A section of Downtown has been deemed eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the city’s Landmarks Commission announced last month.
This new historic district, named the Exchange District, is centered at the intersection of Devonshire and Water Streets in the North End of Downtown. It is intended to celebrate and preserve this area, which was “pivotal to Boston’s history as the epicenter of the region’s financial, commercial, and industrial sectors,” the city wrote in an announcement on its website.
But preservation for preservation’s sake is not the main reason the city is interested in having a National Register district here. If the area is listed on the National Register, it becomes easier for developers to run renovations and housing conversions in historic buildings.
“One of the tools that many developers will use when converting historic buildings are state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits,” Elizabeth Sherva, the city’s deputy director of historic preservation, said in a phone call. “This is a very cohesive historic district, with a history of banking and finance. If we package [these buildings] into one district, it really helps developers leverage those tax credits to make those projects happen.”
The city’s website states that these federal and state tax credits can cover up to 40 percent of capital costs for “preservation-oriented rehabilitation.”
Because much of the motivation for this district is to make redevelopment easier, the Planning Department said it consulted on the project.
“Staff participated in reviewing the district with the Office of Historic Preservation,” Planning spokesperson Brittany Comak wrote in an email. “We are excited for the benefits this could offer office to residential conversions and other adaptive reuse projects through historic tax credits, ultimately helping advance the goals of PLAN: Downtown [the city’s Downtown planning and zoning project approved last year]. However, it is important to note that a National Register District does not supersede zoning.”
Michael Nichols, the president of the Downtown Boston Alliance, a business-oriented nonprofit in the area, said he thought the new Exchange District designation was “right in keeping” with PLAN: Downtown’s goals.
“I
think this designation will allow the district to evolve appropriately,
both in terms of development, redevelopment, adaptive reuse, but also
preservation,” Nichols said. “Sometimes historic preservation is not
simply about mothballing a building, but about helping it evolve into
future generations, and it feels like this designation will help do
that.”
There are a
total of about 40 buildings in the district, which has very irregular
borders and spans at its widest from Province to Battery March Streets.
There are also some notable historic exclusions, which residents who
were asked about the designation raised concerns over. The Old South
Meeting House, the Old Corner Bookstore, and the Old State House, for
example, are all excluded.
“We
thought it was a bit of a different story,” Sherva explained. When you
list a district, it has to have some cohesiveness to it. This area is
known for construction within a span of years and also for being a
business hub for New England. The Old South Meeting House, the Old
Corner Bookstore, that is a different point in our history. And those
two are actually already listed in the National Register of Historic
Places.”
Though the district isn’t exclusively focused on tourism, Sherva said she thought it could have a positive impact.
“People
look around and notice all of our historic buildings,” she said.
“Listing this district, opening the door for historic tax credits and
investment into these buildings, will maintain that sense of historic
downtown core.”
The
district isn’t listed yet. The city’s next steps will be to hold a
public meeting about the district, and then put forth a formal proposal
to the state, with a goal date of June. The state will then decide
whether to move the district forward to the National Register for
approval.
