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Strengthening Community through Historic Preservation |
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Several public-spirited citizens founded Historic Boston in 1960 to buy and restore the Old Corner Bookstore buildings at the corner of School and Washington Streets, in response to the possibility that this prime historic site might have been demolished to build a parking garage. These buildings now house the organization's staff and function as its endowment. The Old Corner, built in 1718, was initially a residence and shop for pharmacist Thomas Crease. During the mid-nineteenth century, the Ticknor and Fields publishing company occupied the building, and the Old Corner Bookstore became a favorite gathering place for American and English writers from Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ralph Waldo Emerson. By obtaining gifts exceeding $100,000 from many people and securing the Boston Globe as a long-term tenant, this project demonstrated, well before preservation had moved into America's mainstream, that historic buildings can contribute economically, as well as culturally, to a city. Since 1979, Historic Boston has supplemented the planning and regulatory powers of the Boston Landmarks Commission by providing complex technical assistance, raising money, lending money, and occasionally purchasing buildings that embody the City's heritage and catalyze neighborhood renewal. Historic Boston's revolving fund has lent or invested more than $3 million for the benefit of buildings like the Vilna Shul, Dimock's Zakrzewska Medical Building, Arlington Street Church, the Edward Everett Hale House, and the Hayden Building. Other Historic Boston activities range from assisting with the preservation of the Tugboat Luna, subsidizing publication of the AllianceLetter (a publication intended to sustain and strengthen the constituency for preservation), and raising foundation gifts exceeding $1,000,000 to award as competitive matching grants to religious properties for preservation planning and rehabilitation projects.
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