The Boston Block, also known as Aalfs Manufacturing Company, is a historic building located in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, United States. The city experienced a building boom that began in the late 1880s and continued into the early 1890s. One of the major players in that building boom was the Boston Investment Company, a company on the East Coast who built four large commercial blocks in Sioux City simultaneously. with Construction on the four buildings began in 1890 and they were completed the following year. In addition to the commercial blocks, they also built a steam heating plant that provided steam and light to three of the buildings as well as to neighboring buildings. The Massachusetts Block (no longer extant) on the southwest corner of Fourth and Jackson was six stories tall and had a similar facade as the Boston Block, which is five stories tall on the northeast corner of Fourth and Virginia. The Plymouth Block on the southeast corner of Fourth and Locust was also five stories tall, and the Bay State Block on Fourth Street is the shortest at four stories. Among the building's tenants was the Aalfs Manufacturing Company, which used the building as its headquarters. The architect of the four buildings is unknown, but John G. Mainland served as supervising architect. The Boston Block is a

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

structure that features rusticated stone veneer with a two-story iron and glass storefront. The original storefront was extensively altered in 1948, and it was altered again in 1984. The building was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1985, and as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the Fourth Street Historic District in 1995. with

References

Commercial buildings completed in 1891 Buildings and structures in Sioux City, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Sioux City, Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa 1891 establishments in Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub