John Hancock Building

[4] In 1909, John Hancock began work on a new addition to the building on the corner of Franklin and Devonshire Streets.

John Hancock occupied the top three floors of the ten-story building and the Library Bureau, Eliot National Bank of Boston, and E. H. Rollins & Sons were among the first tenants.

[8] The property was acquired by National Shawmut Bank, which constructed a temporary building to aid in their transition to One Federal Street.

According to Donlyn Lyndon, "if you stand on the corner of Clarendon Street and St. James Avenue and look directly into the mirrored surface of the third Hancock, you will see reflected there the first two, aligned hierarchically in an ethereal family portrait."

Originally, the Planned Development Area (PDA) agreement for the building of the 60-story John Hancock Tower called for 197 Clarendon to be demolished to make way for open space or a public square.

In 1982, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, responding to a request from the John Hancock company, decided that it would be better to keep the building on the tax rolls.

The building, located in Boston's Back Bay, was designed by Cram and Ferguson and completed in 1947.

The John Hancock Tower, on the southeast corner of Copley Square, is a 60-story, 790 ft (240 m) skyscraper.

In 2002, Manulife Financial began construction of a 14-story building in the Seaport District at 601 Congress Street (Picture).