Hancock buildings gallery

A while back, when some out-of-towners stopped me on the street to ask how to get to the John Hancock Building, I had to think for a minute. There are actually three buildings in Back Bay that have gone by that name, all at one time occupied by the John Hancock Life Insurance Company.

These days, most people associate the John Hancock name with the 60-story blue glass skyscraper, formerly known as the John Hancock Tower. Workers finished it 200 years after Hancock put his flourishing signature on the Declaration of Independence. But since the insurance company moved out earlier this year, the building’s owner decided to rename it 200 Clarendon, after its address.

The original John Hancock building was this one at 197 Clarendon, completed in 1922. It’s been called the Stephen L. Brown Building since 2001, in honor of the former chairman of John Hancock Financial Services. It almost got the wrecking ball in 1982. But the company convinced the City to let the old building stay, in part over concerns that an open space would create an even more wicked wind tunnel than we already have today in this area.

There’s a third building, at 200 Berkeley Street, referred to as the Old John Hancock Building. That’s confusing, because the 26-story structure is actually 25 years younger than the skyscraping Hancock/Brown building at 197 Clarendon. The “Old’’ Hancock building is the one with the big syringe-looking weather beacon on top. It also includes the Back Bay Events Center, aka John Hancock Hall, where you can see everything from ballet to body-building contests.

Because of its address, some have referred to the Old John Hancock Building as the Berkeley Building. But that just confuses things further, because this beautiful Beaux Arts-style office building at 420 Boylston Street has been going by that name since 1906.

The glazed terracotta facade of the Berkeley Building at 420 Boylston is probably way too ornate and playful to house an insurance company. Oh, and in case you were wondering, those tourists who stopped me were actually looking for the John Hancock Hall on Berkeley Street. Hope I steered them right.