Marc Callis, “The Beginning of the Past: Boston and the Early Historic Preservation Movement” Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 32, No. 2 (Summer 2004). Published by: Institute for Massachusetts Studies and Westfield State University You may use content in this archive for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the Historical Journal of Massachusetts regarding any further use of this work:
[email protected] Funding for digitization of issues was provided through a generous grant from MassHumanities. Some digitized versions of the articles have been reformatted from their original, published appearance. When citing, please give the original print source (volume/ number/ date) but add "retrieved from HJM's online archive at http://www.wsc.ma.edu/mhj. The Beginning of the Past: Boston and the Early Historic Preservation Movement, 1863-1918 By Marc Callis The year 1863 was a watermark year in the history of Boston. In that year the house built in 1737 by Thomas Hancock, and later occupied by the Revolutionary patriot John Hancock, was demolished to make way for a real estate development. Although John Hancock had originally intended to bequeath the house to the state for use as a governor’s mansion, he died before this intention had been expressed in his will. His heirs offered to sell the house to the state for that purpose, but the state legislature did not act. When the heirs finally sold the house to a real estate developer, that developer offered the House itself, minus the land, to the city of Boston if they would be willing to move it to a new site.