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Show REVERE'S HOUSE, OLDEST IN BOSTON, HAS BEEN RESTORED Ety' Built some timo between 1G50 and 31680 in tho vciy heart of Boston, in itho old North End, the Paul Ecvere house is the oldest house in the city and the onl3' type of a colonial dwelling House in tins country situated in the heart of a great city. This fact alone, dpnrt from its historic interest, would have made it worthy of preservation, i The house was purchased Ivv Paul Eovcro in 1770 and here ho lived until 1800fj through the stirring revolutionary revolution-ary times. From the door of this house he went forth on his famous ride on April 19, 1775. i F Tn restoring the house, the Paul l?o-voro l?o-voro Memorial association, which un-flertook un-flertook the work, did not. t r- to make pimply a quaint old house; its sole endeavor en-deavor was faithfully to restore it to s nearly its original" condition as possible, pos-sible, From beiug a modern, three-fctory three-fctory building and L, with a sloro on the "ground floor, tho house has now pecn brought back to the little, low-Etudded, low-Etudded, two-stoiy dwelling house and t, with a hharply-pitchcd Toof covered frith hanii-made shingles; fho second story projecting and overhanging tho first. This was done by removing the various additions and destroying chauges that had been made sinco Paul lievcre lived there. u Tn removing nil these later additions and reclaiming the changes, much time, 11101103' "d work' was spent in determining determin-ing the lines of tho old roof, tho immense im-mense chimney and fireplace, the original orig-inal position of the windows, doors, etc.. and preserving cveiy piece of old molding, boam and woodwork that was found, in order that tho new should be an exact reproduction of the original. orig-inal. The old oak-hewn beams that may be seen throughout tho house aro most of them the old original beams, which in only a few cases had to be pieced out. All the old wood taken irom the house was pruserved, and has sinco been made into small souvenirs, which aro on sale at tho house. H An instanco may be given of the way in which soruu of the above points were determined. In demolishing an addition at the mar of tho house which J entirety obscured the interesting ovcr- I show tho paper as originally discovered. discov-ered. On the back of tho paper was found what wo should todav call a trado-mark, probably a royal" warrant for manufacture; it was "surmounted with an English crown and part of a date and was apparently .stamped on by hand; it .recurs at frequent intervals, inter-vals, but no one mark was quite perfect; per-fect; so tho full dale could not bo mndo out. On tho faco of tho paper aro figures which look like a date in Roman characters; char-acters; theso occur on tho church tower which shows through two classic columns, col-umns, entablature and arch. The church tower is surmounted b3' a St. Gcorgo's dragon and is of the Christopher Christo-pher Wren typo; it probably represents ono of tho old Loudon church towers. Tho paper, when reproduced, came fully up to all expectations of ago and beauty of design which the original-discovoty- promised. Tho association has boon assured by experts that the papor must have been put on prior lo 1750, and therefore tho room has boon papered with the reproduced repro-duced paper in order that it may be as it was when Revere bought the house. 1 Mil II II TTTTTTT II I I I I II I hang of tho Becond-storv L, and while 1 removing tho old piaster," hand-made I laths and wrought iron nails which had been, used when tho room was built were found, and two original window frames woro uncovered, allowing that tho windows had evidently been built with easement sashes and leaded diamond dia-mond panes. When thoso windows woro uncovered two small clapboards were found underneath the laths and plaster, with a remarkably good molding mold-ing at the base; so far as" known, thov aro the only clapboards in exist mii'o like those which probably covered tho carlv houses in tins oountn'. On the ground floor of the house aro tho living room and kitchen, each having hav-ing a largo fireplace. The ono in the living room is largo enough for a man to stand in without stooping; the one in tho kitchen is now cxnctl3 as it was when Revcro lived there, and in it hangs tho old crano used by him. On the second floor, as on the first, aro two rooms. Tho floor boards on the front room aro very old. and arc from fifteen to cighteon inches wide. There is no doubt that these were the very floor boards upon which Revere and his family wftlkod, In tho back room, tho Jj chamber, is an original door, grained in such a waj as to mako It look as if it had raised panels. This is a good example of very early colonial co-lonial work. In tho living room, the largo front room on tho ground floor, while removing remov-ing iho casing of the coiling and post beams, it was discovered that tho roar wall had been "furred out," that is, now studs had been puL in and tho wall rolathed, plastered and papered. Even the new laths, however, were tho 1 old, hand-riven kind used in the lato seventeenth century. ' On the original plastered wall in back wa3 found an architectural landscape land-scape paper. This was removed and reproduced, a small piece boing left to Tho association has on salo nt the houso small panels of this reproduced papor showing tho old London steeple, and will be glad to furnish a sufiiciont amount of tho paper to papor a room. A number of pieces of old colonial furnituro havo been given to the house, as well as several articles belonging to Pnul Revcro himself, such as his water ewer, his flintlock gun, his toddy warmer, warm-er, etc. Tho house is open dail3 excepting F? iiuda'. Tho houso is now owned b tho Paul Rovoro Memorial association of Boston, which is located at tho houso, Nos. 19 and 21 North square. |