The Municipal Buildings are in West Street,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, a town in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, in England. The complex accommodates the offices and meeting place of Boston Borough Council.

History

The first municipal building in Boston was the

guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

which was completed in 1390. In the early 19th century, the fish market at the centre of the Exchange Buildings in the Market Place was converted for municipal use and subsequently became the offices of Boston Corporation, which was duly reformed in 1836 in accordance with the

Municipal Corporations Act 1835 The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The le ...

. In the late 19th century, civic leaders decided to commission more substantial premises. The site they selected was on the south side of West Street. The new building was designed by James Rowell in the Edwardian Baroque style, built in red brick with

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

dressings and was officially opened by the mayor, Alderman Joseph Cooke, in 1904. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of 10 bays facing onto West Street. The first bay on the left featured a large opening with

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

s and a keystone which originally led to the main foyer. There were doorways in the third and seventh bays and access for the fire engine in the eighth and ninth bays. The fourth bay contained a semi-circular

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

on the first floor. The whole building was fenestrated by windows of differing style but with banded surrounds. The second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth bays were all surmounted by

stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

s. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber, with ornate stained glass windows, the offices for the council officers, the offices for the local police service and garaging for the fire engines. The whole complex was dedicated to municipal use after both the fire service and the police service relocated to Lincoln Lane. It continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century and remained the meeting place for the enlarged Boston Borough Council which was formed in 1974. The building also continued to serve as the local registration office with a ceremony room available for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1904 City and town halls in Lincolnshire Boston, Lincolnshire