Its City Hall, a 1924–26 Georgian Revival building designed by William Rogers Greely, stands on the common at the corner of Main and Elm Streets.

The oldest municipal building in the district is the 1887 fire station at 25 Lexington Street; it is a brick Queen Anne structure designed by local architect Samuel Patch.

[2] The common itself is a rectangular area about 2.4 acres (0.97 ha) in size, out of which a smaller rectangle has been cut where City Hall is located.

A statue of native son, Governor of Massachusetts, and American Civil War General Nathaniel Prentice Banks, designed by Henry Hudson Kitson was placed in 1909, and a copy of "The Hiker", a memorial to veterans of the Spanish–American War, designed by Kitson's wife Theodora, was placed in the early 20th century.

Within the Veterans Memorial Mall stands a lectern erected in 1973 commemorating Samuel M. Shriberg, a local business owner who founded Support Our Servicemen.