A Brief Survey of the Architectural History of the Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts1

A Brief Survey of the Architectural History of the Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts1 SARA B. CHASE* ven before they built their first governmental bodies. The Royal Governor structure to house a merchants ’ ex- and his Council met in a chamber at the east E change and government meeting end of the second floor, while the General hall, the early settlers of Boston had Assembly of the Province, with representa- selected a site near Long Wharf for a tives from each town, met in a larger marketplace. Early in 1658 they built there chamber in the middle of the second floor. a medieval half-timbered Town House. At the west end of the second floor was a That building, the first Boston Town smaller chamber where both the superior House, burned to the ground in October, and the inferior courts of Suffolk County 1711. It was replaced by a brick building, held sessions. Until 1742 when they moved erected on the same site. This building, like to Faneuil Hall, Bostons’ Selectmen met in the earlier Town House, had a “merchants’ the middle (or representatives)’ chamber walk” on the first floor and meeting cham- and used a few finished rooms on the third bers for the various colonial government floor for committee meetings. bodies on the second floor. The first floor served primarily as a mer- Although this new building was called by chants ’ exchange, as it had in the previous various names--the Court House, the Town House. Situated less than one- Second Town House, the Province House quarter mile from Long Wharf, the Old (not to be confused with the Peter Sergeant State House was a convenient first stop for House which was also called by that name) ships ’ captains when they landed in Bos- --the name most frequently used in refer- ton. Documents from the period indicate ences of the period is the State House. The that there was also, at least briefly, a post designer of the 1712 State House is not office on the first floor of the State House known, but records indicate that William and two small offices for Province and Payne, of whom little is known, was the county records. builder. In May, 1712, a stone was laid at the Some features of the exterior appearance comer of the site and construction com- of the State House in the years between menced. Samuel Sewall, who recorded in 1712 and 1747 can be seen in engraved views his Diury that he carved his initials in the of Boston. No representations of the entire stone, also recorded the opening of the first building dating to that period are known, court sessions in the newly completed but the upper stories of the State House can State House in April, 1713; he also men- be seen rather well, even though the views tioned the large and “costly” windows.2 are crowded (Figs. I and 2). In the center Construction costs of five thousand pounds were shared: the Province paid one-half; the Town of Boston and Suffolk *Sara B. Chase is an architectural researcher in County each paid one-quarter. This appor- the Consulting Services Group of the tionment approximated the relative share S.P.N.E.A. She holds a masters degree in pres- of use of the building by the three separate ervation studies from Boston University. 31 32 Old-Time New England FIG. 1. DETAIL OF KING STREET SHOWING THE OLD STATE HOUSE (circled). From John Banner,“ The Town of Boston in New England” (Boston, 1722: SPNEA Archives). of the roof there appears to be an open Under the balcony a doorway from the first octagonaltower topped by a swallow-tailed floor opened onto a large granite platform banner weathervane. The roof, shown with and steps down to the street. Like the a balustrade above the dormers, may well balcony above, the stepsalso served a civic have been a gambrel roof (cf. Harvard Hall, purpose. Public disgracewas one means of the First Church, the Peter Sergeant punishment in early America, and at least House). These early views from the Harbor one forger was forced to stand on the steps show the east facade with the familiar of the Old State House. There, every im- steppedgables, scrolls in the gable steps, a portant Boston merchant and many foreign sundial flanked by “ox-eye” windows in traders would be sure to see him as he stood the gable peak, and a secondfloor balcony. between the hours of twelve and one The balcony, which opened from the o’clock wearing a large square of paper on Council Chamber, provided a prominent his chest, labeled “CHEAT.” place for public announcements. The War Celebrations and commemorations were of the Spanish Successionwas announced observed frequently in the Council from this balcony in 1740, and a call for Chamber. Queen Anne’s death occasioned volunteers was issued. The colonial volun- a solemn observance; King George’s coro- teers, who won a significant victory at the nation was celebrated with ample quan- fortress of Louisburg in Nova Scotia, later tities of wine, brandy, and biscuit. A regu- usedtheir military experience in the war for lar feature of such celebrations was the their own independence from England. “illumination” of the Old State House. Architectural History of the Old State House on the same site. What remained of the older brick walls was incorporated into the new structure, which had the same dimensions. The exterior appearance of the State House in the period of its greatest political importance, 1748 to about 1800, is more fully documented. The earliest known view of the building by itself was engraved in 1751from a drawing by Thomas Dawes, Jr. (Fig. 3). Dawes, who worked on the State House a number of times during his career as a mason, showed only the south eleva- tion of the building but portrayed it in great detail. The major exterior changes evi- denced by his drawing are in the design of the roof and the tower. A pitched roof and a three-stage square tower had replaced the earlier octagonal tower and gambrel roof. Subsequent views show that this roof design, which gave the building a rather pro- vincial Wren-baroque appearance, remained intact until about 1870 with few alterations. A politically significant alteration shown in Dawes’s engraving is the replacement of the scroll by a lion rampant in the southern FIG. 2. DETAIL SHOWING THE OLD step of the east gable. Presumably, as is STATE HOUSE. From William Burgis, “A South East View of the Great Town of Boston shown in later eighteenth-century views, a . ” (Boston, 1743:Photograph courtesy of the unicorn standsopposite. Dawes also shows American Antiquarian Society). clearly, if not necessarily accurately, the details of the central doorway in the south facade, twelve-over-twelve sash, and Candles were placed in specially made doorways and bulkheads opening into the “strips” in every window and must have basement. given the building a resplendent glow. Wine The interior of the State House as it was for the celebrations might have been car- rebuilt in 1748may well have had substan- ried up from the basement, as records indi- tially the same plan as it had in the 1712 cate that the Old State House cellar was build, with three chambers and their an- rented to wine merchants as early as 1714, terooms on the second floor, a large open and for at least 140 years thereafter. space on the first floor, and two stairways In December, 1747, after a period of in- leading from first to secondfloor. No origi- tense cold weather,fire again destroyedthe nal drawings of the 1748 plan have ap- State House. One writer lamented that the peared, but, given the framing of the build- “beautiful building was consumed utterly ing, the speculative plans and dimensions . except for the outer brick walls.“3 AS of the second floor according to a later before, re-building took place within a year source seem plausible. 34 Old-Time New England Hugh Morrison described the plan of the given credence by the structural system of second floor in Early American Architec- the Old State House. Physical evidence ture: makes clear that the extant roof trusses date from the mid-eighteenth century. Access to the second floor was by two There are ten trusses, each of which de- staircasesleading to hallways between the three main rooms. Of these, the east- fines a structural plane. The planes can be ernmost, a room 32 feet square [served]as thought of as extending down to the base- the Council Chamber. In the middle of ment directly below each truss. In local the building was the Representatives ’ eighteenth-century construction major Chambermeasuring 32 by 38 feet with small room partitions are apt to be located along lobbiesin the stair hall at either side. The westernmostroom, measuringabout 22 by the girders that define the structural 32 feet, was the Court Chamber. ’ planes. Partitions that defined stair halls could then pass up between stories beside Edgar T. P. Walker, Consulting Architect in girders and thus present an uninterrupted 1956 for the Boston National Historic Sites plaster surfacethroughout the height of the Commission, drew a plan which shows stair. The locations of room partitions and how the second floor might have been laid the consequent stair partitions in the plans out (Fig. 4). described above would very nearly corre- A description of the State House in 1791 spond to several of the structural planes. also mentions a Council Chamber which The speculative plan thus seemsnot unrea- measured thirty-two feet by thirty-two sonable as a representation of the second feet, with a lobby or anteroom: floor in the mid-eighteenth century.

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