The New England Mutual Life Insurance Building is located near Boston's

Copley Square Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to it ...

. Construction began in 1939 and the building officially opened in 1941. The building land was purchased in 1937 from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT), and was converted into an office building for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, a company later purchased by

MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

Inc. The land, before purchased by New England Mutual Life, was home to two MIT buildings on their originally established campus, the Rogers Building and the Walker Building. These two buildings were demolished to make way for the construction of this new office building.

History

Originally a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this building was bought by the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. James Savage served as one of the original board members of the insurance company and had a daughter, Emma, who married William Barton Rogers, who, with the help of the Savage family, would go on to found MIT in 1865. The Rogers Building, the original building on the principal campus of MIT, was torn down to make way for this building.

Construction

The New England Mutual Life Insurance Building was built in historic Boston, in a section of the city known as the Back Bay. This land is a neighborhood located just south of the Charles River, which separates the heart of Boston from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...

, an architect known for designing a number of different types of buildings (including residences, churches, libraries and academic buildings, and various office spaces) designed this new office building for New England Mutual Life Insurance. Cram also had ties to MIT, as he headed their Architecture Department for seven years. Once the land was purchased by The New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, the buildings were demolished due to foundational issues with the original MIT buildings. To fix this issue, the architects who designed this new building built on a " floating foundation", which helps to prevent undue settling. The building itself is 10-stories made from granite. Inside, there is a large auditorium that was used for live performances and lectures from the 1940's to the 1960's.

References

Office buildings in Boston Commercial buildings completed in 1941 {{Boston-struct-stub