Historical Sketch

Faneuil Hall Marketplace is a European-style festival marketplace in downtown Boston that includes four historic buildings: Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, North Market, and South Market. Following the designation in 1966 of the entire area as a National Historic Landmark and its subsequent placement on the National Register of Historic Places, funds were awarded to the city of Boston to restore the three market buildings to their original 19th-century appearances and to revitalize the area as a shopping and dining destination.

In 1971, the combined Van Arkel and Moss, Inc. of Philadelphia and R. M. Bradley & Co. of Boston were designated as project developers, with the restoration designed by Benjamin Thompson and Associates. Following the removal of Van Arkel and Moss-R. M. Bradley, the Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland, was designated developers and managers of the project in March 1973. The design by Thompson closed the streets between the market buildings to vehicles and opened them to pedestrian traffic, with Quincy Market as the retail and food-focused center and the North and South Markets also providing shopping and eating options. The design was meant to retain the original spirit of the markets as places to buy meat, produce, dairy, baked goods, and wine, as well as adding cafes, restaurants, a theater, night clubs, boutiques, and kiosks.

The area was to play a key part in the Boston 200 celebrations, marking the city's observance of the American Revolution beginning in 1975. On 26 August 1976, Quincy Market held its grand opening, followed by the opening of South Market in 1977 and North Market in 1978.

Benjamin Thompson was born 3 July 1918 in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Benjamin Thompson and Lillian Mudge Thompson. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Yale School of Architecture in 1941. In 1946, he was one of the founders of The Architects Collaborative, which included Walter Gropius. In 1953, he founded Design Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then Benjamin Thompson and Associates in 1966. Thompson, along with his wife Jane, also became the owner of Landmark Inn, the four-story restaurant in the North Market building. It included the Flower Garden Cafe on the street level, which was originally going to be called the Grasshopper Restaurant; Thompson's Chowder House on the lower level; Wild Goose Rotisserie on the 2nd level, along with its private room the Wine Bin; and Bunch of Grapes Tavern located on the 3rd floor. In 1969, he married Jane Fiske McCullogh. Thompson died 17 August 2002.

Jane Fiske McCullogh Thompson was born 30 June 1927 in Champaign, Illinois, to David Lewis Fiske and Ahna Anderson Fiske. After attending Vassar College, she worked at the Museum of Modern Art and was a co-founder of Industrial Design magazine. She then became a partner at Design Research, followed by partner of planning at Benjamin Thompson and Associates, and later headed her own firm Thompson Design Group. Jane Thompson died 22 August 2016.