Antique Bufford Boston 1865 Lithograph The New Masonic Temple in Original Frame

Description

Antique Bufford Boston 1865 Lithograph The New Masonic Temple in Original Frame. Street view of the Masonic Temple, in Boston, printed in 1865 -- at the end of the Civil War -- when the magnificent Gothic-revival building was newly built.  This folio print also shows surrounding buildings and street traffic.  The artist, Merrill G. Wheelock, was also the architect of the building.
The fine wood and gold gilt frame measures 25 3/8" x 31 5/8" that fits 22" x 28"; the artwork part alone is 17 1/4" x 24 5/8". Genuine antique Civil War era hand colored steel engraving mush in the same style as Currier & Ives. Guaranteed a genuine authentic original published in 1865. J H Bufford Lithograph, published by William D Stratton, the artist is M G Wheelock.
Print has some light old dampness marks and age toning, the frame and glass are both solid and sturdy - see my 12 detailed photos.
The Grand Lodge building
Tremont Street frontage of the current Grand Lodge building in Boston
Although there are indications that Freemasons met at several Boston locations in the 1720s, the constitution of the First Lodge, later named St John, took place at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern on July 30, 1733. This is also considered the first “home” of the Provincial Grand Lodge. After the Revolutionary War there were references to the Royal Exchange Coffee House as a potential site for a home but few records exist. The second floor of the Old State House was leased in 1821. This is the only building remaining in the city that housed the Grand Lodge prior to its present building. In 1830, the Grand Lodge purchased land at the corner of Tremont Street and Temple Place and proceeded to lay the cornerstone for a Masonic Temple. A battle with the Commonwealth over the Grand Lodge Acts of Incorporation caused the Grand Lodge to sell the building to Brother Robert Gould Shaw, who sold it back to the Grand Lodge in 1835 after anti-Masonic feelings calmed down. The building was sold to the U.S. government for 5,000 for use as a federal courthouse in 1857, because it was no longer adequate for a growing fraternity. Temporary headquarters were relocated to a building on Summer Street. A search for a permanent location ended with the purchase of the Winthrop House at the corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets in 1859. A fire destroyed the building on April 6, 1864. By October a cornerstone was laid for a new building at the same location, and the building was dedicated in 1867.
When fire destroyed part of the building in 1895, some wanted to sell the land and relocate. It was decided to tear down the entire building and rebuild a more substantial structure on the same site with nine floors above street level and two below. The cornerstone was laid in June 1898 and the building was dedicated on December 27, 1899. For many years there were storefronts on the street level with an entrance to the Masonic Temple on Boylston Street. In 1966, the stores were vacated, mosaics were added to the exterior, and the entrance was moved to the corner. The interior contained a new lobby and a banquet facility that was named Paul Revere Banquet Hall. In 2017, the street level was converted into a restaurant, and the entrance to the Masonic Temple was moved back to Boylston Street.
John Henry Bufford (1810-1870) was a lithographer in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts.
Bufford trained "in the Pendleton shop in Boston from 1829 to 1831."
In 1835 he moved to New York, where he "worked independently for five years while accepting commissions from George Endicott and Nathaniel Currier." Bufford returned to Boston in 1839, and became "chief artist" in the print shop owned by Benjamin W. Thayer (who had bought the Pendleton outfit)."
By 1844, the shop's name changed to J.H. Bufford & Co. (1844–1851)." By one assessment, "Bufford's firm produced lively, accomplished images in many forms, including sheet music, city views, marine views and landscapes, book illustrations, reproductions of paintings, commercial depictions of factories, and contemporary genre views; ... [and] lithographic portraits copied from daguerreotypes." Artists who worked for Bufford included Francis D'Avignon, Winslow Homer, and Leopold Grozelier. Clients included music publisher William H. Oakes.
In the 1840s-1860s Bufford lived in Roxbury and worked on Washington Street:
J.H. Bufford & Co. (1844–1851), 204-206 Washington St.
J.H. Bufford (1851–c. 1852), 260 Washington St.
Bufford's Lithographic & Publishing House, also known as Bufford's Print Publishing House, 313 Washington St. (c. 1857–1864)
John H. Bufford (c. 1869), 490 Washington St.
After Bufford's death in 1870, his sons Frank G. Bufford and John Henry Bufford, Jr. continued the business. By 1879, "J.H. Bufford's Sons, Manufacturing Publishers of Novelties in Fine Arts" worked from offices at 141-147 Franklin Street, Boston; and in 1881–1882 expanded the enterprise as far as New York and Chicago.
Merrill Greene Wheelock (1822–1866) was an artist and architect in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century. He served in the Massachusetts infantry in the American Civil War.
Wheelock exhibited at the Boston Art Club (1857) and the Boston Athenaeum. Among his early supporters was James Elliot Cabot. Wheelock was especially known for watercolors: he "has a local reputation of being our best painter in that department, his pictures being full of brilliant color." In 1852 he kept a studio on Tremont Row, and in 1858 on Summer Street.
In 1865 Wheelock designed the architecture of Boston's new Masonic Temple, which would move a few blocks down Tremont Street, from Temple Place to the corner of Boylston Street. Illness prevented him from completing the design, finished by architect George F. Meacham and built in 1867.
One of Wheelock's watercolor landscape paintings appeared in the 1881 exhibit of the Boston Art Club. A contemporary reviewer commented: "Wheelock is almost forgotten, although it is not so very many years since he died. But this watercolor shows that he has well-grounded claims upon our remembrance. It will certainly be better for his fame to know him by his paintings, than by such architectural absurdities as the Masonic Temple."