cast-iron storefronts on the ground level, and a limestone-framed entry to the upper floors, which historically housed offices and a large auditorium. The main facade is four bays wide, with the leftmost bay set at a slight angle, owing in part to an odd lot shape. The second and third floor windows of three of the bays are surrounded by decorative brickwork, and the fourth-floor windows are tall rounded arches with terra cotta surrounds. The building cornice includes a series of blind arches surmounted by brick corbelling. The building was designed by Arthur H. Vinal and built in 1892 for Michael Roughan, a prominent local businessman and philanthropist. At the time, the square was completely encircled by commercial and civic buildings. The building housed Roughan's liquor store on the ground floor, and the top-floor hall was used primarily by social and fraternal organizations. In 1989, the ground floor space was converted for use as a restaurant and housed Todd English's Olives from 1989 to 2013, which was replaced by Legal Oysteria in 2014. The building was purchased by the Appalachian Mountain Club in 2016, which occupies its upper floors as of September 2017. National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts

Location

15-18 City Sq.
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
42.37231, -71.06175

Categories

COMMERCEENGINEERINGARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORY
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Town Hill District
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0.1 mi
Hoosac Stores 1 & 2-Hoosac Stores 3
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0.2 mi
U.S.S. CONSTITUTION
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0.3 mi
Monument Square Historic District
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Bunker Hill Monument
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0.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Bunker Hill — Breed's Hill
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi
Bunker Hill — Prescott's Redoubt
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi
Battle of Bunker Hill — Breed's Hill Second Assault
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi
Battle of Bunker Hill
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi
Battle of Breed's Hill
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Roughan Hall listed on the National Register?

Roughan Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1982.

What type of historic resource is Roughan Hall?

Roughan Hall is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Roughan Hall?

The period of significance for Roughan Hall is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Roughan Hall?

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