Beyond Preservation: How Boston’s Landmarks Are Powering Progress

Historic preservation in Boston is proving to be anything but quiet this year. 

 Across the city, designated Boston Landmarks and properties in local landmark districts are undergoing capital improvements, sustainability upgrades, and accessibility enhancements, alongside important conservation work. The Office of Historic Preservation, through the Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) and the City’s Archaeology Program, is working closely with public and private property owners to support these efforts, demonstrating that a Landmark designation is not a barrier to progress, but an asset in developing thoughtful, people-centric spaces. In fact, investment in Boston Landmark properties and local historic districts is experiencing another impressive year: the 849 projects that have undergone review by the Boston Landmarks Commission this year represent a whopping $708 million in improvements city-wide.  

Designated Boston Landmarks enjoy the city’s highest level of protection and ensures ongoing oversight through project-by-project review by BLC staff and Commission members. Yet Commission reviews rarely result in a simple “yes” or “no” decision. Each Boston Landmark and local district has individualized guidelines that define which elements of a building are character defining features and where there is flexibility for repairs, upgrades, and modernization. This nuanced approach is essential today in the face of climate change, when all buildings must be evaluated for energy upgrades, decarbonization strategies, and improved material performance. Window replacements, insulation, roof systems, and new mechanical systems are frequently not made of the original fabric or do not replicate their construction exactly. In these instances, the BLC staff and commissioners help owners pursue the highest feasible energy performance while ensuring that replacement systems and building components remain as sensitive as possible to each building’s historic character.

If you’ve been downtown or walked Boston’s Freedom Trail, you’ve probably noticed that the Old Corner Bookstore (1718), Boston’s oldest commercial building and an official site on the Freedom Trail, is completely enclosed by scaffolding and an interpretive scrim that tells the story of the 307-year-old complex. Originally constructed as a home and apothecary shop for Dr.  Thomas Crease, it gained literary fame in the 19^th century as the headquarters of publisher Ticknor & Fields and meeting place for authors like Thoreau, Longfellow, Hawthorne and Beecher Stowe. The Old Corner’s owner today, the non-profit historic preservation organization Historic Boston Inc. (HBI), is working with architect MASS Design to replace all of its street-facing windows (none of which are original) with triple-paned, high-efficiency units. Under careful BLC review, HBI is balancing state-of-the-art energy performance with the appropriate historic appearance of the individual retail and upper story windows in order to make the Old Corner Bookstore one of the most energy-efficient early-eighteenth-century buildings in the city. 

The Jabez Lewis–Dawson House (1822) within the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in the City’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood is also undergoing significant capital repairs. Built by Jabez and Lucretia Lewis, the dwelling first entered the Arboretum’s story when Jackson Dawson, the Arboretum’s pioneering propagator, made it his home and workplace, linking the building to the institution’s earliest experiments in plant cultivation. Its role expanded dramatically in the mid-20th century when the noted collector and botanist Ernest Jesse Palmer lived there with his family. From 1931 to 1948, Palmer used the house as a base for his prolific research on North American plants, especially hawthorns, while his family life and hands-on repairs added another layer of history to the structure. The house endures as what BLC researchers called an “extraordinary landmark of American horticultural history.” 

The Arboretum is implementing a program of critical capital repairs including the stabilization and protection of the long-vacant structure. Work involves removing the deteriorated roof and installing a new reinforced roof system with full ice-and-water shielding, asphalt shingles, and custom-fabricated copper trim elements— that match the originals. Extensive masonry and external woodwork will also be restored. Altogether, these repairs represent a substantial investment in preserving this Boston Landmark and securing its future within the Arboretum’s historic landscape.

Preservation activity is equally robust in the city’s historic landscapes. On Boston Common, the Office of Historic Preservation is collaborating with Boston’s Department of Boston Parks & Recreation to conceptualize a wheelchair-accessible entrance from the Saint-Gaudens Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial into the Common. This work honors the memorial’s national importance while significantly improving the visitor experience at one of America’s most historic parks. While plans are still in progress, the collaboration between the Boston Landmarks Commission and the Parks Department is generating scenarios that are deeply sensitive to the Common’s historic pathways and mature trees and plant materials.

At Franklin Park, planned renovations and expansion to the historic tennis courts planned by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department near the Morton Street entrance—and enhancements to the adjacent picnic area—have required both reviews by the Boston Landmarks Commission and archaeological review by the City Archaeology Program. Designed in 1885 by Frederick Law Olmsted as the crowning jewel of the Emerald Necklace park system, Franklin Park sits on land of the Massachusett people, whose trails and seasonal use of the area predated the park by centuries. Spanning more than 500 acres, it remains Boston’s largest park and a defining masterpiece of American landscape design.   

Archaeologists are conducting surveys, consisting of investigatory digs in a variety of locations to ensure that no significant subsurface materials are disturbed, enabling modern upgrades and expansion of recreational materials while safeguarding the park’s deep historical layers.

Together, these projects underscore that historic preservation in Boston is dynamic, collaborative, and forward-looking. Through close partnership with property owners and City agencies, the Office of Historic Preservation ensures that Landmark protections advance good stewardship, progressive sustainability, and broad benefits to the public. Whether it is restoring a single landmark (one of 127 in the City of Boston) or improving the energy performance of a home in one of Boston’s 10 local historic districts, the goal is the same: to keep Boston’s landmarked places uniquely local, vibrant, resilient, and open to all while honoring the stories that define them.