Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-03
BostOn's Novel Church Built on Stills

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limited number Of persons specially in
terested in American history could save
it from sharing the fate of many other
important relics OF the past. At that
time James Freeman Clarke wrote re-
gretfully of the disappearance of fam
Gus local features in these lines. which
now appear in autograph on the walls
Of the Old South:
Dear Paddock elms. my friends archaic,
Horse railroads brought you to your
doom.
The. city fathers, too prosaic,
Destroyed you in your summer bloom.
l heard with grief improvement sum-
Old Brattle church it's square to flee.
i look in vain across the common;
The Hancock House no more L see.
All that is changing in Boston today.
Landmarks with historic associations
are treasured and where once the horse
railroad brought destruction, the pres
ent transportation system, which, with
its carefully co-ordinated subways, tun-
nels, elevated structures and outgoing
surface lines, has acquired a world
wide reputation for excellence, is in a
measure one of the instruments of
preservation.
The station of the Elevated company
under the old Massachusetts, state
house has given new security to the
fine old exam lie of colonial architec-
ture, and the great girders that are
now being placed under the historic
tower of the Old South in order that
trafficking thousands may descend by
way of it to the subway station will
establish it more firmly, rendering it
less liable than formerly to subsistence
on the bed of clay which served the
original builders as foundation. Prac-
tically every station, in Tact. at which
the visitor to Boston may get on or off
one of the elevated trains has its his
torical outlook, from the Sullivan
square terminal on Charlestown Neck,
the scene of the fight of the American
troops from Bunker Hill, to Dudley
street, one of the outposts of Washing
toms encircling army.
Crowds for the last few weeks have
been peering through the iron fence in
to the big hole constructed between
the tower and the northwest corner of
the meeting house. Never before in the
memory of man has it been possible to
see the well mortared substructure
which the old-time builders laid in the
spring of 1929. Nor will the stones be
the earth, now temporarily removed,
is to be restored. Even the ancient ivy
which for generations has graced the
tower and front of the church will not
have been injured. The roots of the
plants have been carefully gathered in
to canvas bags with sufficiency of
earth for their support, and they will
presently be replaced in a bed of nour-
ishing soil.
Perhaps nowhere on this continent
will there be a more marked contrast
some months hence than that between
the interior of the historic meeting
house and the white tiled subway sta
tion beneath. with it's thundering trains
and hurrying crowds. The under
ground platform and apparatus con-
structed by the Boston transit commits
sion in accordance with the agreement
with the Boston Elevated company
will represent the latest features of
steel and concrete construction, suit
able for a tunnel equipped with facili-
ties for safe running of commodious
trains. Meantime in the church still
reposes the historical museum filled
with relics recalling the most import
ant scenes and personages of our ear
Her epochs.
Above all, there are everywhere in it
instances of the ending of the colonial
era and the beginnings of the American
repuDllC, IOT tlnCe April Ao' lioU, WhSi
the present building, constructed ac-
cording to the best taste of the time
and recalling Sir Christopher Wren's
English efforts, was dedicated, 1t has
been closely associated with stirring
events.
Here, for example, in October 1746,
at the rumor of the coming of Dan
ville's fleet, Rev. Thomas Prince, the
pastor and a historic scholar of emil
nence, prayed for the Almighty's help
so effectively that, as Longfellow has
related an answering tempest smote
the hostile ships and wrecked them
utterly. Within the high-roofed, OBJ
long body of the meeting house. when
Faneuil hall became too small for the
town meetings of the ante-revolution-
AIRY patriots, conventions of pith and
moment were held.
Beneath one of the arched windows
James Otis acted as moderator in 1853
at meeting called to compel Governor
Bernard to remove from the harbor a
war Vesesl stationed there for the pur-
pose of enforcing the odious customs
laws. Again an oVerfiowing town meet
ing i'm March, 1770, right after the Bos-
ton massacre, waited from morning into
the night while Samuel Adams went
back and forth to the state house until