Skyscraper tower in McKinley Square, in the Financial District neighborhood of Boston
General Information
Typically late morning through evening
Last entry is usually 30–60 minutes before closing
Children (4–12): approximately $24
Children under 4: Free
How to Get There
From Downtown Boston and Waterfront hotels: Walk or drive toward State Street into McKinley Square; the Custom House Tower is located in the Financial District near Faneuil Hall and is easily accessed from State Street and Aquarium MBTA stations.
Overview
The Custom House Tower is a skyscraper in McKinley Square, in the Financial District neighborhood of Boston. The original building was constructed in 1837-47 and was designed by Ammi Burnham Young in the Greek Revival style. The tower was designed by Peabody and Stearns and was added in 1913-15. The building is part of the Custom House District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
It is part of the Custom House District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Boston's Custom House Tower, resting on the original 1849 Custom House structure. The site was purchased on September 13, 1837. Construction of a custom house was authorized by U.S. President Andrew Jackson.
Ammi Burnham Young entered an 1837 competition to design the Boston Custom House, and won with his neoclassical design. This building was a cruciform (cross-shaped) Greek Revival structure, combining a Greek Doric portico with a Roman dome, resembled a four-faced Greek temple topped with a dome. It had 36 fluted Doric columns, each carved from a single piece of granite from Quincy, Massachusetts; each weighed 42 tons (37 metric tons. Only half these actually support the structure; the others are free-standing. They are 5 feet (1.5 m) and 4 in (10 cm) in diameter and 32 ft (9.8 m) high. Inside, the rotunda was capped with a skylight dome.
The entire structure sits on filled land and is supported by 3,000 wooden piles driven through fill to bedrock. Before land reclamation was done in the middle of the 19th century, Boston's waterfront extended right to this building. Ships moored at Long Wharf almost touched the eastern face of the building. The Custom House was built at the end of the City docks, to facilitate inspection and registration of cargo. The federal government used the building to collect maritime duties in the age of Boston sailing ships.
When custom officials moved into the Thomas P. O'Neill building in 1986, the Custom House was declared "surplus property". On April 16, 1987, the city of Boston purchased the building from the General Services Administration, and the building remained unoccupied and inaccessible for 14 years.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Landmarks Commission, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Beal Companies, and Jung Brannen Associates, Inc. all proposed concepts for the use of the building that ranged from museums to offices to residential developments. In 1995, the Beal Companies and Marriott Ownership Resorts International announced plans to develop the building into a timeshare resort, and retained Jung Brannen Associates as architects. In 1997, work began to convert the building into an 87-room Marriott Vacation Club.
The top of the tower is now accessible to the public during limited hours for a fee. A fenced-in area surrounds the top floor and allows visitors to view the city on all sides of the tower.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Custom House Tower", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
