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| THE MASSACHUSETTS BUILDING-This reproduction
of the ancient residence of the rich and patriotic John Hancock, on
Beacon Hill, in Boston, was designed or restored by Peabody &
Stearns, architects, of Boston, at a cost of $50,000. It was placed
prominently on the avenue of commonwealths, in front of the Art
Palace, well toward the lake. Before and beside it at a considerable
distance, was a lattice-fence, well hidden with vines, and
surrounding an area that was paved with stone. At each of its
entrances there was a porch with upper veranda, and in front there
was some semblance of architectural ambition in the way of Corinthian
columns and pediment, but this grandeur disappeared on reaching the
interior, where every room was low and little, with three stories,
which were all no higher than the outside pediment. An observatory
mounted the quaint structure, and on its flag-staff an aristocratic
and golden cod-fish told which way the social wind blew in Boston.
The rooms were filled with relics and autographs of great historic
interest. The portrait of the great Samuel Adams had a justly
honorable and conspicuous place, and antique paintings of all the
Yankee Revolutionary Fathers had been generously loaned to the
Exposition. Copies of charters by King Charles, great seals and
their bezels, autographs of the Boston poets and authors, the desk of
George Washington, colonial furniture, a fire-screen painted by John
Hancock, a remnant of the wedding-dress of Mrs. Governor Bradford,
and ancient books brought in the Mayflower or printed by the
Puritans, made a large, interesting and historic museum. |
