LATIN SCHOOL HOUSE PURCHASED. 149 



contemplation at no distant day to erect an edifice 

 suitable in elegance and convenience to the importance 

 of the subject." Indeed, nearly a year previous to this 

 time, on the 30th of October, 1841, a committee had 

 been appointed to inquire after a suitable hall, room, or 

 rooms, for the use of the Society, by purchase, lease, or 

 otherwise. This was the first definite action on the 

 part of the Society looking to the possession of a 

 building of its own ; but the committee did not succeed 

 in finding a suitable location. 



On the 19th of August, 1843, a committee, consisting 

 of President Wilder, B. V. French, Elijah Vose, Samuel 

 Walker, and Josiah Stickney, was authorized to contract 

 in behalf of the Society for a building or building lot 

 suitable for its purposes, if either should present itself, 

 which it would, in the opinion of the committee, be for 

 the interest of the Society to purchase. On the 6th 

 of January, 1844, the president, in behalf of the com- 

 mittee, reported that they had purchased for the Society 

 the estate belonging to the city of Boston, known as the 

 Latin School House, on School Street, containing 2,952 

 square feet of land, for the sum of $18,000. The 

 report concluded as follows : 



" Before closing this Report, your committee wish, to name some 

 of the reasons which have influenced them.. in their doings ; and 

 first, they would state, that, in their opinion, the time has arrived 

 when the wants of the Society demand better and more extensive 

 accommodations than can be furnished in the present location ; 

 that the funds now in the treasury, with its prospective resources, 

 are such as to warrant an investment for this purpose, and that, 

 after the Society shall have appropriated such part of the building 

 as may be deemed necessary for its own convenience, there will 

 then be a portion left which may be fitted up for stores or shops, 

 and which will probably rent for a sum equal to the interest of any 



