Old City Hall

Old City Hall is a landmark French Second Empire building on School Street in downtown Boston that served as the city’s seat of government for more than a century. Completed in 1865, it was one of the first buildings in that style in the United States and is one of the few that survive. It stood at the center of Boston’s political life until the city moved its government to a new building in 1969.

The site held two Boston city halls. The Suffolk County Courthouse built there in 1810 became the second city hall in 1841, and it was replaced by the current building in 1865. After the city moved to Government Center in 1969, the building was converted between 1969 and 1971 into a restaurant and first-class offices, an early and widely publicized example of adaptive reuse of an outdated public building.

What to Know

• Thirty-eight Boston mayors served at this site over 128 years.
• Its conversion became a national model for reusing landmark buildings in the 1970s and 1980s.
• The rehabilitation project continues to win recognition decades later.
• Of the city’s Democratic mayors, all 20 used the donkey as a symbol, while only five of 10 Republicans used the elephant.