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Boston is downright beautiful. Red-brick buildings and cobblestone streets contrast delightfully with modern glass towers (and concrete boxes that seemed like a good idea at the time). The wide and wild variety of architecture makes the city a visual treat.
Built around 1680, the Paul Revere House on North Square is a reminder that for Boston's first two centuries, most buildings were wood, and huge portions of the town regularly burned to the ground. The house is colonial in age but Tudor in style. The casement windows and overhanging second floor are medieval features, and when the Reveres moved in, in 1770, the house was no longer fashionable. The one next door would have been: the Pierce/Hichborn House (ca. 1711), a sturdy brick structure with the symmetrical design that typifies the Georgian architecture often seen in 18th-century Boston.
After the Revolution, the Federal style dominated; it was the rage from 1780 to 1820. Austere features characterize the style: Ionic and Corinthian detailing, frequently in white against red brick or clapboard; fanlights over doors; and an almost maniacal insistence on symmetry. In Boston, the new style was closely associated with architect Charles Bulfinch. His work is all over Boston, most conspicuously in the Massachusetts State House (1797) and in many Beacon Hill residences.
At 141 Cambridge St. (1796), the first home Bulfinch designed for Harrison Gray Otis, the obsession with symmetry resulted in the inclusion of a room with one false door to balance the real one. Bulfinch also designed St. Stephen's Church (1804) in the North End; Harvard's University Hall (1814); and the central part of Massachusetts General Hospital, now known as Bulfinch Pavilion (1818). Bulfinch also planned the 1805 enlargement of Faneuil Hall, which is now three times the size it was when it opened in 1742.
Across town in Copley Square, Trinity Church (1877), with its heavy stone and distinctive tower, is a Romanesque showpiece. Facing it is Boston Public Library (1885–1895), an imposing structure with columns and majestic staircases influenced by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; it combines elements of the beaux-arts and Renaissance Revival styles.
Fascinating architectural areas lie north and south of Copley Square. Heading north, you come to the Back Bay, where you'll find a Parisian flavor. South of Copley Square is the South End, another trove of Victoriana, whose park-studded layout owes more to London than to Paris.
Elaborate early-20th-century buildings adorn the city. The Cutler Majestic Theater (1903) drips with the ornamentation that characterizes beaux-arts style. Classic Art Deco structures, characterized by dramatic geometric forms and graceful curves, include the 1932 Paramount Theatre, on Washington Street near Downtown Crossing (look for the huge vertical sign), and the 1931 building, originally the post office that gave Post Office Square its name, that's now the McCormack Federal Courthouse.
More-contemporary buildings, with sleek designs and mirrored glass, include the Christian Science Center (1973), the John F. Kennedy Library (1979), and the West Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts (1981). The landmark John Hancock Tower (1974) is the most dramatic point in the Boston skyline but began its life by shedding panes of glass onto the street below. (The problem has been corrected.)
To see other noteworthy 20th- and 21st-century structures, cross the river to Cambridge.
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