The Bedford Block is an historic commercial building at 99 Bedford Street Boston, Massachusetts in an area called Church Green. Built in 1875 in a style promoted by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

called

Venetian Gothic Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...

. The style may also be referred to as Ruskinian Gothic. It was designed by

Charles Amos Cummings Charles Amos Cummings (June 26, 1833 – August 11, 1905) was a nineteenth-century American architect and architectural historian who worked primarily in the Venetian Gothic style. Cummings followed the precepts of British cultural theorist ...

and

Willard T. Sears Willard Thomas Sears (November 5, 1837 – May 21, 1920) was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles. In 1861, Sears opened ...

for Henry and Francis Lee as a retail shoe center in an area that had been destroyed by the Great Boston Fire of 1872. The building was added to the National Historic Register in 1979. Building was renovated in 1983 in conjunction with the Bay-Bedford Company. The Bedford Block's exterior is constructed of polychromatic bands of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

, Tuckahoen marble, and pressed terra-cotta panels manufactured in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. It was the first building after the Great Fire to use

red

as a material. The first floor features rough rustic blocks. Upper floor details include arched bay windows, Viollet-le-Duc inspired iron balconets and flat column

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. Each roof gable is topped with a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

crown. There is a glazed tile clock is located in a 5-story tower at the corner of Bedford and Summer streets.

Footnotes

References

*Morgan, Keith N., editor, Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, et al. ''Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston.'' University of Virginia Press: 2009. . *Placzek, Adolf K. Macmillan. ''Encyclopedia of Architects.'' 4 vols. Free Press: 1982. . *Shand-Tucci, Douglas. ''Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800–2000.'' The

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

: 1999. . *Withey, Henry F. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased).'' Hennessey & Ingalls: 1970. Commercial blocks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Cummings and Sears buildings Buildings and structures in Boston Commercial buildings completed in 1875 Neoclassical architecture in Massachusetts Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts Victorian architecture in Massachusetts Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Boston {{Boston-struct-stub

See also

Footnotes

References