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

Home , History of Boston, Old State House (Boston)

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 elevation 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 provincial 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. The first floor was more open in plan. It The StateHouse is an elegant brick build- was used by the Ancient and Honorable ing, standingat the headof State Street. . . . It is I IOfeet in lengthand 38 in breadth. The Artillery for drills when the weather was foundationsof the present walls were laid bad, but it was also the sceneof less orderly A.D. 1712,the former State House having activities. The House of Representativesin beenreduced to ashesin the greatfiie of the 1784voted that the Suffolk County Sheriff preceding year. The internal part of this building again experienced the desolating or one of his deputies should “attend at the flame in 1747,when a vast numberof ancient State House” because books and early records, together with a collection of valuable papers, were de- the General Court have been much inter- stroyed. . . . The Senate Chamberis 32 feet rupted by the disorderly Conduct of a squareand I5 feet in height,furnished with a numberof personswho dayley assemble on convenientlobby for committeesto transact thelower floor of the State House which not businessin. The Representatives ’ Chamber only impedesthe publick Business,but is an is 57Yzfeet in length, 32 in breadth, and the Indignity offered to Government.6 same height as the former, with a well- constructedlobby.5 In the cellar, space continued to be rented, as before. A “copper engine,” first The added length of the Representatives’ mentioned in 1733, occupied some of the Chamber cited above represents an en- space in the basement of the Old State largement made in 1776 to accommodate House. Quite possibly the engine held the newly-formed state’s increasednumber water for putting out fires; if so, the base- of representatives. ment of the Old State House in the Although no other documentary sources eighteenth century served as a fire station are known against which Morrison’s de- as well as a wine cellar. scription can be tested, his statement is The exterior of the Old State House Architectural History of the Old State House 35

FIG. 3. “SOUTH PROSPECT OF THE COURTHOUSE IN BOSTON” by Thomas Dawes, Jr., and Nathaniel Hurd. (Boston, 1751:Photograph courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)

FIG. 4. “PROPOSED RESTORATION OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE . . . SECOND FLOOR PLAN, 1956.” From Edgar T. P. Walker, Final Draft of the Report of the Boston National Historic Sites Commission, p. 487. (Photograph courtesy of the Bostonian Society.) Old-Time New England underwent a transformation in 1773, being stead, baroque scrolls appeared. This view “fitted up in a most elegant manner with of the Old State House, in fact, shows the the whole of the outside painted of a stone appearanceof the building at the climax of color which gives it a fine appearance.“7 its period of greatest political importance. Recently uncovered paint evidence indi- After the Massachusetts state govem- cates that the building had been painted ment moved to the Bulfinch State House in ochres and buffs earlier. Documentary as 1798, the fate of the Old State House was well as paint evidence strongly suggests uncertain. After four years of negotiations that the exterior remained painted through with the State, the Selectmen of Boston, on 1909.An oil painting of the Old State House behalf of the town, paid the State six by James B. Marston (Cover) shows the thousand dollars for title to the Old State building painted a handsome ochre color House in 1803. The Boston Selectmen, in with white trim. The east gable steps were turn, decided not to sell the Old State no longer adorned with the lion and uni- House since “the purposes for which it corn, which were tom down and burned might and probably would be occupied with the other royal symbols in 1776; in- would tend greatly to encumber the most

FIG. 5. “A SW. VIEW OF THE STATEHOUSE, IN BOSTON” by S. Hill. FromMassachusetts Magazine, vol. 10, no. 8 (1793:SPNEA Archives). Architectural History of the Old State House 37 frequented street in the Town, which is in cates another significantly revised feature its present state not of sufficient width for on the east facade (Fig. 8). In the peak of public accommodation.“8 the gable the eighteenth-century sundial The Town decided instead to lease the has been replaced by a clock-face. Simon Old State House. The terms of the lease Willard signed the clockworks installed a most directly relevant to the fabric of the little later, in 1830. The original Willard building include what might be considered clockworks are still in place and intact in an early form of preservation restriction. It the Old State House, even though the states that clock-face was replaced by a sundial in 1957. . . . it would be for the interest ofthe Townto The first period of commercial use of the lease the Old State House for a term of time Old State House closedin May, 1830,when not less than ten nor to exceed fifty years, and the rent to be paid quarterly or annually; the Boston City Council decided that the and that it be a condition of the Lease that Old State House should be adapted for use the house be put intogood repair and kept so as the City Hall. The Joint Committee on during the term for which it may be leased Repairs of the Old State House was or- by and at the expense of the Lessee and dered by the Council to put the building shall be occupied for public or private offices and such other purposes only as the into good condition for use by the City of Selectmen for the time being shall approve Boston. The building was to be treated in a of, and that no alteration be made in the manner suitable to the edifice and creditable external form of the building without their to the City. . . .I ’ approbation. . . .9 The architect responsible for the “suitable” and “creditable” 1830 remodelling Alterations did occur, however, as com- was Isaiah Rogers, assisted by William mercial use of the Old State House in- Washburn. Rogers, whosefirst noteworthy creased. Classical Revival building, the Tremont Most of the interior space on the first House, had been completed only a year floor of the Old State House was sub- earlier, revised the east and west facadesby divided for shops and offices during the adding Doric porticos. A “fat-simile” of a period 1800-29. Mrs. Charles Bulfinch plan made by Isaiah Rogers was printed in wrote in a letter in 1804, “The Old Town 1882(Fig. 9). House is neatly fitted up and divided into The RogersPlan shows,in addition to the shopsand stores, where are all the varieties east portico elevation, the first and second of manufacturersfrom different parts of the floor spacesof the Old State House which world, to draw attention of the young and Abel Bowen described in his 1838Picture gay.“lO of Boston: The trade card of William Barry, who kept a shop in the Old State House from Beingin the very focus of business and 1807to 1829,shows the west facade (Wash- nearly in the centre of the city. the use to ington Street) as it was altered to accom- which this venerable pile is now devoted appears to give universal satisfaction. modate his business (Fig. 6). The east On the first floor are three large rooms; facade was also altered, as an engraving by that facing Washington street is the Post- Abel Bowen, published in 1817,shows (Fig. Office. At the other extremity, looking 7). The large stone stairway from the down State street, is Topliff s News Room, one of the best conducted establishments, street to the first floor was removed, and for the accommodation of merchants, in the the basement openings were changed. United States. The middle room, a lofty An engraving printed a little later indi- apartment, supported by pillars, is the 38 Old-Time New England

FIG. 6. TRADE CARD OF WILLIAM FIG. 7. EAST AND NORTH FACADES OF BARRY SHOWING WEST AND SOUTH THE OLD STATE HOUSE. From Charles FACADES OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE en- Shaw, A Topographical and Historical Descrip- graved by Abel Bowen, c. 1807-29. (Photograph rion of Boston, frontispiece (Boston, 1817: courtesy of Richard C. Nylander.) SPNEA Archives).

FIG. 8. “VIEW OF STATE STREET & OLD STATE HOUSE” SHOWING EAST AND NORTH FACADES. From Caleb H. Snow, A History of Boston, facing p. 280 (Boston, 1825: SPNEA Archives). Architectural History of the Old State House 39

FIG. 9. ROGERS’S PLAN OF THE FIRST AND SECOND FLOORS OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, 1830. From the Re-dedicationof the Old State House, Boston, July II, 1882.

Merchants’ Exchange, and common Old State House were also criticized. “In thoroughfareto the public offices. point of appearance, the Old State House From this central room is a Sight of wind- ing stairs, leadingto a suite of apartmentsin will not be improved by the change . . . the second story. Directly over the Post- mutations brought about for show, are the Office [on the west] is the Hall of the Com- means of losing as much as they gain for the mon Council, in which they ordinarily meet edifice. It is like plastering and painting a on public business. In the opposite end of matron very far in years.“lj the building [the east] is the Hall of the Mayor and Aldermen. In this room the chief The Old State House ceased to be the Magistrateof the city, togetherwith the City City Hall after ten years, and city govem- Clerk, remain through the day, in the dis- ment offices moved out in 1841.During the charge of their ordinary duties.12 four decades which followed, commercial The Classical Revival revisions of the use of the Old State House increased, while Old State House drew strong criticism from exterior maintenance declined. In the late contemporary newspapers and journals. 1840’s two firms located in the Old State Both financial and aesthetic objections House put signs on the building and por- were voiced. The cost ran to twenty-five trayed the building in their advertisements. thousand dollars and as one writer points Located in the eastern end of the building out in the New England Palladium, the was Brown, Lawrence, and Stickney, a expense was compounded by the loss of cloth and clothing company (Fig. 12). They most of the building’s former rental in- evidently altered the basement openings to come. The new architectural features of the accommodate their store. On the western 40 Old-Time New England

FIG. 10. “VIEW OF THE POST OFFICE, CITY HALL, &c TAKEN FROM THE S.W. IN WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON” SHOWING WEST FACADE OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE. Lithograph, Boston, c. 1835. (Photograph courtesy of the Boston Athenaeum.)

end of the first floor, a tailor shopbelonging Small wonder, then, that many City to Charles A. Smith occupied all the space Council members argued that the Old State from WashingtonStreet back to the circular House was “disfigured” and “defaced.” center stairway. Smith’s shop stayed in the Another objection was raised in the Cen- same location for nearly thirty years. In tennial Year, 1876, when some members of about 1850 a large advertising poster was the Joint Standing Committee on Streets printed for Smith, showing, in addition to complained bitterly of traffic problems an admirable view of the west and north causedby the Old State House. In spite of facades of the building, one of the earliest the historic and patriotic spirit of the time, representations of a portion of the interior they strongly recommended that the build- of the Old State House (Fig. 13). ing be demolished. It may well be that the Tenants of the Old State House con- demolition effort failed due to the offer of tinued to multiply. The 1870Boston Direc- the City of Chicago to purchase the Old tory list of Old State House occupantsruns State House, remove it piece by piece, and to fifty different names. By 1880use of the re-erect it on the shoresof Lake Michigan. building by diverse business and profes- The vision of Boston’s Old State House sional people had reached maximum inten- sitting in Chicago seems to have shocked sity. Nearly covered by signs, the Old State local antiquarians into awareness of the House looked more like a billboard than a serious decline of the building. In 1881the building (Fig. 15). organization soon to be called the Bosto- Architectural History of the Old State House 41

FIG. 11. “CITY HALL AND U. S. B. BANK, BOSTON, MASS.” SHOW- ING EAST AND SOUTH FACADES OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE. Lithograph, Boston, c. 1836.(Photograph courtesy of the BostonAthenaeum.)

man Society was formed. Through the Bos- tonian Society and William Whitmore, a noted antiquarian who was also a member of the City Council, a movement to save the Old State House gained momentum. The year 1881marked a turning point in the history of the Old State House. As the debate on the question of its demolition intensified, proponents of demolition cited the following arguments: the building im- peded traffic; it was producing less and less income; it no longer had an historic appearance; and, lacking “original material,” it was not a “genuine relic.” Antiquarian William Whitmore, on the other hand, staunchly defended the Old State House: FIG. 12. EAST FACADE OF THE OLD The building is substantiallywhat it was STATE HOUSE. From an 1848 receipt of originally. . . The walls are not only intact, Brown, Lawrence & Stickney. (Photograph but the windows, floors, and timbersare the courtesyof the BostonianSociety.) 42 Old-Time New England

FIG. 13. ADVERTISING POSTER PRINTED FOR CHiRLES i. ShkTI-i it CO. SH&% WEST AND NORTH FACADES AND INTERIOR OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, Lithograph, c. 1855. (Photographcourtesy of the Boston Athenaeum.) Architectural Histq of the Old State House 43

The building’s steady degradation through “adaptive abuse” was halted by the decision of the Boston City Council to restore the Old State House to an earlier appearance-an appearance that would call to mind its role as the setting of significant events of Revolutionary times. George Clough, Boston’s City Architect from 1873-1883,was in charge of the work, which he brought to completion after six months in June, 1882. Removal of Rogers’s 1830 east portico and of the late nineteenth-century mansard roof were the fist steps in restoration. Clough found that the main cornice and the ten trusses supporting the roof were all in “a good state of preservation,” even though all of the early roof up to eight feet above the cornice between the trusses had been removed. The 1748trusses, with certain twentieth-century reinforcements, remain today. The condition of the tower, on the other hand, necessitated removal and replacement of all of the sashand two-thirds of the pilasters, pedestals, balustrades, and FIG. 14. EAST AND NORTH FACADES OF carved finials. Clough replaced the two- THE OLD STATE HOUSE, c. 1866. (SPNEA Archives.) over-two sash on the upper floors with twelve-over-twelve, but left the two-over- two sash on the lower floors. He also left same. That work was put up to last for the granite window surrounds and granite generations,and it haslasted. The changesI facing on the foundation. speak of have been such as are made in One mildly controversial feature of the every old building;such as the tearingdown restoration was the placement of a lion and of partitions and putting in stairways for a unicorn on the east gable steps. Sup- convenience. The walls are in the same condition, and it is as genuinea relic as can posedly to appeaseBostonians whose sen- be found. . . . It is just as feasible for us to sitivity to the royal symbols causedthem to restore the Old State House as it was to raise objections to the lion and unicorn, a restoreIndependence Hall, morethan that, gilt eagle and the coat-of-arms of the Com- we have ten times more material than Mr. monwealth of Massachusettswere placed Etting had when he began there ten years ago.14 on the west facade of the building. Far more controversy was stirred up by The preservation mentality prevailed, and Clough’s interior work. The arguments in September, 1881, the Council gave the centered on his restoration of a circular Committee on Public Buildings a budget of stair between the first and second floors. thirty-five thousanddollars for restoration. Clough found physical evidence for such a Old-Time New England

FIG. 15. “THE OLD STATE HOUSE: AS IT IS, 1876” SHOWING EAST AND NORTH FACADES. Pen and ink drawing by George K. Loring made to publicize restoration. (Photograph courtesyof the BostonianSociety.)

stairway, and for a secondfloor plan which immediately following the restoration, as- included four small chambers opening off serting that “no such division of space on the circular hall around the head of the the second floor as the present existed at stairs. Whitmore added support to the cir- any time during the official use of the build- cular stairsand secondfloor plan. He found ing by the Legislature-Colonial, Provin- drawings among the papers of Isaiah Rog- cial, Revolutionary, or State.“‘5 ers, architect of the 1830 classical revival Clough’s restoration was completed in modifications, which showed the circular June, 1882,and was marked by a ceremony stairway and four ante-rooms or small of- re-dedicating the Old State House. The fices. Whitmore believed that the Rogers Bostonian Society had leased the second drawings showed a plan which had existed floor and attic of the Old State House in since 1748, not a design which Rogers (or 1881,and in 1882installed a museum which his assistant, William Washburn) had focussed on the history of Boston. Later created in 1830. Whitmore was wrong, as the Bostonian Society took a lease on all of documentary evidence already cited, the building except the subway station, shows. One critic in particular, George thereby taking responsibility for care of the Moore, raised his voice during the years Old State House. Architectural History of the Old State House 45

FIG. 17. WEST AND SOUTH FACADES OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, c. 1886.(Photo- graphby Wilfred French. SPNEA Archives.)

Although the Boston Transit Commission was permitted to keep the existing subway station in the east end of the Old State FIG. 16. WEST FACADE OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, c 1876.(SPNEA Archives.) House and the track under the basement floor on the west, a Washington Street en- try, stairs, and in fact any disturbance to the Construction of a subway station under walls above sidewalk grade, was expressly the east end of the Old State House oc- prohibited. The second section of the Old curred in 190344 as the East Boston tunnel State House preservation act called for the was being built. Although, surprisingly, no structure to be restored “as nearly as pos- hue and cry of protest was raised at that sible to its provincial condition,” and to be encroachment on the building, construc- maintained as “an historic and patriotic tion of a subway line under the Washington memorial.” Street end of the Old State House in 1905 Boston’s foremost colonial restoration and plans for another station there aroused architect, Joseph Everett Chandler, was a strong protest. chosento do the work. His mandate was to The outcome of the protestors’ efforts restore the building to “its original provin- was the passageof a law (Chapter 385 of cial style,” a difficult task to accomplish the MassachusettsGeneral Laws, Acts of with any building but especially so with one 1907) which settled the subway question. as frequently altered as the Old State Old-Time New England

House. Chandler’s attempt to reproduce the provincial appearance of the building resulted in certain full-blown colonial revival details of great charm. It appearsthat he used the 1791Massachusetts Magazine (see Fi. 5) engravingas his guide for some of the details, in particular, the scroll capitols of the engaged columns flanking the doorways. In addition to “restoring” the north, south, and west doorways, Chandler replaced the granite around the foundation with brick work includinga mouldedbrick watertable, and installed twelve-over- twelve sash (in somewhat shortened window openings) on the western half of the fist story. Chandler also had the paint removed from the exterior brick walls. On the interior, Keayne Hall (first floor) re- mains today largely as Chandler designed it. Chandleralso replacedall of the sashin the Old State House. FIG. 18. EAST AND NORTH FACADES OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, c. 1883.(SPNEA Archives.)

FIG. 19. EAST END OF THE REPRESENTATIVES’ HALL, OLD STATE HOUSE. From the Re-dedication of the Old State House, Boston, July II, 1882. Architectural History of the Old State House 47

FIG. 20. EAST AND NORTH FACADES OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE, c. 1906. (SPNEA Archives.) Old-Time New England

Since Chandler’s restoration work in of the Old State House. Architect George 1909-1910,the Old State House has had a Sherwood designedthe sundial, which was few more alterations. In 1942-1943 the installed in 1957, and replaced the Willard Council Chamber was restored to a more clock-face of 1830. Georgian appearance by Perry, Shaw, and The long history of the Old State House Hepburn, the architects who had worked presents us with a building which has on the Williamsburg restoration. Across flourished and declined, has been cared for the hall from the Council Chamber, how- and neglected, and has, ultimately, been ever, the Representatives’ Chamber retains preserved. As it standstoday, the Old State most of its 1882 Clough restoration mate- House contains material from every phase rial, except for sash.The most recent resto- of its past history. A brief summary dating ration item is the sundial on the east facade the extant elements of the building follows.

DATING OF EXTANT ELEMENTS

The tower contains some framing and space were shortened. One such column exterior trim (portions of one or more cor- appears to have existed near the east wall nices) dating from the eighteenth century, and is no longer present: it probably served probably 1748. However, for the most part an important structural function and should its exterior woodwork is an accurate resto- probably be renewed. ration dating from 1882;the first stage was Brickwork in the north and south walls heavily rebuilt sometime after a 1921fire. dates from 1712, except for the moulded Inside the tower is an interesting spiral brick water table and Chandler’s 1909 staircasedating from around 1830,and sev- foundations, subway station entrances eral generations of matched boarding from (now being relocated) and patches of brick about 183fLon. where he shortened the fist story win- The third floor on the interior is substan- dows. The east and west walls have been tially as remodelled in 1882, except for ma- heavily rebuilt over the years, including in terials renewed after the 1921fire. the eighteenth century, but they too proba- The staircase (including stairs to the bly retain some areas that date from 1712. third floor) and the stair rotunda rising from The three exterior doorways are all cellar to secondfloor date from the restora- Chandler’s work except for some older tion of 1882. granite work left in place. The balcony on The combination of Whitmore Hall on the east wall is also his. the fit floor and the two offices to the The cornices are probably largely east of it creates the spaceas redesignedin eighteenth-century materials as are pedi- 1882, with a rather odd 1882 partition of ment and pilasters above the east balcony. windows and matched boarding (now These eighteenth-century elements proba- obscured by bookcases on both sides) ex- bly date from 1748 when the building was tending west from the east wall. The floor entirely rebuilt except for the brick walls. was raised in 1903 to accommodate the The window/door leading onto the east subway, at which time the pre-existing 1882 balcony is work of the 1830’s, dating from columns down the east-west axis of the shortly after Isaiah Rogers’s redesignof the Architectural History of the Old State House 49 east end wall. Except for Chandler’s win- Some heavily charred, hand-hewn dow casingson the first story in the west- wooden structural members probably date em half of the building (Keayne Hall), the back as far as the rebuilding after the fiie of casingsof most of the windows in the brick 1748. Among these are some posts in the wall predate 1882 and could easily date tower, (north-south) and, most impor- back to the Rogers period. The roof is a tant, roof trusses of a beautiful and 1975 relaying of a 1936 slate roof, but the slightly archaic design also seen at King’s dormers and their sashdate from Clough’s Chapel (1749). 1882 restoration. Iron tie rods which hang the secondfloor The cellar is a mixture of utilitarian ele- stair rotunda from two of the roof trusses ments of which some probably date from probably date from Isaiah Rogers’s re- 1882, such as the iron posts and wooden modelling of 1830. casings on the overhead first floor girders. Although the common joists of the first These girders themselves are hand hewn and second stories could not be inspected, and probably date to 1748. The rotunda at it is safe to say that a large percentage of cellar level has plaster door casings of structural members throughout the build- which some, on the west, probably date to ing generally date from the restoration of 1882, and the others, on the east, to 1903 1882, when most of the present partitions when the subway station was built. were built.

NOTES

1 This articlecondenses Historic Structure Re- 7 John Andrews to William Barrel], 4 June 1773, port: Old State House (1977) preparedfor the Massachusetts Historical Society, manuscript NationalPark Service by the author and Morgan collection, “Andrews Eliot.” W. Phillips of the ConsultingServices Group of s Records Relating to the Early History of Bos- the SPNEA. The 248-page report contains a ton Containing Boston Town Records, 1796 to thoroughly documentedarchitectural history of /8/3, Document 115(Boston: Municipal Printing the building, along with an investigation and Office, 1905),pp. 54-55. description of present conditions and makes 9 Ibid., pp. 153-54. recommendationsfor conservationof the building. A copy of this report is available for 10 Ellen SusanBulfinch, The Life and Letters of scholarly use at the SPNEA. Charles Bulfinch, Architect (Boston: Hough- ton-Mifflin, 1896),pp. 150-51. 2 Samuel Sewall, The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 2 vols., ed. M. Halsey Thomas(New York: Farrar, 11Columbian Centinel, January-December, Straus & Giroux, 1973),vol. 2, p. 714:“Let this 1830. large, transparent, costly Glass serve to oblige 12Abel Bowen, Bowen’s Picture of Boston, 3rd the Attomys always to set Things in a True ed. (Boston: Otis-Broadus & Co., 1838), pp. Light. . . .” 59-60.

3 Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, I5 De- 13New England Palladium, 24 August 1830. cember 1747. 14“Proceedings of the Common Council, May 4 Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture 26, 1881.Debate on the Propositionto Renovate from the first Colonial Settlements to the Na- the Old State House,” Boston Public Library, tional Period (New York: Oxford University Prints Department, Boston Pictorial Archives. Press, 1952),p. 437. ‘5 Re-dedication of the Old State House, 6th ed. 5 Massachusetts Magazine, vol. 3, no. 1 (Boston: Published by the City Council, 1893), (January, 1791). Appendix M, p. 203. eArchives ofthe Senate, 9 March 1784,Massa- chusetts State Archives, State Document No. 75.