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 con 
servative 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