1996
GUSN-169699
When it was demolished in 1922, the Province House in Boston had gone through so many changes, fallen into such disrepair and had been ignored for so long, there was no way to know what it originally looked like. There were a few sketches and drawings, but they were superficial at best. During demolition, antiquarian William Sumner Appleton worked feverishly to try to document the house, to stitch together some answer as to its former appearance. He found it difficult to support theory with fact. Appleton consulted with friends and peers about the house and how it may have looked, but his questions remain unanswered today. The story of the Province House is not just about the loss of a jewel of Colonial architecture, but also about the difficulties of conjecture in preservation.
Article ID 72
SC001
Old-Time New England
SC001.1996.074.262.001
When it was demolished in 1922, the Province House in Boston had gone through so many changes, fallen into such disrepair and had been ignored for so long, there was no way to know what it originally looked like. There were a few sketches and drawings, but they were superficial at best. During demolition, antiquarian William Sumner Appleton worked feverishly to try to document the house, to stitch together some answer as to its former appearance. He found it difficult to support theory with fact. Appleton consulted with friends and peers about the house and how it may have looked, but his questions remain unanswered today. The story of the Province House is not just about the loss of a jewel of Colonial architecture, but also about the difficulties of conjecture in preservation.
Volume 74, Number 262 (Fall 1996)
Fay Campbell Kaynor (Author)
(1996). Old Time New England. Boston, Mass.: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
Item
Boston, Mass.
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Old Time New England
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