A Portrait of Old George Town by Grace Dunlop Ecker 1951 THE DIETZ PRESS, INCORPORATED Richmond, Virginia Copyright , 1951 by GRACE G. D. PETER second edition Revised and Enlarged printed in the united states of america Dedicated to the memory of My Father and Mother George Thomas and Emily Redin Dunlop and My Aunt, Ellen Dunlop all three of whom lived long, useful and unselfish lives in Georgetown...

By William Tipton Tablott The ghosts of Georgetown when they meet In haunted house or moonlit street With pride recall the functions gay When down the Philadelphia way The Federal City overnight Moved to its bare and swampy site, For Georgetown then a busy mart, A growing seaport from the start, Where a whole-hearted spirit reigned, Threw wide its doors, and entertained With wines and viands of the best— The Federal City was its guest. In memory of the good old days, Whose ways to them were mode

IT IS not at all in my mind to write a history of Georgetown. Several have been written, but I do want, very, very much, to paint a portrait of this dear old town of my birth where my parents, my grandparents, great-grandfathers and one great-great-grandfather lived, and which I love so dearly. A portrait, partly of its physical features, its streets, its houses and gardens, some of which still exist in their pristine glory but, alas, many of which have gone the way of so-called progress. In pla

THERE are many Georgetowns up and down the Atlantic seaboard in the original thirteen colonies, and even one in Kentucky, much like the Jamestowns and Charlestowns and Williamsburgs named for the sovereign of the time, but this George Town of which I write was in Maryland on the Potomac River, and because it was situated at the head of tidewater of that great river, it became important on account of the great amount of tobacco grown in that area and brought to this point to be carried across the

GEORGE TOWN flourished and became more and more a busy port. Its population in 1800 was 2,993; by 1810 it was 4,948. Its wharves were thronged with vessels sailing across the seas laden with the "precious weed" and with wheat brought in from plantations for the "flouring mills" in great Conestoga wagons painted red and blue drawn by six-horse teams adorned with gay harness and jingling bells. Also, there was a thriving coastwise trade, up to old Salem and Newburyport where the clipper ships were

WITH ships arriving and departing and the land travel passing from North to South and back again, besides the country gentlemen coming to town to sell their crops and tend to other business, there was need for many taverns, and plenty of them there were in George Town. According to Mr. O. W. Holmes of the National Archives who has recently written a fine article on the Colonial Taverns of Georgetown for the Columbia Historical Society, which he read before the Society on January 16, 1951, the ea

THE houses had no numbers, but the streets had descriptive names. Along the river, Wapping, changing to The Keys and East to West Landing where all the busy loading and unloading of vessels took place. Just above there running west off Water Street for a short distance was Cherry Lane (now Grace Street). What a pretty name! Once a fashionable neighborhood, later on a slum. Running north and south there was first Fishing Lane which became East Lane and finally settled down to Congress Street and

SUCH was the town through which General George Washington passed in April 1789, on his way from Mount Vernon to his inauguration in New York as first President of the government which was trying out an experiment new to the world. In the Times and Potowmack Packet , on April 23, is this insertion: George Town. Last Thursday passed through this town on his way to New York the most illustrious, the President of the United States of America, with Charles Thompson, Esq. Secretary, to Congress. His E

NEARLY all of the business, and most of the social life, up until 1800 took place below Bridge (M) Street. The island in the river below George Town, which was called, variously, Analostan, Mason's Island, My Lord's Island, and Barbadoes, was almost a part of George Town in those days. It belonged to the great plantation of George Mason, of Gunston, the brilliant statesman and author of the Bill of Rights. His son, General Mason, had there an estate where he entertained in fine style. Louis Phil

THE bridge over Rock Creek at Bridge (M) Street, was built in 1788, and one night when a storm of wind and rain was raging, gave way while a stage-coach was passing over it. The coach was precipitated into the water but only the driver and the horses were drowned. Ever afterwards it was said that on stormy nights the ghost of the driver haunted the spot. Peter Casanave had a stone house near the bridge and close by was the house of the French's. Mrs. French had been Arianna Scott, sister of Mrs.

UP the hill from Bridge (M) Street on the east side of High Street (Wisconsin Avenue), a door or two above where the Farmers and Mechanics Branch of Riggs Bank now stands, was a fine old house where the Potomac Fire Insurance Company had its first home. But long before that, it was the home of Mrs. Caperton, whose son, Hugh Caperton, became a well-known lawyer here. At the present 1239 Wisconsin Avenue, where Becker's Paint Store has been for a good many years, was the house which Robert Peter g

ON the northeast corner of First Street (N) and Frederick (34th) Street stands the row of houses which John Cox built. Colonel Cox was for many years most prominent in all the affairs of Georgetown, serving as its Mayor longer than any other one man from 1823 to 1845—22 years. John Cox was of English descent. He was born in 1775 during the Revolution, was the youngest of four children, and being left an orphan as a small child, was raised by an uncle who was a banker in Baltimore. He later lived

ACROSS High Street (Wisconsin Avenue) along Gay (N) Street on the northwest corner of Congress (31st) is the Baptist Church which has just celebrated its 75th anniversary. It was originally a small frame building, up on a bank. The present building was erected in 1890. On the southwest corner of Gay (N) and Congress (31st) Streets stood, not so very many years ago, an attractive old white house with long porches, tiers of them, across the back overlooking a garden. I think the present building i

GEORGE TOWN produced three eminent philanthropists: one whose benefactions were solely to Georgetown; a second, who became the greatest benefactor the City of Washington has ever had, and inaugurated the tremendous gifts to schools and colleges that have since become the fashion among men of great wealth; the third started his gifts at home, then crossed the ocean and made enormous contributions to the largest city in the world. The first one, Edward Magruder Linthicum, had a hardware store on t

NOWADAYS, all to the east of here bordering on Rock Creek has been made into a park and playground, and some attractive houses built overlooking them. On the southeast corner of Montgomery (28th) Street and Dumbarton Avenue, the large brick building now used as a colored Temple of Islam was where Henry Addison, who had been mayor, was living when he died in 1870. This house later was the home of General Christopher Colon Augur. One night he came out on his porch to remonstrate with a crowd of ne

ON the southeast corner of Third (P) Street and Frederick (34th) Street, the attractive, low, white frame house is where Doris Fleeson lives, who writes such interesting articles for The Evening Star . At 3327 is a fine tall old brick house painted yellow, which has for many years, until very recently, been the home of Hon. and Mrs. Balthasar Meyer. On the second story it has a lovely long music room used for dancing and by Sylvia Meyer, their daughter, the talented harpist of the National Symph

COMING east from Valley (32nd) Street is the lovely old house which the Seviers bought in 1890. It has never had a name. It was built by Washington Bowie, another of the shipping barons. His wife was Margaret Johns before becoming Mrs. Bowie. This whole block was his estate and was entered in his day through the double iron gates on West (P) Street. The carriages passed up and around a circle of box to the path, bordered with box leading to the porch with its lovely doorway. The doors opening in

LIKE the brightest jewel in its crown of old houses, Tudor Place, now the home of Armistead Peter, junior, sits high and aloof on the heights of Georgetown. Its southern front, shown here, is the one most familiar to everyone, and it is the view that I looked out on every day of my life for more than a score of years from my father's house on Stoddert (Q) Street. As Mrs. Beverley Kennon, its owner during my youth, was my cousin and had her motherless grandchildren living with her, some of my ear

EVERMAY, on Montgomery (28th) Street, is one of the show-places of Georgetown. Its fascinating garden is shown every spring for the benefit of Georgetown Children's House by its owner, the Honorable F. Lamot Belin, at one time Ambassador to Poland. He removed the cream-colored paint from the old house, revealing the lovely old-rose brick, and built the wall and the lodge at the gate when he bought the place in 1924. Evermay used to extend all the way down to Stoddert (Q) Street. The original bou

BALCH, THOMAS BLOOMER: Reminiscences of Georgetown . BRYAN, W. B.: A History of the National Capital . BUSEY, SAMUEL C.: Pictures of the City of Washington in the Past . CAEMMERER, H. PAUL, Ph.D.: The Life of Pierre Charles L'Enfant . CLARK, ALLEN C.: Life and Letters of Dolly Madison . CORCORAN, W. W.: A Grandfather's Legacy . COLUMBIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Record of the . DODGE, HARRISON H.: Dodge Family Memoirs . EVANS, HENRY R.: Old George Town on the Potomac . HALL, MRS. BASIL: The Aristocrat