New-York tribune. [volume], June 21, 1903, Page 14, Image 42

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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14:
THE MARCH OF IMPROVEMENT IS FAST OBLITERATING MANY OF BOSTONS MOST FAMOUS OLD LANDMARKS
OLD STATIC HOUSE, BOSTON.
To be transformed Into a tunnel station for the subway
BOSTON IMPROVEMENTS.
Historic Landmarks and Crooked
Streets Disappearing.
Boston, June 20.— Within three years the
crooks and turnings and devious wanderings of
Boston's most honored highways and byways
will be nothing more than a memory of the past,
and many of her ancient landmarks will be
wiped out or so altered as to be unrecognizable
to the oldest inhabitant. Slowly and surely the
ancient thoroughfares are being widened,
straightened and bent into the rulerlike lines oC
i rosscut New- York. Philadelphia and Chicago.
Boston is undergoing a transformation below
arid aloft that would cause Benjamin Franklin.
John Hancock, "Warren and Paul Revere *.o rub
their eyes and stare in amazement. Million dol
lar buildings by the dozen, elevated roads, tun
nels and streetcar lines beneath the streets and
under the harbor, swamps and mud Hats filled
!•: for piers and excavated for docks that ac
> ':;iinodate giant steamers — these are the things
they would see.
Along State-st., beneath the spot where the
Boston Massacre occurred, and beneath the his
toric old State House, a tunnel is eating its way
from under the harbor to Scollay Square to con
nect with the present subway by means of
(lights of stairs and elevators, and thence out
side to the busy world. The old Slat- House
itself is to be transformed into a tunnel station
connecting with a subway line also. The re
modelled building will soon be crowded with
people hurrying back and forth, intent on busi
ness, with never a thought of its old associa
tions. Little do they think, as they hurry past
where tunnel workmen are digsing seventy feet
beneath, of what has happened In that quaint
old edifice. On this site the first State House
was built in 1G57. Destroyed by fire in 1711. it
was rebuilt In 1712, and rebuilt again in 1747,
when destroyed a second time. The building
has been in turn Town House, Courthouse. Prov
ince House, State House and City Hall. <>n the
NEW-YORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
PAIIK STREET CHUUCR, "RRIMSTONE CORNER," BOSTONT.
It is to make way for a skyscraper.
first floor in the early days was the merchants*
walk, or exchange.
During the Stamp Act excitement the stamped
clearances were burned in front of its doors.
The British troops were quartered within the
building in 17'J.S, and the Boston Massacre oc
curred about fifty feet away on March ~>, 1770.
The next day Samuel Adams stood in the coun
cil chamber and made his successful demand
upon the royal representatives fur the immedi
ate removal of the British troops from Boston.
In this same room Generals Clinton, Howe and
Gage held a council of war just before the bat
tle of Bunker Hill. In 17N'J, at the western end
of the State House, Washington reviewed the
great procession in his honor on the occasion of
his last visit to Boston. Here, also, in lSi>s,
William Lloyd Garrison found refuge from a
mob which had broken up an anti-slavery meet
ing, and threatened his life.
The Park-st. station of the present subway
handles I!7,<Xm.i,im.»o passengers a year in the
course of its trolley traffic, but the number of
passengers who will pass through the old State
House station will far exceed this number.
The march "f progress does not stop here,
however. Down Washington-st., to connect with
the tunnel and present subway, will be another
subway, this a double one for elevated trains
after they leave tli" surface at the Broadway
extension. It will pass beneath the Old South
Church, the Old Corner Bookstore and other well
known landmarks. Through the tower of the
< »lil South Church, which juts out into Washing
ton-st., it is planned to cut an arcade, in the
g< neral scheme of widening and straightening
Washington-st. Surrounding the Old South
Church on three sides, a new $1,000,000 office
building eleven stories high is going up rapidly.
The Old South Church has been called the
'Sanctuary of Freedom." The ground on which
it stands was formerly the site of Governor
John Winthrop's home, where he died in
Itri'.t. The land was afterward owned by Mine.
Mary Norton, wife of the Rev. John Norton,
who gave it in trust "forever, for the erecting of
a h"use for their assembling themselves to
gether publkjuely to worship God." The first
meeting house was a small cedar building, built
IB 16701 where Benjamin Franklin was baptized.
The present structure was built in I. •'.<>. When
the British occupied the town they desecrated
the place by using it as a riding school and cav
alry drill hall. In 187»J the "Old South Preserva
tion Committee" was formed to buy it for a loan
museum, at a cost of $4r,0.000. and saved it from
being torn down.
Further down toward the old North End a
syndicate has bought the old Hancock Tavern,
in Corn Court, and upon its site, with the ad
joining lots.'will build another eleven story office
building. Tenants in the Hancock Tavern have
already received their notice to more.
As long ago as 1(334 Samuel Coles k-pt a tav
ern on this spot, and he had in WMi for his
guests Governor Vane and the Indian Mian
OLD CORNER '____ KSTORB^ BOSTC/N.
Haunt of Emerson. Hawthorne. Lowell an«S Longfellow, to be rep!.»ce<s by offl*-* buJMias.
tonomoh, with twetny warriors. Th* baflfßag
now to be torn down was built tv centuries
ago. and when John Hancock was elected Gov
ernor in 17*O to the hostlery was giver, his
name by the proprietor, who wa3 a great friend
of Hancock.
In the taproom of the Hancock Tavern wore
held the meetings that resulted in the ever to
be remembered Boston Tea Party. I;, the stir
ring days preceding the Revolution the tavern
was the meeting place and headquarters for
many movements in the effort to bring about
the independence of the colonies. A few feet
away in Unionist., near Hanover, stood until
recently the Green Dragon Inn, where the
first lodge of Free Masons was organized in
America, in 17.v_\ A stone's throw In another
direction stands Marshall 1 * Tavern, the build
ing used v the treasury of the Continentals and
headquarters of the Revolutionary army's pay
master.
A syndicate has secured the plot on which
stands the famous Old Corner Bookstore, and it
is to be -torn down to make room for another
towering oflk • building:. The present bonding
was erected in 171- thirty years before the
erection of the original Faneuil Hail. It his
contained a bookstore since 182 a Bo fore that
time the most famous occupant of the building
was Di Samuel Clarke, father of the Rev.
James Freeman Clarke. The first owner was
Mistress Anne Hutchinson. who led the sect
called Antinomiar.s. The Rev. John Cotton, and
even Governor Winthrop, fell under her spell for
a time Later the Governor became her vin
dictive enemy, and after a trial she was ban
ished from the colony in HXW. The property
was sold to Richard Hutchinson. a wealthy Lon
don diaper, for £4". or 5200. This same plot is
now worth over $150,000.
Since the beginning of its existence M a book
store the old brick house has been renowned
throughout the country as the meeting place of
the greatest men and women of the day. There
was a sunny backyard, where Emerson. Haw
thorne. Holmes. Longfellow and others came to
gether at times, and the clergy met every week.
Hawthorne corrected the proofs of "The Scarlet
Letter" at the old desk, still in the store.
Thackeray. Dickens. Bourget. Matthew Arnold
and many other European celebrities lingered
over the counter, while Louisa Alcott. Lucy
Larcom. Harriet Beecher Stow* and Mary A.
Liven were often seen delving into the
books exposed for sale. James T. Fields, the
proprietor and famous publisher, was the frienl
of all the celebrities of his day. and they fre
quently came to him for advice and friendry
criticism.
Park Street Church, on Brimstone Corner,
overlooking the subway entrance. has success
fully resisted onslaughts of building trusts,
speculators and city improvements tor fifty
years, but it is destined to so very soon. and its
..ngregation will move uptown into the quieter
.. M , k Bay. One syndicate held an option or. it
or several weeks at ? 1.500. 000. but the deal fell
through. Another syndicate is now forming.
however, to acquire the site and build another
eleven story office building. "With the Common
stretching away into the Public Garden and
Deacon boulevard on one side, the old Gran
ary burying ground on another, and Beacon Hill
with the State House on a third, this makes the
most valuable site in Boston for a light, airy
office building.
The street commissioners are ben
energy to th* problem of straig:.
crooked »Ue«to "f Boston at a mi:..