Little Building

I am The Little Building, so called after John Mason Little a well known Boston Banker, Builder and Executor of the Pelham Trust. When I was built these words were dedicated in an inscription: "John Mason Little, to whose foresight, energy and devotion this building owes its existence". Since that day of dedication I have stood proudly at 80 Boylston St. at the edge of the Boston Commons on the corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets in the Back Bay district of Boston, Massachusetts. I am a modern Gothic, steel frame, 12 story, skyscraper. I was constructed in 1917 and designed by prominent Boston architect Clarence Blackall (1857-1942)I stand on the site of the old Hotel Pelham which is often identified as the first apartment house in America. In a quote from a Boston news paper: "Compared to the Pelham, the Little exemplifies the ever-growing scale of Boston buildings. But its a lot subtler than it looks at first. the two lower floors are handsome, generous shops, and the third floor, just above them, recalls the old "bosses' floor." In the days before elevators, the floor just above the shops was the most prized and was usually occupied by managment. That floor often recieved, as this does, a special architectural expression. The Little, of course, was built as an elevator building, and its "Bosses' floor" is already a pleasant exercise in Nostalgia. Above the Iittle's facade is a richly modeled surface of shallow bay windows alternating with white cast-stone shafts embelished with Gothic detail. The shafts contrast with the darker windows, and especially with the metal panels above and below the windows. The contrast gives an effect of light and shade to this north-facing wall, which in fact recieves little or no sunshine. Inside, a two story arcade overlooked by the mezanine extends the shop-lined sidewalk into the building with a genuine urbanity."