In a unanimous decision, the Boston Landmarks Commission voted this month to designate the Old Corner Bookstore and Cunningham House as official landmarks, joining other historic sites including Quincy Market, Boston Common, the Boston Public Library, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
While the buildings at the corner of Washington and School streets are now occupied by chain restaurants Chipotle and DIG, the site’s history dates back to a 17th-century Colonial settlement, when the land was owned by Isaac Johnson, a Puritan founder of Massachusetts and the man who gave Boston its name, according to the Landmarks Commission.
Following a public review process, the Landmarks Commission voted 9-0 on May 13 to recognize the buildings’ historic value and architectural significance, according to the panel.
“The Old Corner Bookstore at 283 Washington Street is locally significant as the oldest extant commercial building in Boston, and nationally significant as the former home of Ticknor and Fields, a prominent nineteenth-century book publisher,’’ said Nicholas A. Armata, senior preservation planner at the Office of Historic Preservation, in an email to the Globe.
Ticknor and Fields published works by some of the most notable authors of the 19th century including Charles Dickens, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.
Landmark status protects a historic site from physical changes that might compromise its integrity.
The Old Corner Bookstore and Cunningham House were constructed out of brick in 1718 after a fire in 1711 destroyed nearly 100 buildings in the area, and wood buildings were banned downtown, according to the Landmarks Commission’s study report.
The buildings are rare surviving examples of residential Georgian architecture, according to the commission.
The Old Corner Bookstore was occupied by booksellers and publishers from 1828 to 1903, while the adjacent Cunningham House at 277 Washington St. was occupied by booksellers and publishers from 1828 to the 1880s, according to Armata.
The buildings had various tenants throughout the first half of the 20th century, including restaurants, printing shops, management companies, tailors, and furriers, Armata said.
In the 1960s, the Old Corner Bookstore and Cunningham House faced demolition under city renewal plans for a parking garage, according to Armata.
Recognizing their historic value, the Bostonian Society helped form Historic Boston Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the city’s architectural heritage through active reuse, according to the study report.
HBI proved that the buildings did not have to be preserved as museums, but could continue to host tenants, “generating municipal tax revenue and adding value to the surrounding neighborhood,’’ the study report said.
The building “was saved from demolition thanks in part to the Boston Globe,’’ Armata said.
In the late 20th century, the Globe opened an advertising office on the ground floor while members of Charles Taylor’s family, the newspaper’s founding publisher, took offices upstairs, “making financing the preservation project feasible,’’ according to Armata.
Mayor Michelle Wu has until May 29 to act on the designation. It then goes to City Council.
Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at sarah.mesdjian@globe.com.
