The Suffolk County Courthouse, now formally the John Adams Courthouse, is a historic courthouse building in
Pemberton Square
Pemberton Square (est. 1835) in the Government Center area of Boston, Massachusetts, was developed by P.T. Jackson in the 1830s as an architecturally uniform mixed-use enclave surrounding a small park. In the mid-19th century both private residen ...
in
Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...
(the state's highest court) and the
Massachusetts Appeals Court
The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...
. Built in 1893, it was the major work of Boston's first city architect,
George Clough, and is one of the city's few surviving late 19th-century monumental civic buildings. It was added to 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 1974.
Description
The John Adams Courthouse is located on the west side of Pemberton Square, now little more than an open plaza bounded by the courthouse on the west, and the backside of the curved Center Plaza building, which faces Tremont Street opposite the
Boston City Hall
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 cont ...
plaza. The courthouse is a six-story granite structure, fifteen bays wide, with an eclectic stylistic composition. Its first 1-1/2 floor function by appearance as an elevated basement, with small arched windows close to the ground, above which are larger rectangular windows divided in the upper third by a stone stringcourse. Above this basement level is an arcaded mezzanine of large round-arch openings in which paired sash windows are topped by a half-round transom. A dentillated cornice separates this level from a narrower band of three-part windows, above which is a two-level
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
pierced by a variety of dormers. There are projecting pavilions at the ends of the main facade, rising to the top of the mezzanine level on the sides, and the full roof height on the front.
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]
History
The courthouse was built in 1893 to a design by Boston city architect George Clough. Stylistically the building was described at the time as "German Renaissance"; it is now viewed as transitional between the monumental Second Empire style of Boston's Old City Hall and the Classical Revival. Of the many buildings Clough designed for the city, this is his largest and most elaborate design. Clough also designed the 1909 enlargement of the structure, which added the French Chateau-style roof.Social Law Library
The Social Law Library, founded in 1803, is the second oldest law library in the United States. It is located in the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, Massachusetts, the same building which houses the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...
occupied the building, known then as the Suffolk County Courthouse. In 2002, the Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court
The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...
, and the Social Law Library returned to the restored building, which was renamed the John Adams Courthouse.
Gallery
File:Suffolk County Courthouse Boston.jpg, Entrance to the new Suffolk County Courthouse, completed in 1937, adjacent to the John Adams Courthouse, and currently home to the Suffolk County Superior Court
File:Suffolk County Courthouse south entrance.JPG, The south side of the Suffolk County Courthouse as viewed from the Tremont Street steps
File:Rufus Choate by Daniel Chester French.jpg, Statue of Rufus Choate
A statue of Rufus Choate stands in the John Adams Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The statue was designed by Daniel Chester French and honors Choate, a lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. It was dedicated in 1898.
H ...
, located inside the court house
See also
*
* List of courthouses in Boston
This list includes courthouse buildings in Boston, Massachusetts, used by municipal, county, state and federal courts, from the 17th century through the present.
Built in the 17th and 18th centuries
* First Town-House, Boston, built 1658. "The ...
References
External links
Virtual tour
of the John Adams Courthouse from the Massachusetts Judiciary
History of the John Adams Courthouse
// © 2021 Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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County courthouses in Massachusetts
Courthouses in Boston
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
George A. Clough buildings
Government Center, Boston
John Adams
National Register of Historic Places in Boston