O'Shea Building

O'Shea Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	1-15 Main St., Peabody, Massachusetts
Coordinates
Area	less than one acre
Built	1903 (1903)
Architectural style	Renaissance
NRHP Reference #	09000710
Added to NRHP	January 11, 1980

The O'Shea Building is a historic commercial building at 1-15 Main Street in Peabody, Massachusetts. Built in 1903-04 by Thomas O'Shea, one of the city's leading businessmen of the time, it is a well-preserved example of commercial Renaissance Revival architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Description and history

The O'Shea Building is located on the south side of Main Street, just east of Peabody Square, in the city's central business district. It is a two-story structure built out of brick, limestone and granite, with Renaissance Revival styling.It occupies 160 feet (49 m) of frontage on Main Street (and shorter frontage on Nichols Lane), with three store fronts on each side of a slightly projecting central arched entrance. The first floor is divided from the second by a pressed metal entablature, a feature that also appears above the second story. The second story consists of a series of arched window openings, that are grouped into pairs divided by Corinthian pilasters.

The building is one of two buildings (the other, the Second O'Shea Building, stands adjacent to this one on Peabody Square) to be built by leathermaker Thomas O'Shea, one of the city's leading businessmen, in the 1900s. At the time this building was built, this stretch of Main Street was still largely residential, with some small shops. The original retail tenants of this block included a druggist, dry goods dealer, grocer, and milliner, and the upstairs housed professional offices and fraternal social organizations, including the Grand Army of the Republic and the Knights of Columbus.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts