entrance to the tower. Brief remarks were made by Governor McCall of Massachusetts, on behalf of the State; Mayor Curley of Boston, on behalf of the City; Mr. Worthington C. Ford, on behalf of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and Secretary Redfield, on behalf of the department and the Lighthouse Service. Boston Light has had an eventful and interesting history during its 200 years of existence. First built by the Province of Massachusetts at a cost of £2,385, it was captured and recaptured several times in the early days of the Revolution, and finally demolished by the British in 1776 at the time of the evacuation of Boston. It was rebuilt on the same site in 1783, immediately after the close of the war, and with eight other colonial lights then in operation was taken over by the General Government in accordance with the act of Congress of August 7, 1789. The height of the tower was increased in 1859, and the buildings have been renovated and the apparatus and equipment improved from time to time as needed, so that despite its age the light station is for all practical purposes essentially modern and up to date. It displays an incandescent oil-vapor light, giving a white flash of 100,000 candlepower every 30 seconds, visible 16 miles in clear weather, and as an auxiliary aid in foggy weather sounds a powerful first-class steam siren, with a double blast of five seconds each every minute.

OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE IN BOSTON

Apropos of the efforts for the preservation of old St. John's Chapel in New York City, mentioned on page 191 preceding, the following facts concerning the preservation of the Old South Meeting-House* in Boston, Mass., are of interest.

The old South Church of Boston - which, historically, is the third Congregational church gathered in that town,- has had three meeting-houses. The first was a wooden structure built on what is now the northeast corner of Washington and Milk streets

The members of the Old South congregation make a distinction between the words "meeting-house" and "church." Mr. Richard Hale, Treasurer of the Old South Association in Boston, says: "This building was never a church. A church is the visible body of Christ. The physical structure in which they meet is a meeting house."

Laws house in Sharon, N. H., for which the Society for the summer of 1917.

The Society was organized in 1910. Mr. Charles Shirley, Mass., is President; Mr. William C. Endico is Treasurer, and Mr. William Sumner Appleton Corresponding Secretary. The headquarters of the S the Harrison Gray Otis house, with address at No. 21 Boston.

BICENTENNIAL OF BOSTON LIGH

The First Lighthouse in America

On September 25, 1916, a tablet commemorating tr niversary of Boston Light was unveiled at the Boston tion at the entrance to Boston Harbor, Mass., under 1 of the United States Government. The tablet bears ti inscription:

BOSTON LIGHT

Built at this Place by the Province of Massachusetts, was first lighted September 14, 1716, Old Style, destroyed 1776, and rebuilt 1783.

This tablet has been placed by the United States Lighthouse Service September 25, 1916, in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the first lighthouse in America.

Secretary of Commerce Redfield invited as his gues ernor of Massachusetts, the entire Massachusetts de Senators and Representatives in Congress, the chair Appropriations Committees of the Senate and Hou Senate Committee on Commerce, and the House Cor Interstate and Foreign Commerce, the Mayor of Bosto in charge of various government offices in Boston, repr of Boston Commercial, maritime, and historical org representatives of the press, and officers of the Depa Commerce and the Lighthouse Service.

The official party was taken to the island on which is located by the lighthouse steamer Mayflower. The gram was informal. The tablet had been placed just

in 1669. It was demolished on March 3 and 4, 1728-9; and in the same month the building of the second edifice of brick began on the same site. That meeting-house is still standing and is the historic "Old South." Religious services were discontinued in the brick meeting-house after the great Boston fire of 1872, in which it was damaged; and in 1874 the property of the New Old South on Boylston and Dartmouth streets was first occupied.

It is not our purpose to recount the many interesting historical events which happened in the Old South Meeting-House at Washington and Milk streets which endear it to patriotic Americans. but rather to tell how this building, standing as it does on an extremely valuable site on one of Boston's busiest business streets, was saved from threatened demolition.

After the congregation decided to worship elsewhere, following the fire of 1872, the building was leased to the United States and used for post-office purposes for two years from December, 1872. In 1876 it was advertised for sale in these words:

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH BUILDING

All the materials above the level of the sidewalks, except the Corner Stone and the Clock in the Tower, of this ancient and historical landmark building, which has now come under the auctioneer's hammer, will be disposed of on Thursday, June 8, 1876, at 12 o'clock noon on the premises, on the corner of Washington and Milk streets.

The spire is covered with copper and there is a lot of lead on roof and belfry, and the roof is covered with imported Welch slate. allowed for the removal.

Terms cash.

60 days will be

The news that the meeting house was to be sold and demolished aroused a storm of popular protest, but too late to prevent its sale, and on June 8 it was sold at auction for $1,350, to be removed in 60 days. The work of destruction began at once, but after the clock had been removed from the tower and the solid masonry attacked, the prominent business house of George W. Simmons & Son stepped in and bought the right to hold the building uninjured for seven days. On June 14, a mass meeting was held within its walls, one of the most remarkable ever held within its precincts. Wendell Phillips and others pleaded for its preservation. The Committee on Preservation also had

the help of James Freeman Clarke, James Russell Lowell, Charles W. Eliot, and other prominent citizens in arousing public spirit. The women of the town were leaders in the campaign for preservation.

Months of strenuous efforts followed. But the practical problem which had to be faced was the raising of the money with which to buy land on which the meeting house stood. At length, on September 2, 1876, after many consultations, the Citizens Committee offered the Standing Committee of the Old South Society $400,000 for the property. The offer was accepted, and on October 11, 1876, the Old South Society conveyed the property to Mr. Royal M. Pulsifer of Newton. Mr. Pulsifer paid $75,000 cash; the New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. loaned $225,000 on first mortgage, and Mrs. Mary Hemenway advanced $100,000 on second mortgage. Mr. Pulsifer obligated himself to the ladies' committee to turn the property over to them if they raised the purchase price within a reasonable time. Then followed meetings, entertainments, balls, and other efforts to raise money to purchase the property from Mr. Pulsifer. Some of the meetings and entertainments were remarkable. One fair, held in the meeting-house in December, 1877, netted $36,000. Other sums were received from rents, the sale of easements, and damages for land adjacent to the meeting-house taken by the City by condemnation and the last $20,000 was appropriated by the State of Massachusetts.

The Old South Meeting-House, therefore, no longer belongs to the religious body or Old South Church, but to an entirely separate corporation styled the Old South Association which was incorporated by chapter 222 of the acts of 1877, approved May 11, 1877. The corporation consists of the Governor of Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston, the President of Harvard University, the President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the President of the American Antiquarian Society, the President of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and two persons elected by the Boston City Council ex-officios, and about sixty

*It is an interesting coincidence that as the City of Boston took part of this property for the rapid transit subway, so the new Seventh avenue subway runs under the porch of old St. John's in New York.