And the closer you get, the worse it is. These once proud properties are mostly rented out to illegal immigrants, and the decorative woodwork is apparently being systematically removed for firewood.
The dark circle next to the door in the bottom left picture shows the place where the brass plaque declaring this a National Monument has been removed. They are being stolen from all over Central, and sold to unscrupulous scrap dealers, along with copper plumbing pipes and even church roofs! As you can see, protecting our heritage is an uphill battle, but there are many in this town who are passionate enough to continue the struggle, even if it does seem a bit Quixotic at times.
Any chance that the city (or perhaps a developer) will eventually buy this property and restore it to its original splendor?
ReplyDeleteI just read something online and thought that you might be interested:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Boston Police blog:
Sometime between 8 and 10 a.m. yesterday, thieves made off with copper flashing from the parapet, chimneys and pipes at 1657 Beacon St. in Washington Square. A similar robbery happened Jan. 9 on Harvard Street; police note that copper now goes for $6 a pound. (That's just outside Boston proper.)
It's hard to believe that in a city like this one, where police is all over the place, crime would continue to thrive...
I have an original drawing of these Donkin houses hanging in my office!!
ReplyDeleteDon'et get me started on Denton!
This saddens me, especially when I know what they use to look like, as I use to work for a Broker that ran his business from inside one of those old houses.
ReplyDelete