| Post Office Square | |
| Settlement Type: | Square in Boston |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | City |
| Subdivision Name2: | Boston |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Financial District |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Boundaries |
| Blank Info Sec1: | Franklin Street, Congress Street, Milk Street, Pearl Street |
| Blank4 Name Sec1: | Historical features |
| Blank4 Info Sec1: | Norman B. Leventhal park |
Post Office Square (est. 1874) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a square located in the financial district at the intersection of Milk, Congress, Pearl and Water Streets.[1] [2] It was named in 1874 after the United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury which fronted it,[3] now replaced by the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse.
The square is almost entirely occupied by a privately owned and managed but publicly accessible park, Norman B. Leventhal Park, named for the Boston building manager and designer who designed it. It sits above a parking garage, named "The Garage at Post Office Square."[4] The garage descends to below the surface, at the time one of the deepest points of excavation in the city. Revenues from parking fund the maintenance of the park. The 1.7acres park is a popular lunchtime destination for area workers. It features a café, fountains, and a pergola around a central lawn, and the management provides seat cushions for visitors during the summer. Designed by landscape architects The Halvorson Company in collaboration with Ellenzweig Architects,[5] the park is also home to "125 species of plants."[6]
In the 18th century, rope manufacturers occupied the area, then it became a residential district, and later a business and commercial area. The Great Boston fire of 1872 swept through the area, and as rebuilding began the area began to be called Post Office Square after the new United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury Building which faced the square.[7]
In 1874, the headquarters of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, designed by Nathaniel Bradlee, was erected in the square on the site of what is now Norman B. Leventhal Park. This building was demolished in 1945, and a large parking garage which filled the area of the present park was erected, being completed in 1954.[7]
Post Office Square was the site of a 1964 speech by Lyndon B. Johnson.[8]
There was a transformer explosion and fire in the One Post Office Square building in December 1986. An electric company worker was killed but it was after normal business hours and the building was able to be evacuated with only a few injuries.[9]
The above-ground parking garage was demolished in 1988. The new garage, entirely underground, was opened in 1990 at a cost of $18 million,[10] and the park above it was completed in 1992.[7]
Significant buildings on the square include the following: