Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-30
SAVING "oLD SOUTH" CHURCH.
What Mrs. Mary Hemenway Did for
Her Country's History.
From ST. Nicholas

From St. Nicholas
The ground on which the old South"
stands was the dwelling place OF Gov
winthrop. Benjamin Franklin was bap-
tized in this meeting house The voices OF
Adams and Hancock and Warren and
Washington have been heard within its
walls. You will see, back OF the pulpit
platform and below the quaint old sound
ing board, the very window through which
Gen. Joseph Warren came to deliver his
famous Grafton on the anniversary of the
Boston massacre, because the crowd in and
around the church was so great that 20
could not enter by the door.
In this church We're held some Of the
great meetings leading UP to the famous
Boston tea party" Indeed, It was from
this sanctuary of freedom" as it has been
called, that the band OF men disgu. sed as
indians, started for the wharf to board the
ships and throw overheard the taxed tea
that had created such turmoil in Boston
II you should follow the exact route taken
eventful December day In the year I773
you would finally reach a modern building
on the site of Griffins wharf, at which lay
moored on December 10, 1873, the three
British ships with cargoes OF tea This
house bears tablet concentrating the
famous Boston tea party which threw
the cargoes into the sea-
Did you ever hear the story of how the
'Old South" was "saved?' Reverence for
historic landmarks did not run so high
thirty or forty years ago as IL does today,
and in our centennial year of 1876 IL was
proposed to sell the old South simply for
the value of its bricks and tiubers and
tear il down, that a modern business block
might be built on its site. Indeed, it was
sold-"knccked down" at auction-to a bid
der for the neaSer sum Of S1,315i
Suddenly a wave OF patriotic feeling
swept over the city of Boston. The papers
and some of the people began to protest
against the tearing down or the old sane
tuary Of freedom" and movement was
set on foot to raise funds to buy the
church from its purchaser, and to buy also
the ground on which it stood. This good
plan might never have succeeded had IL
not been for one noble and loyal woman in
Boston, Mrs. Mary Hemenway of halIowed
memory. When the difficulty of securing
funds for the purchase of the Old meeting
house became known to her she came for
ward with a gift OF $4,000, and thus the
old Westinghouse was saved, to stand
an object lesson to the children of future
generations.
Having given such large sum to help
save the old South" meeting house, Mrs.
Hemenway felt that 1t should be something
more than a mere silent monument. She
determined that it should be real. living
force in our country, and particularly zoe
the children of Boston. She determined
that it should renew and increase its fame
as temple of freedom and that its sacred
walls should again echo and re-echo 10 tha
sound of patriotic utterances, and that
some of these utterances should come from
the lips of the boys and girls OF Il 1ston;
and thus the ''Old South" lecture course
and the ''Old South prizes We're estab-
lished. Each year prize or $50 and an
other of S25 are given to the graduates OF
the Boston high schools who write the
best essays on historic patriotic topics
The committee having this work in charge
announces the subjects IN June. just before
the schools close. and the competitors must
submit their essays the following January
Then on Washingtons birthday there is
patriotic gathering Of the school children
of Boston in the old meeting house. and
the names of the prize winners are an
nounced.