Show OLD OF BOSTON ARE AKE MARVELS OF dignity about the ancient structures which it Is impassible to D destroy stroy architect says the itic city was built in Eti england gland by famous Dc designers signers alle much of ancient boston hae has crumbled jo 0 o dirt dust there is i still enough of it left to fascinate faed nate the alector truro other titles aher li 14 one peculiar Pec lillar thins thing about 11 many IA u theme the uld old colonial col houses they at ait not so 0 o much dos destroyed troyed an they are in hiding one feels sorry ad a for an old friend when he cwi sees the lime t fin fine e old hoemm given over to chinese laundries rlee butcher shops and what not they gobi hoople 1 who have fallen ugwa evil days in their old age the pathetic note Is hern thero and it sounds in ones ears ith an gutlian intensity yet let here and there onn of these old structures turee raise ie had with all the dignity of other daa days almost in variably ri ably it looks out upon squalid sur roun soundings dIngs lint but not even th the can utterly destroy its charm lor for it has architectural character lie who would icahn more of old boston architecture would mould do well ell to have a talk with williim willi im ralph fin im erson it hoston boston architect who has given much time to the colonial period it la Is a fact he will tell you bos ton wag as built in england it was sent over here and set up by our colonial car carpenters ponters the architects of early boston were sir christopher aren ren james gibbs sir A willlam chambers and a few other masters of that period there were no early american architects in those days lays we had carpenters and bull ierg leri only ratty batty I 1 angley s guide and the printed direct one ons ot of the other architects mentioned were aimed as text books by the colonial builders bul ano that la Is why our homes are so beautiful those masters of the english renaissance were tho the first great archi sects ot of tho the worl I 1 who had their I 1 leas put in ill wood the old world built let from rum the very first some ft f the hnit houses which looked arin tild ani ant cheap frum from the le lie m were ere full of interesting interior defalk in almot all tile lie first frame houses hoiet e there were fine aln old mantles that are ark the despair ilee pair of the finisher in the bei he homm homes throughout the country taets early colonial do det balle are ed 1 I not baraus they are old but bw bo raue cause they are better than anything modern I 1 have been abl ablo til ti dele delso one of the mot moot curious features about these very old houses is the tho purple glass used use in the window In doNd rhia glass can not be reproduced reproduce 11 I 1 bv modern glassmaker glassm hers 4 ghere I 1 Is rome 0 thing about the tint that de es reproduction it Is I 1 of a delicate violet it fit v 1 44 v eel A relic of margaret street T ti ot of ot of 1720 1779 like hue it is 3 thought that originally this glass was white and that tho the action of the light streaming through it for PO so many bears ears has chin its color so theio who live in glass bouges made of that kind hind of glass live la constant terror lest gome some one throw stones it cannot in all the world be reproduced cepro laced consequently it is I 1 imort priceless in the eyes of 0 those who love antique things filings during the revolutionary period some fine old french houses were reproduced in wood hood in this country those are the houses we a see wearing hip roots roofs and adorned with stately fluted columns it was along in 1820 waca american builders cut loose from english model up to that time we had no distinctive american architecture then we me got it with a vengeance our first architects t satisfied with sith roman archi lecture As illustrated by the english renaissance they harked back to the greek with the most horrible results ever seen anywhere many of those monstrous examples of archi jecture are stil still to be seen in east cambridge and I 1 ia roxbury they I 1 r U f I 1 let 4 4 J A richmond street dwelling asto at 0 not knon n everything la in that ie is ever thing that embodied tho the thought of aa an architect but la in this country timber was plentiful tul the first houses u of the settlers ett lers were of course rude affair affairs built of log or roughly hewn timbers As oon soon ai the colony gave of permanency hoever tho the people began to erect wooden frame house houses no INTO one here knew anything abo allot t de do ing and it was natural this tb our builder builders should hark back til he old country have heavy cc column 1 dmn 3 with Pe demented ends that I 1 cam cant t describe them other than to eay BAT that they are mongrels of the worst type after tills this period of chaos our architects fell back on french roof style the jdeen anna anne house and other eccentricities we are now b back a ek to the old colonial style after a cantu century ry of 0 landerl wandering 0 g I 1 in a th the a w wilder 11 d a r ness and arid wo ret returned torm d to that type because it Is old bu but it b because it looks better and la Is better beaton journal |