Last updated on November 17, 2024
You may walk by the old District 13 Police Station on Seaverns Avenue all the time — but did you know that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places?
The District 13 Police Station, at 28 Seaverns Avenue, is an unusual example of a High Victorian Gothic Style building, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 198.
According to the Jamaica Plain Historical Society (JPHS), the building is the only Gothic style municipal building in Jamaica Plain, and is one of just a few high Victorian style buildings in Boston.
The building was constructed in 1873 and designed by George Ropes, and built for the town of West Roxbury, as one of its last public works before its annexation by Boston. West Roxbury was its own separate municipality from 1851 to 1873. An addition was designed in 1892 by Edmund M. Wheelwright, an architect for the city.
The selectmen voted to spend $45,000 in 1872 to purchase land and construct this new police station in 1872, according to JPHS. The land at Seaverns Street and Starr Lane was purchased from Joseph Stedman for $7043.75 and Ropes was contracted for $1,655.
The building continued to serve as the neighborhood’s police station until being converted to condominiums in the early 1980s.
