Quincy Market (originally Faneuil Hall Market) is a historic marketplace complex in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Located at Merchants Row next to Faneuil Hall, it consists of three buildings constructed in 1826 and designed by Alexander Parris. The central two-story building (sometimes known as Quincy Market) is flanked by the -story North and South Markets, each containing multiple storefront units. Since 1976, Quincy Market has been the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, a festival marketplace. The buildings are designated as a National Historic Landmark and as Boston Landmarks.
The complex's namesake, Boston mayor Josiah Quincy, began efforts to replace Faneuil Hall's market in 1823. The city government constructed the central building, while the North and South Market units were owned and developed by individual merchants. The complex opened on August 26, 1826, with food stalls, dry-goods stores, outdoor vendors, and exhibition space. Over the years, all three buildings were adapted for different tenants and uses. The North and South Market units were gradually resold and expanded, while the central building was renovated in the 1920s and 1930s.
By the mid-20th century, calls to replace or redevelop the rundown market prompted the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to acquire much of the complex in the 1960s. After an early redevelopment plan fell through, The Rouse Company leased Quincy Market, and James Rouse and Benjamin Thompson began renovating it in 1972. The marketplace, reopened in stages between 1976 and 1978, was both profitable and popular. Major brands began replacing smaller stores in the 1980s, and the complex was renovated in the 1990s and 2000s. Ashkenazy Acquisition took over operation in 2011 and made additional modifications, and J. Safra began operating the complex in 2024.
All three buildings are oriented east–west, separated by streets. The central building is made of granite, with a domed middle section, two wings, and porticoes at each end. Inside are a first-floor passageway connecting the porticoes, along with stores and a double-height rotunda. The North and South Markets have simpler brick and granite facades, which share design details such as trabeated window openings. These buildings have stores below and offices above. The structures included uncommon structural features for their time, which were emulated in other buildings, and the architecture and site layout have been praised over the years. The redevelopment, lauded for its preservation efforts, inspired similar marketplaces elsewhere.
Site Quincy Market is located at Merchants Row in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is on the west side of Commercial Street, between Clinton Street to the north and Chatham Street to the south. The complex includes a central building flanked by the North and South Market buildings, which all occupy a single land lot without an address number. Quincy Market is a stop on the Freedom Trail, a path connecting historic sites in Boston.
Immediately west of the central building is Faneuil Hall, beyond which are Boston City Hall and Boston City Hall Plaza. A seven-story building sits west of the South Market, facing Faneuil Hall. One block to the south is the Boston Custom House, while to the north are the Blackstone Block Historic District and Haymarket. East of Commercial Street is Marketplace Center, a curved three-story building with a granite facade, which is bisected by a glass-roofed passageway extending east toward the waterfront. Marketplace Center adjoins the base of 200 State Street, a 26-story office tower. A storage and trash compactor serving the complex is near Commercial Street, and a multilevel parking garage is next to the North Market.
The complex occupies filled land that was originally part of a marshy cove in Boston Harbor. Known as Town Cove, it was fed by a freshwater stream, Mill Creek, which later became a sewage outflow. When Boston was colonized in the early 17th century, Town Cove became the town dock; just before Quincy Market's construction in the 1820s, the site had several wharves. Due to land reclamation to the east, the buildings are no longer adjacent to the waterfront, which has shifted three city blocks eastward. Although the buildings are built on a layer of blue clay, a study from 1969 found that the foundations had not settled at all.
Open spaces The buildings are separated by two west–east pedestrian streets: North Market Street, measuring wide, and South Market Street, measuring wide. Alexander Parris, who designed the entire complex, named the streets. South Market Street is wider because a holdout lot along its route had been acquired using eminent domain, which, when the complex was built, was permitted only for road-construction projects. The streets are paved in granite and Belgian blocks, and South Market Street has brick and granite pavings that continue the design of nearby public spaces. There are plantings, benches, circular granite seats, and lamps throughout, along with allées of honey locust trees. At Quincy Market's western end is Merchants Row, measuring wide. The complex's eastern boundary, Commercial Street, was originally a waterfront wharf.
The open spaces are a common venue for street performers and musicians, and pushcart operators sell merchandise there as well. The open spaces have hosted large Christmas trees during the Christmas and holiday season since 1989. From 2012 onward, the Christmas trees have hosted the Blink holiday light show, in which 350,000 LEDs illuminate in different patterns while music is played.
Development The original Faneuil Hall, constructed as a gift from the businessman Peter Faneuil, opened in 1742 with a marketplace, which was initially poorly patronized. Faneuil Hall's marketplace saw increased use in the late 18th century. By the 1820s, it had become overcrowded, and the town dock's sewage outflow created a bad stench. Some merchants worked in makeshift open-air booths, while others, unable to even reach the market, had to sell their wares on the street. The street grid was crooked, and the market's merchants generally stayed just 20 years.
Land acquisition and early plans When Quincy took office in May 1823, he could see overcrowded, dirty streets from his Faneuil Hall office. Shortly afterward, he organized a committee, which suggested erecting a market north of the existing building. The Boston City Council allocated $15,000 for these plans that June. Quincy aimed for a wider-ranging redevelopment of the neighborhood, and the City Council created a committee for the "Extension of Faneuil Hall Market" that July. Quincy, the chairman of the committee, appointed ten city lawmakers, including the architect Asher Benjamin. Over the next four months, the committee met with 30 landowners in a area east of Faneuil Hall. Although some landowners were eager to sell their decrepit properties, others held out. Quincy later wrote that it would have taken at least $800,000 to buy out all the landowners.
By December 1823, the committee had drawn up plans for a one-story market and had offered a combined $400,000 to five-sixths of the landowners. The holdouts either refused to sell or demanded compensation that the committee found excessive. Near the center of the site was property owned by fourteen heirs of the Nathan Spear estate, three of whom refused to sell at all. In January 1824, Benjamin publicly presented plans for a one-story, open-air wooden building in the center, flanked to the north and south by -story brick buildings. These would be separated by wide avenues. The central building was positioned asymmetrically so the Spear site was directly in the path of the southern avenue, making it eligible for eminent-domain acquisition. After local residents approved the revised plan that month, the Massachusetts General Court, the commonwealth's legislature, voted in February 1824 to allow eminent domain for non-road purposes.
The committee began acquiring land in early 1825, receiving permission to borrow up to $500,000 to compensate landowners. Many holdouts offered to sell, while others continued to hold out. Some of the remaining holdouts owed back taxes, so the city sent letters to cajole the landlords. Quincy sent eviction notices to property owners in June 1824. By the next month, nearly all the original land had been acquired, along with additional adjacent sites. Benjamin revised the central building's plans, lengthening and enclosing the structure and adding a cellar, and contemporary sources reported in mid-July that work would begin shortly. The structure's perimeter was being surveyed by August 20.
Modified plans Meanwhile, successive revisions to the plans called for an increasingly elaborate marketplace, for which a wooden structure was unsuitable. On September 6–7, 1824, the market committee decided to construct a stone structure for $75,000. Benjamin, who found the architect's fee too meager, nominated his mentor Alexander Parris to take over the design in September 1824, though Benjamin remained involved until February 1825. Parris designed a two-story stone central building, and he laid out a new street facing the waterfront to the east, finishing his modifications within three weeks.
To reduce construction expenses, the committee decided to auction the North and South Market sites to merchants, who would construct their own buildings. Merchants Samuel Hammond and Nathan Faxon bought two disconnected North Market lots in late September, and the remaining lots on that block were auctioned on September 29 for a total of over $300,000. Four groups of buyers acquired three-fourths of the lots, including Amos and Abbott Lawrence, who alone owned seven sites. Parris's plans were approved the next week, October 5. Meanwhile, the Spear heirs had been particularly intractable in their refusal to sell their site. As such, Quincy shifted the central building northward, putting the Spear plot in the path of South Market Street, allowing the land to be acquired through eminent domain. The City Council approved the acquisition that December.
Construction
Because land reclamation was not complete, workers initially constructed the foundations underwater at low tide; the portions of the sites on dry land were excavated. The foundations were being completed by early 1825, when the City Council allocated $150,000 for construction. Gridley Bryant, one of the project's three granite contractors, was tasked with shipping granite down the Middlesex Canal that February. The South Market lots were sold on March 31 for over $400,000; most buyers obtained no more than two lots, except for wine merchant John D. Williams, who bought five lots. A formal cornerstone-laying ceremony for the central building took place on April 27, 1825. Other than that, relatively few details of the construction timeline are known.