The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-25
HISTORIC LANDMARKS
 AS MUNICIPAL ASSETS
PREsERvA A HOUsE-THE 

Boston. June 24.-what's the mat
 ter with ancient history for a munic- | ipal asset? Italy-the nation. not the government-would be bankrupt but | for Cooks tourists. Stratford- upon Avcn is worth a good-sized manufac-
 turing towrN to England. Liberty Bell
 rings the changes upon many fat ho- l tel bill for the benefit of Philadelphia | landlords. Most American towns which have historical associations l have begun to appreciate thcm. East and West the landmarks are being pre- | served. It has been discovered that
 history made is quite as valuable as history in the making, so far as draw | ing a crowd is concerned.
 Our bank statements would be | smaller by millions every year." said a well known State Street finnacial man the other day. If it were not for throngs of tourists who come to Bos ton all the year through. and particu- larly in the vacation months, to climb Bunker Hin Monument, to take Paul Reveres ride by trolley car, to stand under the elm in Cambridge where Washington took command of the American army, to finger for half an hour on the site of the Brook Farm experiment, and to read the inscrip- tions and tablets which have been so plentifully put up all over eastern Massachusetts. Our monuments are money in our pockets"
 Not so many years ago the disposi- tion among Boston business men was very different. Only with the greatest difficulty was the Old South Meeting House saved by public-spirited citizens from destruction in 1878. Yet there was general public approval two or three years ago when the owners of the historic structure spurned an al- most fabulous offer made by a syndi- cate to build an office building at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets, The proposition was not en- tertained for moment, and the real estate people had to build around the old church, which stands today much as 1t stood when the British troops used 1t as a riding academy, save that it now nestles. so to speak, in the arms of a skyscraper. The only concession to twentieth century ideas in the old South, by the way, Is a newly installed automatic sprinkler to be used in case of fire, so that over the very balcony in which subjects of George III used at royal festivals to stand up and sing God Save ths King!" Is now extended an array of water pipes ready to save the building.
 About the latest movement to con serve one of the historical assets Is one looking to keep intact the Paul Revere house in the North End. Sit- uated in the heart of the Italian quar- ter, this ancient wooden structure has several times been threatened with demolition. It stands on North Street, at the foot Of the hill surmounted by Christ Church, or the Old North Church. as it is more generally known. Only few months previous to his eel ebrated ride Revere had witnessed from this house, which was then sit- uated in the fashionable part of the town, the massacre in the square be- tween Faneun Hall and the Old State House. It Is a plain, wooden, three- story edifce in Dutch style, built soon after the fire in 1676-a monument to the good constructive methods em- ployed in colonial days. A very large number of BostOnians are determined that 1t shall not be torn down while it still holds together. ss,.,
 Similarly every project v transform