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Metropolitan Storage Warehouse

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1895, 1911, Peabody and Stearns. 134–142 Massachusetts Ave.
  • Metropolitan Storage Warehouse (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

The first building erected on the filled land of the Charles River Embankment Company (founded 1880), the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse dominated the new boulevard built from Lafayette Square to the new Harvard Bridge (see EC2) across the Charles to Boston. The massive five-story, 1,600-room castlelike structure sheltered the valuable belongings of wealthy Bostonians in fireproof safety provided by brick arches. Loading bays for the Boston & Albany Railroad line on the north and Vassar Street on the south provided easy access to transportation. Across Vassar Street, the Cambridge Armory (1902, Hartwell, Richardson and Driver, W31/32, 100–120 Massachusetts Avenue), acquired by MIT in 1957 and converted to the Du Pont Center Gymnasium with a brick addition on the east by Anderson Beckwith and Haible in 1958, perpetuated the medieval fortress image of its neighbor.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Julius Adams Stratton Student Center (Bldg. W20)
William R. Dickson Co-Generation Plant (Bldgs. 41, 42, and 43)
Rotch Library of Art, Architecture, and Planning (Bldg. 7A)
Kresge Auditorium
MIT Chapel (Bldg. W15)

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Metropolitan Storage Warehouse", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-CS5.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 293-294.

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