Quincy Market - Boston, MA
N 42° 21.602 W 071° 03.352
19T E 330697 N 4691798
The historic Quincy Market is situated next to Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It has become a favorite destination for locals and tourists.
Waymark Code: WMHVK2
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 08/16/2013
Views: 28
Quincy Market (open), adjacent to Faneuil Hall and sometimes called
New Faneuil Hall, is architecturally a product of the Greek Revival,
designed in 1826 by Alexander Parris. -- Massachusetts: A Guide to it's Places and People, 1937, Page 158
Wikipedia describes the Quincy Marketplace as follows:
By the time Boston was incorporated as a city in 1822, downtown commercial demand grew beyond the capacity of Faneuil Hall. To provide an expansion of shop space, Quincy Market was built, as an indoor pavilion of vendor stalls.
Designed by Alexander Parris, the building was built immediately east of and "behind" Faneuil Hall, which at the time sat next to the waterfront. Thus Quincy Market was at harbor's edge at the town dock. In an early example of Boston's tendency for territorial growth via landfill, part of the harbor was filled in with dirt to provide a plot of land for the market. The commercial growth spawned by the new marketplace led to the reconstruction or addition of six city streets.
From its beginning, the Market was largely used as a produce and foodstuff shopping center, with various grocers of such goods as eggs, cheese, and bread lining its inside walls. Digging performed for expansion of the market in the late 1970s uncovered evidence of animal bones, suggesting that butchering work was done on-site. In addition, street vendors took up space outside the building in its plazas and against its outside walls. Some surviving signs of early food and supplies merchants hang today in the upstairs seating hall.
The market is two stories tall, 535 feet (163 m) long, and covers 27,000 square feet (2,500 m²) of land. Its exterior is largely traditional New England granite, with red brick interior walls, and represents the first large-scale use of granite and glass in post-and-beam construction. Within it employs innovative cast iron columns and iron tension rods. The east and west facades exhibit a strong Roman style, with strong triangular pediments and Doric columns. In contrast, the sides of the hall are more modern and American, with rows of rectangular windows.
The building's shape is a long rectangle, providing for a long hallway down its center line. On the roof are eight evenly spaced chimneys, and a copper-based dome in the center of the building, which covers an open common seating area and the major side entrances.