Second Brazer Building

Office in Boston, Massachusetts

42°21′31″N 71°03′25″W / 42.358555°N 71.057063°W / 42.358555; -71.057063Completed1897Height125 ft (38 m)Technical detailsFloor count11Design and constructionArchitect(s)Cass GilbertMain contractorGeorge A. Fuller Company

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Architectural styleBeaux ArtsNRHP reference No.86001913^[1]Added to NRHPJuly 24, 1986

The Second Brazer Building is an historic office building at 25-29 State Street in Boston, Massachusetts, with a locally significant early Beaux Arts design.^[2]

The eleven-story skyscraper was designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1897.^[3] It is the only Gilbert work in Boston, and was built in the same year when he won the commission for the Minnesota State Capitol. The building is an early local example of a steel frame structure with curtain walls. It has a trapezoidal plan and is 125 feet in height, with identical fenestration patterns on the northern, eastern, and southern facades. The exterior walls are made of limestone for the first three stories and terra cotta for the upper floors.^[4]

The tower occupies the site of the first meeting house in Boston, erected in 1632; a plaque on the north facade of the building marks its former location. The land was subsequently acquired in the early nineteenth century by John Brazer, a local merchant, and in 1842, his heirs constructed the first Brazer Building, a three-story Greek Revival structure designed by Isaiah Rogers. The original Brazer building stood on the site until 1896, when it was removed to make way for the current tower.^[4]^[5]

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.^[1] It was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission on July 9, 1985.^[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Second Brazer Building.

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
^ "MACRIS inventory record for Second Brazer Building". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
^ "New Methods of Construction: Brazer Building Goes Skyward With Rapidity That is Astonishing". Boston Daily Globe. 26 April 1897. p. 6.
^ ^a ^b "The Second Brazer Building: Boston Landmarks Commission Study Report" (PDF). Boston Landmarks Commission. pp. 2–7. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
^ "New Brazer Building: Handsome Structure to be Erected on State and Devonshire Sts". Boston Daily Globe. 9 November 1896. p. 8.
^ "List of Designated Boston Landmarks" (PDF). Boston Landmarks Commission. p. 1. Retrieved 2014-10-29.

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

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