Little Building, Emerson College

Built on the site of the Hotel Pelham (Arthur Gilman, 1857), the first “French flat” apartment building in the United States, the Little Building prided itself on providing a “City under One Roof.” When opened, the tall office building contained six hundred offices, thirteen stores, twenty-two shops, a post office, restaurants, a subway entrance, and passages to the adjoining theaters. This twelve-story steel skyscraper with three light courts inset above the third level on Tremont Street is faced with cast stone in Tudor Revival detailing. Entered from Boylston Street, the double-level arcade is one of the best surviving examples of this urban form in Boston, complete with historic scenes of the city painted below the segmental arches. Emerson College has converted the building for dormitory space, a dining hall, a bookstore, and offices.