Paine Memorial Building, Boston

This is the letterhead of the Boston Investigator, which was established in 1831.  Abner Kneeland was its most famous, but not its only editor.  I took this off a note dated 1899, from somebody (I couldn't read the signature) donating a copy of the very fist issue of the paper, to the Investigator's archive.  The image seems to be taken from the lithograph by J.H. Bufford's Sons, below.

The Investigator was apparently located in the Paine Memorial Building in Boston, which (according to King's Handbook of Boston, 1889) was "on Appleton Street, between Tremont and Berkeley Streets.  It was built in commemoration of Thomas Paine.  The famous San Francisco millionaire, James Lick, gave $18,000 towards the building-fund.  The hall has seats for 800 persons."  This entry is followed by: "Investigator Hall, in the Paine Memorial Building, has a seating capacity of 600."

The hall was dedicated in early 1875.  In October 1877, the building's board of trustees approved the foreclosure sale of the building.  Although they had appealed to their friends, they did not receive enough in contributions to meet their taxes and interest payments.  "We have been able to hold the property up to the present time only because Mr. Mendum has generously seen fit to advance the money…" they noted. Mendum was the editor of the Investigator after Abner Kneeland moved west following his imprisonment for blasphemy in Boston. These events are mentioned gloatingly by Joseph Cook (1838-1901), as a preface to one of his Tremont Temple prayer meetings titled "The First Cause as Personal." Cook is known for his attempts to reconcile science with faith, but apparently Paine was an easy target for ridicule — the transcript of the sermon began, "Thomas Paine has recently been sold at auction in Boston. [Laughter.]  We are reminded anew that in many senses infidelity does not pay."  Maybe not, but it apparently hadn't disappeared, either.