SALEM Attorney Willam J. Tinti remembers the time a developer offered to buy the 1784 Joshua War House when grimy, vacant storefronts and peeling bill boards disguised the handsome Federalist mansion. "The man said, 'I'll buy as long as you knock dow the junk in the back,' Tini said. Tinti refused. Instead, he negotiated deals to remove the inappropriate storefront additions and return the brick building, once visite by George Washington, to it original splendor with grant from the Massachusett Historical Commission. The building, which barely escaped bulldozers, won National Trust Award in 1980. It's one of my prized accomplishments," Tinti said. Tinti, 48, who helped save the downtown business district from massive demolitioi during the 1960s and 1970s can be proud of his role in restoring many historic buildings in Salem. "He turned the direction to the downtown around. Thank God he did. Otherwise we would have lost a lot more buildings, said City Planner Gerard Kavanaugh. "He can merge buildings with preservation better than anyone I've seen." Although Tinti's efforts have been praised locally for years, this week the Massachusetts Historical Commission will honor the Salem lawyer with its 25th Anniversary Preservation Award. - As a member of the Salem Redevelopment Authority during the early 1970s Tinti fought the original urban renewal plan, which called for tearing down historic buildings for parking garages, and helped implement programs to restore architecturally important buildings. Federal funds in the 60s were traditionally used for demolition. was a new notion to use federal money used for rehabilitation," said Marcia M. Cini, a preservation expert with the law firm Tinti, Quinn and Savoy, in which Tinti is senior partner. "What Bill brought to the process was the kernel of an idea and the know- how to implement it. As chairman the Redevelopment Authority, he turned the tide." Tinti said he believed it was important to save Salem from becoming a "sterile non-place." "Preservation shows a concern for human beings," he said. "When you save buildings, you are saving people's memories -saving important parts of their lives. When you destroy a building, it uproots or destroys feelings or memories, or ties to a community. The idea of preservation is the same whether you want to preserve a neighborhood environment or a historic building." Tinti's firm restored the Federal-style Jacob Rust building at 216-218 Essex Street which now houses its offices. The three-story brick building, built in 1805, was the city's earliest commercial building. After the Masonic building on Washington Street was destroyed by fire in 1983, there was a danger the building would be razed. Tinti negotiated with the owners and tapped federal and state funds that allowed restoration of the building, the largest commer North As city solicitor from 1974 to 1982, Tinti fought residential growth he thought would harm the city by overloading water and sewage systems. Tinti worked with the planning department to develop the first controlled growth ordinance in the state. Among his long list of civic activities, Tinti has served as a member of the Massachusetts Historical Commission and as chairman of Salem's Zoning Committee. In addition, he served as a member of the land records commission of Massachusetts, a council member for the Massachusetts Council of the Society for the Preservation of New Englnds' Antiquities, on the legal committee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and as director of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce. Yet for all his successes, Tinti said the battle for historic preservation is not yet over. You struggle and fight for an ideal, a concept. After a while, you think you've convinced people," he observed. "But you will struggle over what's right and wrong as long as you have human beings. Preservation is not a revealed truth. It's something that has to continue."

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