On December 23, 1913, the Federal
Reserve Act became law, and within a year the 12 Federal
Reserve Banks were open for business. The Boston Fed,
along with the other 11 Federal Reserve Banks nationwide
and the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make
up our nation's central bank. The Boston Fed serves
the First Federal Reserve District that includes the
six New England states: Connecticut (excluding Fairfield
County), Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island and Vermont.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston was organized in October 1914. It opened for
business on November 16, 1914, in temporary quarters at the corner of Milk and
Pearl Streets with a staff of three officers and 14 clerks. Permanent quarters
were secured on January 1, 1915, at 53 State Street, formerly occupied by The
First National Bank of Boston.
As the Federal Reserve grew, the site soon became too
small. The Bank clearly needed a larger site, convenient
to its most prominent stockholders and customers,
Boston's large banks. Three sites were considered: Dewey Square, the corner of
Federal and Franklin Streets, and the New York Life Insurance Building. However,
these sites soon proved inadequate. In 1919, C.W. Whittier & Company, real
estate brokers, presented a site. The Reserve Bank purchased the premises at
95 Milk Street and the adjacent Pearl Street property for $1,400,000, gaining
a frontage on Pearl, Franklin and Oliver Streets.
The Board appointed a building committee, divided into two subcommittees: esthetic
features and interior and layout, with E.R. Morss as Chairman. R. Clipston Sturgis
was chosen as the architect for the Federal Reserve Bank's new building.
Construction for the Reserve's Renaissance revival bank was begun in 1920 and
finished in 1922. The bank featured a masonry exterior of rusticated granite
at ground level with limestone above. The interior boasted a painted dome ceiling
in the entrance foyer; a gilded coffered ceiling and large N.C. Wyeth murals
in the main lobby; marble door frames and mantles; and floor-to-ceiling arched
windows on the lower level. Life-size equestrian statues once guarded the small
entrance door, and a court with a fountain lighted by daylight also graced the
Reserve.
In 1977, the Boston Fed moved once more to its current site at 600 Atlantic Avenue
in Dewey Square. The 1922 Reserve Building was declared a Boston Landmark in
the 1980's and now serves as a luxury hotel, The Langham.
The 604-foot 33-story office tower linked to a four-story
wing was erected between December 1972 and November
1974. The architects, Hugh Stubbins & Associates,
designed the tower office floors that rise from a 140-foot bridge "suspended" in
the air between two end cores. A 600 ton major steel structure called a "truss" marks
the beginning of the tower's "office in the air." The exterior is natural anodized
aluminum, which acts as a curtain wall and weatherproof facing. The aluminum
spandrels or "eye-brows" shade the building interior from the sun in the summertime
and allow more sunlight in the winter months.
Find out more about the Boston Fed's history: