The Wigglesworth Building is rounded to conform to the curvilinear portion of Franklin Street, as did the Tontine Crescent by Charles Bulfinch, which stood on this site until the mid-1850s. That famous block of houses was replaced by commercial buildings, which burned in the 1872 fire. Bradlee and Winslow were among the most prolific designers in Boston during the three decades following the Civil War. The choice of brick construction over the more common granite in the postfire construction period was probably because the material lent itself more readily to the serpentine shape of the building, which rounds the corner at Franklin and Devonshire streets. Stone lintels with incised ornament link the fenestration at the second-, third-, and fourth-floor levels of its curving facade.