Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block

| nrhp_type =

| image = Sears Crescent 2025.jpg

| caption = Sears' Crescent (6-story red brick) and Sears' Block (4-story gray granite)

| location = 38–68 and 70–72 Cornhill,
Boston, Massachusetts

| coordinates = {{coord|42|21|34|N|71|3|34|W|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin =

| area =

| built = 1816

| architect =

| architecture = Italianate, Federal

| added = August 9, 1986

| refnum = 86001486{{NRISref|2008a}}

}}

Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block are a pair of adjacent historic buildings located along Cornhill in Boston, Massachusetts. It is adjacent to City Hall and Government Center, and is part of City Hall Plaza.

Sears' Crescent was constructed in 1816 as a series of Federal period commercial rowhouses. Around 1860 these were given a unified curving facade with Italianate styling. The Sears' Block, built in 1848, is a rare surviving instance of granite post-and-lintel construction. Both buildings were developed by David Sears, a leading mid-19th-century developer of Boston who was responsible for the filling of Back Bay. They are the only buildings that remain on the original route of Cornhill, one of Boston's oldest streets, most of whose route has been lost or obscured by urban renewal.{{cite web|url=https://mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=bos.av|title=NRHP nomination for Sears' Crescent and Sears' Block |publisher=Commonwealth of Massachusetts|access-date=2015-09-05}}

The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Sears' Block is now the location of the "Steaming Tea Kettle", an 1873 trade sign commissioned by the Oriental Tea Company that was located on a Court Street building demolished in 1967 during the construction of Government Center.{{cite book|last1=Wurman|first1=Richard Saul|title=Access Boston|date=2004|publisher=Access Press|isbn=0-06-054762-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/accessboston000wurm/page/43 43]|edition=7th|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/accessboston000wurm/page/43}} The kettle was refurbished and reinstalled in 2016 after being damaged, apparently by a truck.{{cite news|last1=Rosen|first1=Andy|title=Landmark steaming kettle sign to return to Government Center|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/10/05/landmark-steaming-kettle-sign-return-government-center/leDAVgNbf9gXSnRXVUADoL/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Afacebook|accessdate=30 October 2016|work=Boston Globe|date=5 October 2016}}

Sears' Crescent was acquired in 2016{{cite news|last1=Stribling|first1=Dees|title=Historic Sears Crescent Building Trades For Nearly $24M|url=https://www.bisnow.com/boston/news/office/historic-sears-crescent-building-trades-for-nearly-24m-59581|accessdate=10 September 2017|work=BisNow|date=24 May 2016}} by Chevron Partners.{{cite web|title=Sears' Crescent|url=http://searscrescent.com/|accessdate=10 September 2017}}