National Register of Historic Places

Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block

Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Listed
August 8, 1986
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
86001486

About this property

Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block are a pair of adjacent historic buildings located along Cornhill in Boston, Massachusetts. It is adjacent to City Hall and Government Center, and is part of City Hall Plaza. Sears' Crescent was constructed in 1816 as a series of Federal period commercial rowhouses. Around 1860 these were given a unified curving facade with Italianate styling. The Sears' Block, built in 1848, is a rare surviving instance of granite post-and-lintel construction. Both buildings were developed by David Sears, a leading mid-19th-century developer of Boston who was responsible for the filling of Back Bay. They are the only buildings that remain on the original route of Cornhill, one of Boston's oldest streets, most of whose route has been lost or obscured by urban renewal. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The Sears' Block is now the location of the "Steaming Tea Kettle", an 1873 trade sign commissioned by the Oriental Tea Company that was located on a Court Street building demolished in 1967 during the construction of Government Center. The kettle was refurbished and reinstalled in 2016 after being damaged, apparently by a truck. Sears' Crescent was acquired in 2016 by Chevron Partners.

Location

38--68 and 70--72 Cornhill
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
42.35948, -71.05902

Categories

COMMERCEARCHITECTURE
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

Ames Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Old City Hall
Industrial
0.1 mi
Old State House
Industrial
0.1 mi
John Adams Courthouse
Industrial
0.1 mi
Second Brazer Building
Industrial
0.1 mi

Nearby Battles

Siege of Boston
1775Revolutionary War
0 mi

Questions about this property

When was Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block listed on the National Register?

Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 8, 1986.

What type of historic resource is Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block?

Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block?

The period of significance for Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block is recorded as the industrial era.

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