First Town-House (Boston)

The First Town-House in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, was located on the site of today's Old State House and served as Boston's first purpose-built town hall and colonial government seat. Robert Keayne left £300 in his will for the construction of a marketplace and town-house; this was more than doubled by subscriptions from 104 "Townesmen", and on August 1, 1657, a contract was signed with Messrs. Thomas Joy and Bartholomew Bernad for the construction. The initial price was £400 but the final bill came out to £680. The contract was for "a very substantial and comely Building... sixty six foot in Length, and thirty six foot in Breadth from outside to outside, set upon twenty one Pillers of full ten foot high... the wholl Building to Jetty over three foot without the Pillers everie way... according to A modell or draught presented to us, by the sd. Tho. Joy & Barth. Bernad. The time wch Payment shall be as followeth viz: one Hund. Pound at the Bringing of the Timber to the Place, A second Hund. at the raysing, a third Hund. at the inclosure & Covering, a fourth at the finishing and Compleating..." The wood-frame building was completed and occupied in 1658. A sketch drawn in 1930 based on the original specifications shows an open-walled public market (a traditional medieval form) on the ground floor. Three rows of seven stout posts supported the upper stories, which were

Town hall data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).