Custom House Tower

 

The tower was added to the base in 1913–1915 . Although Boston at that time had a 125-foot height restriction, the Custom House was federally owned and exempt from it. The new tower's 496 feet  made it the city's tallest. In 1947, the Old John Hancock Building, just one foot shorter, joined it in the skies over Boston. In 1964, it was exceeded by the Prudential Tower. The clock on the upper tower of the building is 22 feet  in diameter. Because of an undersized motor, it failed to work properly through much of the 20th century. In 1960, the Great Seal of the United States was painted in the lobby's dome.

It was declared "surplus property" when custom officials moved into the Thomas P. O'Neill building in 1986. On April 16, 1987, the city of Boston purchased the building from the G S A, and the building remained unoccupied and inaccessible for 14 years.

The BRA, the Landmarks Commission, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Beal Companies, and Jung Brannen Associates, Inc. all proposed concepts for the use of the building that ranged from museums to offices to residential developments. In 1995, the Beal Companies and Marriott Ownership Resorts International announced plans to develop the building into a timeshare resort. The building was converted into an 87-room Marriott Vacation Club starting in 1997.

Working around the tower’s structural constraints, the project team devised ways to fit four to five suites, with custom-designed built-in cabinetry and furnishings, on each floor. This resulted in the creation of 87 one-bedroom suites with 22 different floor plan designs. A private owner’s lounge, an exercise area and a game room were a few of the other amenities designed into the project. Also designed into the project was significant public access, including a new ground floor, a rotunda-level maritime museum and exhibit space, and guided tours of the refurbished observation deck on the tower’s 26th floor.