Newbury Street renovation and expansion honors Back Bay’s historical architecture, a counterpart to the family records and research preserved for generations to come
McGRATHPR.com – American Ancestors®, the national nonprofit center for family history, heritage and culture, was honored with a 2026 Preservation Achievement Award from the Boston Preservation Alliance for the renovation and expansion of its flagship headquarters on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay. The award was presented on Wednesday, October 21, at the Alliance’s 38th Annual Preservation Achievement Awards at the Boston Athenaeum. The project, designed by Schwartz/Silver Architects and financed with support from MassDevelopment and Beacon Bank, joined the organization’s longtime home at 99-101 Newbury Street with the neighboring building at 97 Newbury Street, creating new public space and a home for the Family Heritage Experience, an interactive, state-of-the-art exhibition that introduces visitors to the joy of family history research, which launched in 2025.
“We are deeply honored to receive this recognition from the Boston Preservation Alliance. For 181 years, American Ancestors has been entrusted with the records of families in America and beyond, and we believe a historic building deserves the same care we give to a family’s history,” said Ryan J. Woods, President & CEO of American Ancestors. “In rebuilding 97 Newbury Street, we honored the character of the Back Bay while opening our doors more widely than at any time in our history. This building will welcome generations of new visitors and give them the opportunity to connect with the past while discovering their own stories. That is preservation in action.”
For American Ancestors, the significance of this recognition reaches beyond the building itself. Since its founding in 1845, the organization has been devoted to preservation of a different kind: safeguarding the records, manuscripts and family stories that connect people to those who came before them. The same care that honors the historic character of one of Boston’s most celebrated streets also protects the documents that let families recover names, places and lives that might otherwise be lost. In renewing its Newbury Street home, American Ancestors has secured both a landmark of Back Bay’s architectural heritage and a permanent place where the nation’s family history will be kept, studied and shared for generations to come.
Family Heritage Experience, 2025,
image by Claire Vail Photography
at American Ancestors’ Family Heritage Experience,
image by Paul Burk
The story of the site mirrors the layered histories that family researchers uncover every day. Developed as part of the filled Back Bay, the land was first lined with Victorian brownstone residences beginning in the 1860s. In 1928, those homes gave way to a three-story Neo-Georgian bank building for the New England Trust Company, designed by Ralph Coolidge Henry and Henry P. Richmond. The organization, then known as the New England Historic Genealogical Society, acquired the property in 1964 and added five floors, creating the eight-story research center that has served genealogists from around the world for six decades. In 2012, it purchased the adjacent building at 97 Newbury Street as part of its Cornerstone Project, aimed at adding public, educational and visitor space.
The central challenge of the project was joining two buildings from different eras, one of them on a lot only 16 feet wide. The design team aligned floor levels that had never been built to meet, made the entire complex universally accessible from the street, and brought it up to modern life-safety standards, all while respecting the historic character of the Back Bay. The result is a welcoming new entrance connected to the street-level storefronts, with visitor and education spaces, lecture facilities and public research and outreach areas.
the future site of American Ancestors’ headquarters, image courtesy of Schwartz/Silver Architects,
(R) A southeast perspective of American Ancestors’ entrance, pre-renovation/expansion, 2019, image courtesy of Schwartz/Silver Architects
Rebuilt entirely, 97 Newbury Street is a new building designed with sensitivity to the historic character of the Back Bay. Under review by the Back Bay Architectural Commission, the team rebuilt the mansard roof and dormer windows and recreated the ornamental roof cresting from historic photographs. The new façade follows the historic window pattern, and the building keeps the scale and streetwall of the block, so it reads as part of Newbury Street.
The $26.2 million construction portion of the project was supported in part by an $18 million tax-exempt bond issued through MassDevelopment, purchased by Beacon Bank. With nearly 200 years of its own history, Beacon Bank shares American Ancestors’ belief that what is built with care should be passed on to the next generation.
Schwartz/Silver Architects of Boston served as architect and championed the project from concept to completion, guiding the complex work of uniting the two buildings while honoring their place on Newbury Street. The project team also included general contractor Shawmut Design & Construction Company; historic preservation consultant Epsilon; structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti; MEP/IT engineer Landmark Facilities Group; civil engineer Nitsch Engineering; landscape architect Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture; code consultant Cosentini; geotechnical engineer McPhail; cost estimator FV Consulting; lighting designer Available Light; acoustic and AV designer Cavanaugh Tocci; and exhibit designer The Experience Alchemists.
“We are honored that the Boston Preservation Alliance has recognized this project. It was a pleasure to partner with American Ancestors to expand their Newbury Street home by joining it with a rebuilt 97 Newbury Street, creating an open, welcoming new entrance that supports their goals and growth while respecting one of Boston’s most recognizable streetscapes,” said Jonathan Traficonte, Principal, Schwartz/Silver Architects.
American Ancestors’ Family Heritage Experience, 2025, image by Claire Vail Photography,
(R) The entrance to American Ancestors’ headquarters on historic Newbury Street, Boston, 2025, image by Claire Vail Photography
About the Preservation Achievement Awards
Presented annually by the Boston Preservation Alliance, the Preservation Achievement Awards celebrate projects and people that protect and enhance Boston’s historic buildings and neighborhoods. American Ancestors was one of six 2026 project award recipients, alongside the Boston Athenaeum, Dorchester Heights, Fens Gatehouse, Memorial Hall: Abraham Lincoln Post 11 and St. Luke’s Chapel. More about the American Ancestors project is available on the Alliance’s website.
Visitors are invited to experience the renewed building and the Family Heritage Experience at 97 Newbury Street in Boston. For more information, visit americanancestors.org.
About American Ancestors
American Ancestors® is a national nonprofit center for family history, heritage and culture based in Boston, Massachusetts that has been setting the gold standard for genealogical research since its founding in 1845. Today, American Ancestors serves 400K+ members and subscribers through AmericanAncestors.org, one of the world’s largest online collections of family history resources. In 2025, American Ancestors launched the Family Heritage Experience, an interactive, state-of-the-art exhibition that introduces visitors to the joy of family history research, located at 97 Newbury Street at our headquarters in Boston. American Ancestors is also home to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, which preserves New England’s Jewish history, and 10 Million Names, a project dedicated to finding the names of the enslaved men, women, and children in pre- and post-colonial America before emancipation. For more information, visit americanancestors.org.
About Schwartz/Silver
Schwartz/Silver is a nationally recognized practice that is committed to architectural excellence in the public realm. We serve museums, libraries, academic institutions, and public agencies in New England and across the country with work that is respectful of the physical context, inquisitive in approach, and authentic to its own place in history. At Schwartz/Silver, we believe that well-managed collaboration drives innovation and lasting design quality. Each project is an adventure defined by the particular circumstances and participants, rather than reflecting a standard design style or process. We frequently work within historic and/or urban settings to adapt existing buildings or create new ones; we are problem solvers, developing elegant, often unexpected, solutions to difficult design challenges. We create projects that are relevant and responsive, and architecture that strengthens and supports the evolving needs of communities.
About Beacon Bank
Beacon Bank is a full-service, regional bank serving the Northeast and a subsidiary of Beacon Financial Corporation (NYSE: BBT). Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the bank has $21.9 billion in assets and more than 145 branches throughout New England and New York. The company, through Beacon Bank, offers a full suite of tailored banking solutions including commercial, cash management, asset-based lending, retail, consumer and residential products and services. It also provides equipment financing through its Eastern Funding subsidiary, SBA lending through its 44 Business Capital division and private wealth services through Clarendon Private. To learn more, visit BeaconBank.com and follow Beacon on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
