THIRD  BOSTON  OBJECT  LESSON  87

this  property  for  business  purposes,  and  the  offer  was
declined.  Since  then  the  assessed  valuations  of  the
adjacent  Tremont  Street  estates  between  Winter  Street
and  Temple  Place  have  increased  more  than  75  per
cent.  In  view  of  these  facts  it  should  be  very  conservative ­
  to  estimate  to-day:
The  value  of  St.  Paul’s  Church  property  at  .  .  $2,000,000
For  this  value  the  St.  Paul  Society  paid  in  1820  .  100,000

The  people  of  Boston  have  since  contributed  by
their  aggregate  and  particular  activities,
industries,  and  expenditures  ....
An  annual  contribution  for  87  years  of  much
above  ........
But,  in  recent  years,  this  increase  in  value  has
been  at  the  annual  rate  of  not  less  than
Church  property  being  exempt  from  taxation,  the
people  of  Boston  have  to  make  up  the  amount
of  the  exemption.  This,  in  the  case  of  St.
Paul’s  is  $22,500,  and  for  all  church  property
in  the  city  is  $385,000,  a  year.
If  then  to  the  above  average  annual  contribution
of  the  public  there  be  added  these  taxes  for  1907,
more  than  .......

$1,900,000
20,000

$75,000

22,000

The  total  annual  contribution  amounts  to

$97,000

An  amount  equal  to  the  5  per  cent  ground  rent  of
almost  $2,000,000  worth  of  land,  or  to  the  taxes,  at
$15.90  per  thousand,  on  $6,100,000  worth  of  property!
Ten  out  of  the  354  cities  and  towns  of  Massachusetts
—  Everett,  Hyde  Park,  Melrose,  Milton,  North  Adams,
Revere,  Salem,  Taunton,  Waltham,  and  Watertown  —
and  the  whole  county  of  Barnstable,  have  each  an
average  land  valuation  of  $6,000,000.  Thus  the  cost
°f  St.  Paul’s  to  the  people  of  Boston  has  been  far
greater  than  would  be  the  average  income  at  the