Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall is a historic building near the waterfront and Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Opened in 1742, the building was designed by artist John Smibert as a marketplace and meeting hall. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty", having been the site of many speeches, debates, and other events over its history. The building is part of Boston National Historical Park and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Faneuil Hall hosted regular events and speeches before the American Revolutionary War, along with a marketplace at ground level. The original building burned down in 1761 and was rebuilt over the next decade. Faneuil Hall was remodeled and expanded by Charles Bulfinch in 1806, and it was renovated again in 1827 when marketplace activities were moved to the nearby Quincy Market. The interiors were rebuilt of noncombustible materials in 1898–1899, and Cram and Ferguson oversaw another renovation between 1923 and 1925. The Rouse Company redeveloped the building in 1976 as part of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace project. The building was renovated in 1992 and again in 2012.
Faneuil Hall measures four stories high and is made of red brick, divided vertically into several bays. There are entrances and arched sash windows on the first floor, and additional windows on the other stories, each separated by pilasters of varying designs. The slate gable roof has a cupola and a grasshopper-shaped weathervane. Inside, the basement is used for offices and education, while the first floor contains a market area measuring across. A stair from the main eastern entrance ascends through the building. On the second and third floors is the Great Hall, measuring high and across with various pieces of artwork. There are also small offices on the second floor. The fourth-story attic houses the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, and there is a commandery room just beneath the cupola.
Site
Faneuil Hall is located at Merchants Row in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on the east side of Congress Street between North Street to the north and State Street to the south. It occupies filled land that had been underwater until 1732. The building is accessed by plazas that surround it. The open spaces flanking Faneuil Hall to the north, south, and west are known as Faneuil Hall Square; the western space was historically part of Dock Square. Across Congress Street is Boston City Hall within Government Center, while to the east is Quincy Market. Faneuil Hall is one of eight sites in the Boston National Historical Park. It is also a stop on the Freedom Trail, a path connecting several historic sites in Boston.Exterior artwork
West of the building is an 1880 sculpture of Samuel Adams. Created by Anne Whitney, the Adams sculpture is cast in bronze and is a replica of a similar sculpture at the United States Capitol. This sculpture sits on a Quincy granite pedestal with polished and unpolished sections.As part of Ross Miller's artwork A Once and Future Shoreline, the granite plaza surface is marked for with the approximate location of the early colonial shoreline 1630. The work comprises etched silhouettes of seaweed, sea grass, fish, shells and other materials found along a high tide line. The street layout and building plot plan designations from an 1820 map are shown by etched dashed lines and changes from pink granite to grey granite paving slabs. The rest of the western plaza has brick and granite pavement.
History
18th century
A public marketplace in the town of Boston was first organized in 1658 at the current site of the Old State House. The market was effectively banned in 1695, and several attempts to establish a public market over the next several decades were unsuccessful. Northern, central, and southern markets were established in 1734, but the central market was demolished by rioters three years later.First Faneuil Hall
In 1740, colonial merchant and slave trader Peter Faneuil offered to donate a building "for a market for the sole use, benefit, and advantage of the town", provided the town's selectmen voted in favor. Faneuil's offer also required that the market be regulated and continually used as such. The selectmen voted 367–360 to accept the offer on July 14, 1740; one observer later noted that, had four supporters changed their votes, the building would never have been constructed. As it was, the vote was controversial, and citizens challenged its validity. The selectmen identified a site in Merchants Row, which had been occupied by the 1734 central market, and approved its acquisition at a meeting on September 2, 1740. Funded in part by profits from slave trading, the building was designed by artist John Smibert in the style of an English country market. It was built primarily by mason Joshua Blanchard and carpenter Samuel Ruggles; a cornerstone with Blanchard's initials was placed outside the original building. Faneuil Hall was originally envisioned as a single-story market house before a second story for the town government was added to the plans.The building was substantially completed in August 1742 and opened on September 10 of that year. After some debate, the building was named Faneuil Hall for its donor, and the selectmen began hosting meetings there on October 13. The original Faneuil Hall bore similarities to 17th-century English marketplaces, along with other American colonial structures such as the Philadelphia County Courthouse and Boston's Old State House. The two-story building, clad in brick, was designed in the early Georgian style. It had an arcaded market and offices at ground level; an assembly hall and selectmen's chamber on the second story; and an armory and assessor's office in the attic. The assembly hall could fit 1,000 people. In addition to the selectmen's chamber, the town government had offices in at least three additional rooms. The roof had protruding dormers and a steeple. After Faneuil's death in 1743, the town displayed his coat of arms at Faneuil Hall in his honor.
The marketplace struggled to attract customers or merchants, and the very idea of a marketplace remained controversial. The first merchant, dry goods salesman Anthony Hodgson, leased a stall there in December 1742, but the next merchant did not sign a lease for about a year. Most activity took place in the Great Hall, which was used for town meetings, public celebrations, and military drills. Social events also took place there, including a celebration in 1744 and weekly concerts starting in 1747. Some of Boston's early slave auctions took place near Faneuil Hall. The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts moved into the building's attic in 1746, and the Massachusetts Governor's Council briefly moved to Faneuil Hall the next year after State House burned down. The Governor's Council moved out in 1748 once repairs to the State House were completed. Due to low patronage, the ground-floor market experienced several extended closures in 1747–1748, 1752–1753, and 1759. The building survived an earthquake in 1753, though the weathervane was damaged. The first floor had a notary public and a naval office by 1761.
Reconstruction and pre-revolutionary activity
On January 13, 1761, the first Faneuil Hall was destroyed by fire. Many of the documents were saved; however, with nothing but the brick walls remaining, the selectmen temporarily met in any building that could accommodate them. The selectmen voted to repair Faneuil Hall that March, and the Massachusetts General Court, the legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, approved a lottery to raise funds for the building. Onesiphorus Tileston and several other contractors were hired to conduct repairs, which were underway by late 1761. The selectmen moved back in during October 1762, as repairs continued. The lawyer James Otis Jr. rededicated Faneuil Hall to the "Cause of Liberty" on March 14, 1763, though interior work continued through early 1768. The new Faneuil Hall had the same dimensions as the original structure and could fit 1,000 occupants. It had less woodwork than the original structure and had a rooftop cupola rather than a steeple. Though the original hall had contained a bell, it was not reproduced, likely due to a lack of money.After its rededication, Faneuil Hall was regularly used for speeches and, as such, was nicknamed the "Cradle of Liberty". The selectmen allowed both pro-independence Patriots and pro-British Loyalists to host events there, even while banning the British Armed Forces and the British Board of Customs from using it. In the years before the American Revolutionary War, the building was a frequent location for debates and protests against Great Britain; for instance, residents protested taxes there in the 1760s. Because of its large capacity, Faneuil Hall also began hosting sessions of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1764, and it also hosted meetings of the Massachusetts Convention. Other modifications continued throughout the decade; for example, the interior was illuminated in 1767. The original weathervane was restored and installed atop the cupola next year. The market at the ground floor gained popularity, being used for the sale of produce, meat, dairy, and seafood.
During the 1768 occupation of Boston, the British Armed Forces quartered their 14th Regiment there after local residents protested the Quartering Acts by forbidding British soldiers in their houses. Faneuil Hall continued to host meetings and events in the meantime, and the troops were ultimately relocated in late 1770. Events in the 1770s included the Boston Tea Party protests of 1773, along with regular town meetings and a concert in 1774. Following the Siege of Boston in 1775, British troops hosted theatrical shows at Faneuil Hall, and they stored munitions and weapons there. The marketplace was closed during the occupation. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776, plundering some portraits. The troops had left the building in disrepair, and the Puritans of Boston, who disapproved of the concept of public theatre, took offense that the building had been used as a theater.