Post Office Square, Boston facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Post Office Square
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The Langham Hotel is situated along the northeastern edge of the square. Norman B. Leventhal park is also visible in the foreground.
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State | Massachusetts |
City | Boston |
District | Financial District |
Boundaries | Franklin Street, Congress Street, Milk Street, Pearl Street |
Historical features | Norman B. Leventhal park |
Post Office Square (est. 1874) in Boston, Massachusetts is a square located in the financial district at the intersection of Milk, Congress, Pearl and Water Streets. It was named in 1874 after the United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury which fronted it, now replaced by the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse.
The square is almost entirely occupied by a privately owned and managed but publicly accessible park, Norman B. Leventhal Park, named for the Boston building manager and designer who designed it. It sits above a parking garage, named "The Garage at Post Office Square." The garage descends to 80 feet (24 m) below the surface, at the time one of the deepest points of excavation in the city. Revenues from parking fund the maintenance of the park. The 1.7-acre (0.69 ha) park is a popular lunchtime destination for area workers. It features a café, fountains, and a pergola around a central lawn, and the management provides seat cushions for visitors during the summer. Designed by landscape architects The Halvorson Company, the park is also home to "125 species of plants."
History
Post Office Square was the site of a 1964 speech by Lyndon B. Johnson.
There was a transformer explosion and fire in the One Post Office Square building in December 1986. An electric company worker was killed but fortunately it was after normal business hours and the building was able to be evacuated with only a few injuries.
It was also the site of the now-closed Boston Claim Assistance Site of the September 11th Victim Compensation Program.
Major buildings
Significant buildings on the square include the following:
- John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse
- New England Telephone and Telegraph Building is a historic structure built in 1947 at 185 Franklin Street. It is a Pending Boston Landmark. A developer purchased the building in 2011 and renamed it "50 Post Office Square." In this building, the laboratory in which the first telephone was built has been reconstructed.
- Langham Hotel Boston, a building that until 1977 housed the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston In 1978 it was designated a Boston Landmark.
- One Post Office Square
- 100 Federal Street