Illustration of ornate early skyscrapers on a narrow downtown street, evoking Boston historic districts in the Financial District.

Boston Historic Districts: Exchange District, Green Street Advance

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Two Boston historic districts, downtown’s Historic Exchange District and the Green Street East Historic District in Jamaica Plain, are a step closer to the National Register of Historic Places. The Massachusetts Historical Commission’s State Review Board voted at its Sept. 9 meeting to forward both nominations to the National Park Service for final review, the City of Boston announced on Oct. 8, 2026.

What the State Vote Means for Boston Historic Districts

The commission’s 17 appointed members serve as the State Review Board for state and federal preservation programs, and their approval is required before the National Park Service can conduct its federal review. Elizabeth Sherva, deputy director of the city’s Office of Historic Preservation, spoke in favor of both nominations at the meeting. The city said its preservation office worked with the Boston Planning Department, property owners and neighborhood organizers to advance the nominations and connect them with city development goals. The announcement was published by the Boston Landmarks Commission.

The National Park Service describes the National Register as the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation, created under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. It counts more than 100,000 listings, which together include roughly two million contributing buildings, sites, structures and objects.

The Historic Exchange District Downtown

The Exchange District nomination covers about 18 acres of the Financial District. It is centered near Devonshire and Water streets and runs roughly from State Street to below Milk Street, and from just west of Washington Street to Kilby Street. According to the city, the area was built up between 1883 and 1931 after the Great Fire of 1872, when banks, insurers, brokers and law offices clustered there alongside firms tied to New England’s wool, shoe, leather, shipping and trading industries.

Elevators and steel-frame construction allowed a group of early skyscrapers to rise in Beaux-Arts, Renaissance Revival, Classical Revival, Neoclassical, Art Deco and Colonial Revival styles. City preservation staff drafted the nomination themselves, with an eye toward encouraging new investment in those buildings.

That investment angle connects to Mayor Michelle Wu’s Office to Residential Conversion Program, which offers a 75% property tax abatement for up to 29 years to owners who turn older office buildings into housing. The city says contributing buildings in the district may be able to combine those conversion incentives with historic tax credits, and that several Financial District projects are already preparing to do so. Recent examples nearby include the 31 Milk Street conversion, which secured a $44 million loan for 110 homes, and the push comes as the downtown office market works through high vacancy. Applications for the conversion program remain open through Dec. 31, 2026, and approved projects must start construction by the end of 2027.

Green Street East in Jamaica Plain

The Green Street East Historic District is much smaller. It recognizes 11 contributing resources between Brookside Avenue and Greenley Place, inside the broader corridor between Washington and Amory streets. Green Street was laid out in 1836 to link Washington Street with the Boston and Providence Railroad, and a Green Street station opened in 1841.

Rail service, horse cars, later electric streetcars and the nearby Stony Brook drew mills, workshops, housing and small businesses. Surviving buildings include homes, apartment buildings, stables, carriage factories, a carpentry shop and what the city calls a rare paint shop, among them the Alfred Papineau Livery Stable, the Thanisch Carriage Factory, Hotel Morse and Hotel McKinley. The research documents immigrants from Germany, Canada and Ireland who built or financed many of the properties.

Unlike the downtown nomination, this one came from residents. The Friends of Historic Green Street, supported by the Legacy Fund, organized the effort and paid for the research. The city said the listing is meant to make sure the street’s history is understood as major development continues along Washington Street between Egleston Square and Forest Hills, part of a wider citywide conversation about housing and older buildings that also includes the proposed condo conversion ordinance.

Tax Credits and What Listing Does Not Do

Owners of contributing buildings may apply for Massachusetts and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, each worth up to 20% of qualified rehabilitation spending. Projects must be certified and meet preservation standards, so listing alone does not guarantee a credit. The Park Service says listing is the first step toward eligibility for federal preservation tax credits that have leveraged more than $45 billion in private investment nationally.

The city also spelled out the limits. National Register listing is not the same as designation as a Boston Landmark or a local historic district. It does not require private owners to get Boston Landmarks Commission design approval for ordinary privately funded work, and it does not require restoration, maintenance or public access.

What Happens Next

The two nominations now go to the National Park Service, which makes the final decision on listing. The city has not announced a timeline for that review. If approved, the Exchange District would recognize the downtown core shaped by finance and trade, while Green Street East would recognize a neighborhood shaped by transit, immigrant enterprise, small industry and housing.

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