Three historic buildings in downtown Boston were recently nominated for designation as Boston Landmarks:

The Gilchrist Building at 431–439 Washington Street is significant as one of three Boston-based department store chains—along with Filene’s and Jordan Marsh—recognized for its downtown flagship building at this location and for the entrepreneurial leadership of two locally based retailing families, the Gilchrists and the Vorenbergs. Additional significance lies in its progressive Modern Gothic design by noted architect Henry Forbes Bigelow. Erected in 1899, the building was expanded with four additional stories in 1924.

The Wesleyan Building at 36 Bromfield Street, built in 1870 to the designs of Hammat Billings, served as the Wesleyan Association’s headquarters in Boston and as the original home of the Boston University Law School. A restrained and dignified Italianate structure, the building reflects Boston’s post–Civil War intellectual and religious growth. It is also a rare survivor of the Great Fire of 1872.

The Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, located at the corner of School and Washington Streets, sits just steps from the Old State House and the Freedom Trail. The property combines two phases of bank construction: a 1913 building with classical columns facing School Street, and a mid-20th-century modern addition from the 1960s designed by Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood, facing Reader’s Park and the Irish Famine Memorial.

All three petitions were accepted for further study at the September meeting of the Boston Landmarks Commission. A study report analyzing each structure’s historical and architectural character will be prepared to determine whether they meet the criteria for Landmark designation before being submitted to the Commission for consideration.

Any ten registered Boston voters can petition the Landmarks Commission to designate a building, object, landscape or neighborhood as a Boston Landmark or Historic District. To learn more, visit Boston.gov/landmarks.