For over a century, Boston’s Downtown Financial District has been the beating heart of New England’s finance industry.

A State Street address has prestigiously demarcated banking institutions for longer than the city has held its contemporary geography. While neighborhoods like the Back Bay and Seaport were still marshy wetlands being filled in, everyone from aristocrats to recent immigrants were patronizing the centralized Financial District. The thriving ecosystem that developed around that business continues to circulate the financial blood of the city today.

The Financial District’s contemporary prominence is rooted in that history. Today’s banking megaliths were once many smaller, ethnically patronized institutions that congregated in close proximity to benefit from shared needs, if not yet shared clientele. Author of Boston’s Financial District and 90 other books on Boston history, Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, detailed in an interview how the early formation of the Financial District laid the brick work for a neighborhood that still best serves the descended industry today.

"If I was an Irish immigrant in 1870, I'd want to invest in [the Irish bank], because it was started by one of my fellow immigrants from Ireland. They also had the Banca Italiano, the Italian bank. They had a Greek bank.... In the 19th century, many of these institutions were much more friendly and much more cohesive than we might have thought. They weren't independent entities,” Sammarco said. “The smaller banks were really gobbled up by the time of World War Two. The Bank of Boston is now Bank of America.”

While the last decade has seen the rapid development of the Seaport attract law firms and some smaller financial institutions to its growing work, live, play appeal, trendy can’t undo the benefits of a century of established physical and professional infrastructure.

“Downtown is still by far the biggest office submarket in the entire metro area,” said Jeffery Myers, the research director at Colliers real estate company. “The omnipresence of the centralized banking industry created a secondary service industry that still caters to the shared needs of the bankers. Need a suit tailored? Drop it off next door. Need to take a client to lunch and make it back for an afternoon meeting? You have abundant choices from casual to swanky.”

The Financial District’s well-trodden location also benefits from being one of the most accessible places in the city by public transportation. While developing neighborhoods lag behind, any office building in the Financial District can boast easy access to commuters and proximity to any number of clients that spring up in the well-developed surrounding areas. When it’s completed next year, South Station Tower, the future home of Jones Day global law firm, will exist right atop one of Boston’s busiest transit hubs.

Today, the Financial District is experiencing a revival in real estate development, breaking a drought of major construction projects. New initiatives like the South Station Tower and the redevelopment of One Congress are reshaping the downtown skyline, signaling a renewed investment in the area’s future. These projects not only modernize the district but also reaffirm its position as a cornerstone of Boston’s economy, blending its historic legacy with contemporary aspirations.

The financial services company State Street has occupied about 500,000 square feet of the One Congress building. “There aren't a lot of buildings in Seaport that can really accommodate that size of a tenant,” Myers said.

The Seaport’s proximity to Logan Airport prevents the construction of the significantly taller and larger buildings that big banks love to inhabit to emblazon their names across the Boston skyline.