Category:Sears Building (Boston, Massachusetts)

Sears building (1869-1967), corner of Court St. and Washington St., Boston, Mass., USA

"The top three floors are an addition. The original, built in 1869, was only four stories tall, plus a sloping mansard at the top. After a fire in 1890, the mansard was removed and the new top added by Cummings and Sears, architects who also may have designed the original and who are best known for their New Old South Church, in Copley Square. The building was named for a different Sears, a merchant who made his fortune in the East India shipping trade. Standing on one of the town's best business corners, the Sears was wrapped with marble in the latest architectural style: the ornate Italian Gothic of pointed arches and patterned stonework, a style being promoted at the time by the English critic John Ruskin. In its early years, the Sears was home to bankers and lawyers; after the fire, it became for a time Young's Hotel. It was demolished in 1967." (--Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker. One Boston Place. Boston Globe. Nov 8, 1998).