Boston

The Brattle Street Church (1698–1876) was a Congregational (1698 – c. 1805) and Unitarian (c. 1805–1876) church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

Brattle Street, which existed from 1694 to 1962, was a street in Boston, Massachusetts located on the current site of City Hall Plaza, at Government Center.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial developments. As an agency concerned with urban planning, the BPDA does not consider requests for zoning variances from individual property owners. These are heard by the city's own Zoning Board of Appeals, a seven-person body appointed by the Mayor of Boston.Some consider the BPDA's roles as both real estate owner and developer, and approval authority over private development projects, to be a conflict of interest.

Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall.It is a controversial and prominent example of Brutalist architecture, part of the modernist movement. It was designed by the architecture firms Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles and Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty, with LeMessurier Consultants as engineers.Together with the surrounding plaza, City Hall is part of the Government Center complex. This project constituted a major urban redesign effort in the 1960s, as Boston demolished an area of substandard housing and businesses. The building has been subject to widespread public condemnation, and is sometimes called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Calls for the structure to be demolished have been regularly made even before construction was finished. Architects and critics considered it to be excellent work, with one poll finding that professional architects describe Boston City Hall as one of the ten proudest achievements of American architecture.

A statue of former professional basketball player Bill Russell by Ann Hirsch is installed outside Boston's City Hall, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The bronze sculpture was unveiled in 2013, and subsequent statues have been added to the memorial.

Adams Square (1879–1963) was a square in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Now demolished, it was formerly located on the site of the current Boston City Hall in Government Center.

Adams Square was an underground streetcar station located at Adams Square in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It opened in 1898 and was used until 1963.

Frost & Adams (est.1869) was an artists' supply firm in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Cornhill, on the current site of Boston City Hall and City Hall Plaza. It began in 1869 when artist Francis Seth Frost and retailer E.H. Adams bought the business of Matthew J. Whipple. By the 1880s Frost & Adams were "the chief dealers in artists' materials in New England."

Doggett's Repository of Arts (c. 1821-1825) was an art gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, located at 16 Market Street. Its proprietor, John Doggett, was a gilder and framer with a retail shop near the gallery (nos.18 and 20 Market Street). The gallery exhibited originals and copies of works by European masters such as Titian, Rembrandt, Watteau, and David, and a few American artists, such as Thomas Sully, Gilbert Stuart, Samuel F.B. Morse, Rembrandt Peale, and William Dunlap. By July 1825, the gallery was converted into retail space for Doggett's frame, mirror and carpet business.

Cornhill was a street in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, located on the site of the current City Hall Plaza in Government Center. It was named in 1829; previously it was known as Market Street (1807–1828). In its time, it comprised a busy part of the city near Brattle Street, Court Street and Scollay Square. In the 19th century, it was the home of many bookstores and publishing companies. As of 1969, Cornhill exists as 144 feet along the edge of City Hall Plaza.

Two statues of James Michael Curley (sometimes called James Michael Curley, Jr.) are installed at the intersection of Congress and North streets, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The bronze double portrait was created by Lloyd Lillie during 1979–1980, and dedicated on September 18, 1980. The standing figure measures approximately 77 x 30 x 80 in., and the seated statue measures approximately 55 x 38 x 43 in. The memorial was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1993.

The First Town-House in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony was located on the site of the Old State House and served as Boston's first purpose-built town hall and colonial government seat. Robert Keayne left £300 in his will for the construction of a marketplace and town-house; this was more than doubled by subscriptions from 104 "Townesmen", and on August 1, 1657, a contract was signed with Messrs. Thomas Joy and Bartholomew Bernad for the construction. The initial price was £400 but the final bill came out to £680. The contract was for "a very substantiall and comely Building...sixty six foot in Length, and thirty six foot in Breadth from outside to outside, set upon twenty one Pillers of full ten foot high ... the wholl Building to Jetty over three foot without the Pillers everie way...according to A modell or draught presented to us, by the sd. Tho. Joy & Barth. Bernad. The time wch Payment shall be as followeth viz: one Hund. Pound at the Bringing of the Timber to the Place, A second Hund. at the raysing, a third Hund. at the inclosure & Covering, a fourth at the finishing and Compleating..." The wood-frame building was completed and occupied in 1658. A sketch drawn in 1930 based on the original specifications shows an open-walled public market (a traditional medieval form) on the ground floor. Three rows of seven stout posts supported the upper stories, which were walled by broad planks three inches (76 mm) thick, "well grooved into one another" and planed smooth on both sides. The roof was of the meeting-house type: hipped, with a "walke upon the top fourteen or 15 foote wide with two turrets, & turned Balasters and railes, round about the walke". The second story was ten feet high, and the third half-story rooms were lighted by three cross gables on each side. The three-foot overhang "everie way", a very rare feature in non-military architecture, was braced by diagonal struts from the posts and ornamented by corner pendants. A steep stairway, hitched to one end of the building like an inelegant afterthought, clambered to the upper rooms. These consisted of Boston's first public library, a gift of Robert Keayne; a large room "for the courts to meete in both in Winter & Sumer, & so for the Townsmen & commissioners of the Towne"; a room for an Armory (Keayne had organized the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts and become its first commander); and "a gallery or some other handsome roome for the Elders to meete in".The building also housed the Colonial government, with Governors Endecott, Bellingham, Leverett and Bradstreet presiding under the old charter, then Edmund Andros, followed by Phips, Stoughton, Bellomont and Dudley under the new charter. It was the focal point of Boston's civil and political life: receptions held by governors and prominent citizens; assemblies of the Legislature; meetings of the colony and town officers; the marketplace with its stalls and stores all made it so. In his diary, Samuel Sewall recorded many stirring scenes inside and near the town-house. There the revolt against Governor Andros was centered; the same year the first Episcopalian service in Boston was held in the deputies' room. Captain Kidd was there examined by the governor in 1699; the captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company was elected in the large room in 1701, and the Company exercised there in June 1702. In 1704 Captain Quelch and five other pirates were tried there.The building was destroyed in the great fire on the night of 2 October 1711.