CultureNOW - Richards Building: Peter Vanderwarker

Richards Building

Dates

Constructed, 1850

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"Lavish" and "ornate" aren't words that suit much Boston architecture. This is, after all, the town where Victorian ladies kept their new dresses from Paris in the closet for a year, so they wouldn't look too fashionable. But they're the right words for the Richards Building. The Richards, in the center of both photos, stands on State Street at the end of Broad Street. It was built in the late 1850s. There are 39 arches and 56 columns in the original facade. The two top floors, visible in the new photo, were added in 1889. They're ornate in a different way: They feature oriels, which are bay windows that don't
come to the ground. Each of the oriels now wears an absurd, pagodalike hat; the hats can't possibly be original, but we don't know when they appeared.

In a way, the Richards is a stage set. The facade is only a screen attached to the front of the building. It is made of pieces of cast iron that were fabricated in Italy and bolted
together in Boston. That explains the architecture, which is a pleasantly kitsch version of northern Italian Renaissance. It's because the facade stands in front of the real building that the Richards has such a sense of depth, with deep shadows at all the arches. This is one of six remaining cast iron facades in downtown Boston. Notice the awnings, which so often softened the appearance of buildings before the arrival of air conditioning. They appear only at the bosses' floors, which would have been the lower ones in this walk-up building. As with the awnings, so with the signage: It makes the building feel chatty and affable.

These were the offices of the Atlantic Works, "BUILDERS OF IRON STEAMSHIPS," which occupied the Richards from 1870 to 1873 and which must have felt at home in the iron architecture. Next door, at right in the new photo, is the Cunard Building of 1902 by architects Peabody & Stearns, designers of the Custom House Tower. It's notable for its ow of Palladian windows at the top floor, between which are medallions with the lion of the British Empire. The facade also sports heads of Neptune, god of the sea, and brackets made of anchors and dolphins. Our forebears found ways to be playful in their architecture without loss of dignity.

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - The Richards Building", Boston Globe, 2001

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Location

Broad St & State St
Boston, MA 02110
United States

Nearby Items

Fiske Building		287 feet
View from Custom House Tower		469 feet
Arnold		540 feet
Custom House Tower at Boston Harbor		639 feet
Quincy Market		691 feet
State Street		749 feet
Broad Street		776 feet