Two Boston Historic Districts Advance Toward National Register Listing

At its September 9th meeting, the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) State Review Board voted to forward the Historic Exchange District in downtown Boston, and the Green Street East Historic District in Jamaica Plain National Register nominations to the National Park Service for final review.  Elizabeth Sherva, Deputy Director of the Office of Historic Preservation, spoke in favor of the nominations at the September 9th meeting.  MHC approval is required before the National Park Service can conduct final federal review.   The Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) worked closely with the Boston Planning Department, property owners and neighborhood organizers to advance the nominations and connect them with City development goals.

The vote recognizes two distinctive parts of Boston while allowing owners of contributing properties to pursue state and federal rehabilitation tax credits. National Register designation is both historical recognition and a practical economic development tool.

These nominations also do the essential work of documenting stories that have often remained hidden in plain sight. Together, they show how Boston grew through finance, manufacturing, transportation, immigration, and neighborhood enterprise—and how that inherited fabric can remain an asset as the city continues to change.

The Exchange District, Downtown

The approximately 18-acre Historic Exchange District nomination records Boston's rise as New England's financial, commercial, and industrial center.  Centered near Devonshire and Water streets, it extends roughly from State Street to below Milk Street and from west of Washington Street to Kilby Street.

Developed from 1883 to 1931 after the Great Fire of 1872, the area concentrated banks, insurers, brokers, law offices, and businesses tied to New England's wool, shoe, leather, shipping, and trading industries.   Elevators and steel-frame construction produced a notable collection of early skyscrapers in Beaux-Arts, Renaissance Revival, Classical Revival, Neoclassical, Art Deco, and Colonial Revival styles.

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Its buildings illustrate a pivotal period when Boston's traditional mercantile economy became a modern metropolitan business center.  Their scale, materials, and richly detailed facades convey the confidence of the institutions and entrepreneurs who shaped the district, while the tight street network preserves the physical relationships among commerce, civic life, and transportation.

The nomination was advanced and drafted by OHP staff to encourage investment in the buildings of the Historic Exchange District. It also supports Mayor Michelle Wu's Office-to-Residential Conversion Program, created in response to post-pandemic office vacancies. Contributing buildings may be able to combine City conversion incentives with historic tax credits. Several Financial District projects are already preparing to use these credits, and OHP hopes more owners will follow—creating housing and activity while adapting Boston's historic commercial core for a new era.

Green Street in Jamaica Plain

The Green Street East Historic District preserves a smaller-scale chapter of Boston's growth. Within the broader Washington-to-Amory Street corridor, it recognizes a concentrated group of nineteenth century buildings from Brookside Avenue to Greenley Place.  Amid major investment along Washington Street between Egleston Square and Forest Hills, the designation ensures that Green Street's earlier history and distinctive character are understood as new development takes shape.

Laid out in 1836, Green Street linked Washington Street with the Boston and Providence Railroad; Green Street station opened in 1841.  Stony Brook, rail service, horse cars, and later electric streetcars encouraged mills, workshops, housing, and neighborhood commerce. The district preserves this evolution through homes, apartment buildings, stables, carriage factories, a carpentry shop, and a rare paint shop, including the Alfred Papineau Livery Stable, Thanisch Carriage Factory, Hotel Morse, and Hotel McKinley.

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The research also recovers the contributions of workers, immigrants, and entrepreneurs, including people from Germany, Canada, and Ireland who built or financed many of these properties.  To its great credit, the community mobilized around this history. The Friends of Historic Green Street, supported by the Legacy Fund, organized the effort and commissioned the research and nomination.

The district's mix of modest houses and specialized industrial buildings makes this evolution especially legible.   It connects the neighborhood we see today with earlier generations who lived close to their work, invested in small businesses, and used new transportation links to participate in Boston's expanding economy. National Register recognition gives that layered history greater visibility and affirms Green Street's distinctive place value.

Recognition that supports reinvestment

Contributing buildings may seek Massachusetts and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, each worth up to 20 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenditures.     Projects must be certified and meet preservation standards, so listing does not automatically award a credit.  When secured, however, the incentives can make difficult rehabilitation and adaptive reuse projects more feasible,  supporting housing, businesses, and renewed activity while retaining the buildings that give each district its identity.

For owners and developers considering substantial improvements, the credits can help close financing gaps created by the costs of rehabilitating older buildings. The result can be preservation and growth working together rather than competing priorities.

What National Register listing does not do

National Register designation is not the same as designation as a Boston Landmark or local historic district.  It does not require private owners to obtain Boston Landmarks Commission design approval for ordinary privately funded work, nor does it require restoration, maintenance, or public access.   Instead, it provides recognition, a stronger historical record, and access to preservation incentives.

When approved by the National Park Service, the two districts will recognize complementary landscapes: one shaped by finance and trade, the other by transit, immigrant enterprise, neighborhood industry, and housing.

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