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Fine Arts

COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY CHARLES A. PLACE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

Wahr 5-18-26 13266

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PREFACE

HE task of gathering accurate data and illustrations of Bulfinch architecture grew out of a purely personal interest; and the photographs, lacking professional skill, are the result of an acquired use of the camera that buildings seen or pictures of those long since removed might have some representation.

The architectural task developed an understanding and appreciation of a gentleman whose character was noble and whose taste was for the beautiful and the true. As an architect Charles Bulfinch is known, but the dominant motive of his life was to be a true citizen. Few people realize the value of his service to his native town - long, faithful, unstinted. And so the life has come to have its part with the architecture, and the story is written in the hope that it may help others to a larger estimate of what Bulfinch was and what he did.

The citizenship research has involved an amount of labor out of all proportion to the record here set down. Bulfinch kept no diary, wrote few letters of any kind, and almost nothing of him written by others has been found. The man lived in his work and there we must seek him. A mass of material has been searched, including the Town and Selectmen's records and many obscure papers, which, while it constitutes the very warp and woof of the story, still is very inadequate in any attempt to make Charles Bulfinch live and move during the period of his unique service to the growing town. For personal coloring we seek almost in vain.

Acknowledgment is made of the help derived from The Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, by Miss Ellen S. Bulfinch, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896, and to many individuals who by their kindness have made this work possible as well as a delight.

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