Evening Star Newspaper, February 2, 1930, Page 90

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 2, 1930. Old Tiber Creek Was District Feature - BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. OT only is the District government purchasing property in the area north of the Avenue for its munic- ipal center, but a recent sale of the south half of what was orig- inally known as reservation 11 was made to the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, which in- tends ere long to improve the site with an office building that will be a credit to the city and in no way detract from the beauty of the Capitol, whose near neighbor it will be. This company, not long ago, purchased the northeast corner of Third street and Pennsyl- vania avenue, just to the west of the Capitol, and here it now has its local offices, in a build- ing on the site of the old Capital Hotel, one of the city’s landmarks. The latest purchase, which is close by, or between Second and Third and B and C streets, includes the south half of the block, and the building to be erected will include a service station on the ground floor. In 1794 this particular area belonged to Benjamin Oden, who that year agreed to con- vey it te the Government upon the same terms as agreed upon between the Government and the other original proprietors. 5 Of the ground to be held for public use, as agreed upon by its original owners, 17 parcels were designated as reservations, and included in this number were the Mall, the White House grounds and Lafayette Square. Set aside for the mint was reservation 12, though reserva- tion 11 and the block to the east of reserva- tion 12 were also generally included when reference was made to them by the commis- sioner in speaking of “the Bank and Exchange Squares.” Later, when the Government de- cided to permit the mint to remain in Phila- delphia, Congress, by act of May 7, 1822, per- mitted reservations 11 and 12 and other Fed- eral property in that vicinity to be subdivided and sold. 4 When title was taken by the Government under agreement with the -original proprietors every other lot went to the United States and every other one to the owner of the land, the Government taking the reservations at u': -upon price of $66.50 an acre, an amoun meedmmyot us would be glad to pay today to secure a few acres of Avenue frontage. But when we reflect that this was more than a century and a quarter ago it is really a ques- tion if, after all, it was worth more than that amount. AHUNDRI:Dyemm this section was not especially desirable, being generally low and marshy. The Tiber, long since turned into a sewer, then flowed in a southwest direction in this neighborhood, entering block 574—the one in which stands the old Census Building-- sbout at the northeast corner, and leaving it in the south center. Continuing on, the stream sort of chipped the cormer of block 575 and crossed the Avenue directly at Second street. The Tiber was a noble old stream, and it does seem unfortunate that those who designed the city did not preserve it and its tributaries, with a sufficient strip of land on either side as a parkway. What a wonderful thing it would have been! There is nothing more at- tractive or more beautiful than nature, and to the writer it does seem that nothing could be more sublime to the lover of nature than to see these streams running through the city &t the present time. An early map shows several streams in the northern part of the city finally merged into one large stream that skirted the western slope of the Capitol grounds. No doubt all of these had their sources in springs, and n@® ubt, too, they were greatly increased in volume by other springs encountered along their journey to join the main artery. The map shows one stream as starting from block 234, or between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets and W street and Florida avenue. The writer has the faintest recollection that there was a spring in this square, where once stood a frame farm house surrounded by silver maple trees. The writer particularly remembers this old house, which, no doubt, was owned by one of the early settlers in this vicinity, because it was once rented and occupied by an aunt of his named Logan—the wife of David Logan— who had quite a large family of children and needed considerable ground that they might grow up and spread out. 'WO blocks directly to the east, where this “stream shows up on the map, began an- Jother stream which joined with the first one at about Tenth and S streets, and a little farther on, at Eighth and R streets, joined Reedy Branch from the north. From here Reedy Branch flowed southeastwardly, in a sort of zigzag way, meeting another branch from the north, a little east of the corner of First and O Streets. In block 672, between M and N and North Capitol and First streets north- east, another merger took place with the Btream that flowed from the northeast along the valley now followed by the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At Massachusetts avenue, between Delaware hvenue and North Capitol street northeast the Tiber was further augmented by a branch which had its source not far from Mount Olivet Ceme= tery. This does not include many of the smaller and branches that flowed here and there into the Tiber, but does give an idea of the possibilities nature presented to the early eity planners, which they did not or would not Bee. b Slash Run was over in the western part of the city and emptied into Rock Creek near Twenty-third and O streets. This was & stream 6f considerable volume, and was the cause of Some anxiety & few years back when ex- tavation was being made for a largé downe- town hotel. Beveral logs of fossilized wood Wwere then found, which proved new to this i locality and very interesting to the paleontologist Who studies such matters. Loss of City Streams of Long Ago Regretted as Historic Landholding Is Studied. First Freight Depot Here Believed to Have Been the Nation’s Initial Structure of Sort—OId National Hotel and Guard Headquarters. Great Chdnges Seen. B i | 3 | ¥ 219 Third street northwest, where resided Robert C. Winthrop, James M, Mason and Jonathan Cilley when serving in Congress. F all the streams that once flowed through the city, Rock Creek is the only one that remains for future generations to view., Of course, it is the largest and most beautiful of all, and when the driveway along its entire course is completed 1its real rugged and majestic beauty will be appreciated—not only by visitors, perhaps, but especially by those who have known it from youth and who have often fre- quented it for a refreshing dip during the Sum- mer months of their childhood days. None of the houses in the block recently purchased by the Standard Oil Co. can be very old, and all must date subsequent to 1822, when Congress permitted the block to be subdivided. Several houses on the Second street side, from their architecture, have every indication of having been built around 1830. ‘Their fronts are of the Flemish bond type of brick construc- tion, almost, if not exclusively, used in building houses at least in this part of the country at and prior to that date. Incidentally, it is this type of construction that usually causes so many people to make the statement that “the bricks came from Eng- land”—about the most far-fetched idea one could conceive. About the most convincing article the writer knows of, along this line, is the one written In 1903 by George Alfred Townsend, the celebrated Civil War correspond- ent, for the records of the Columbia His- torical Society, after a most thorough investi- gation. Mr. Townsend says: “The custodian of the Maryland Historical Soclety has handed me a memorandum of all the imported bricks brought into that province of which there is a record. There are three importations and they cover 8 years’ time. “The schooner Nancy of 20 tons brought 2,000 bricks from Charleston, 8. C., enough to build a burial vault. The Live Oak of 70 tons brought 6,000 bricks from Philadelphia, enough to bulld a chimney. The same num- ber of bricks, 6,000, was brought on the ship Britannia, 129 tons, from Bristol, England, only 6 years before the Continental Congress met, when every hamlet had its brickyard. “If this be the sole record of the shipment of English bricks, let us consider what they would construct. A single chimney, such as the end chimneys outside of the 40 feet high and 6 feet by 3, feet square face of wall 12 require over 16,000 bricks. bricks, therefore, would raise it feet from the ground. And importation in the record of a province about every early brick house has the tion of *“imported brick.” in 1665, has at its mouth and almost the only ome water, Beverly. I wrote to Judge J. Dennis of Baltimore for the age and to learn if he knew of any imported-brick houses on the Eastern Shore. answer: “‘Beverly was certainly not bullt of ime ported brick. The present building was come menced in 1774 by my great-great-grandfather, this colony, coming from the Eastern Shore of Virginia with the Quakers in 1665), and it was finished by his widow, Susanna (daughter of Arthur Upshur of Upshurs Neck, Northampton County, Va.), in 1777. The former house there was built also of brick, but I have no idea that it, or, in fact, any other house in this colony, was built of imported brick. “‘A priorl,’ continues Judge Dennis, ‘one must almost inevitably reach the eonclusion that the theory of imported brick is & misty fable, when it is considered how {lly equipped for the storms of the North Atlantic the small ships of those early days were, and how unlikely they would be to burden themselves with such a cargo, especlally when the erying need of the colonies was for manufactured goods, .from which the freight profits must have enormously exceeded any possible to have been derived from the limited cargo of bricks. Mr. Philip A. Bruce's publication of the Vir- ginia Historical Society has completely exploded the misty myth, and the persistence of the fable has always been in a direct ratio with the size and squalor of the building.’ ” Another writer, Willlam Hand Browne, in his “Maryland Palatinate,” draws this conclusion$ “It is doubtful whether a single house (in Maryland) was bullt of imported brick. We find a contract for making brick as early as 1653, and still earlier mention of brickmakers.” Onrolmemthmmudmpmthh block is the one at 219 Third street, in which resided Representative Jonathan Cilley, of Maine when he was killed in a duel with Representative Graves of Virginia February 24, 1838. The writer covered this story some months ago in The Star, and will not speak of it further here. Another occupant of this house was Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, who, when serving as Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives in 1848, delivered the oration at the laying of the corner stone of the Washington Monument on July 4 of that year, and, though very advanced in years, he was appropriately selected as the orator at the dedication on February 21, 1885. Though he had prepared his oration, said to have been a masterly effort, yet he was unable to be present, and Gov, Long of Massachusetts, who was then a mem- ber of the Huose of Representatives, read it instead. : James Murray Mason, a Representative and Senator from Virginia, also lived here, He is best known by his service as commissioner for' the Confederacy to Great Britain and along with John Slidell, and of his having been taken from the British steamer Trent on November 8, 1861, and subsequently released by, order of Secretary Seward, the United States: having disavowed the act. Mason was born on Analostan Island in the District of Co= lumbia, and not in the State of Virginia, as has been said. Ginger Mason purchased this property on August 28, 1777, and it subse= quently became known as Masons Island. . One of the most historic spots in the neighe= borhood purchased by the oil company is the northwest corner of Pennsylvania avenue and' Second street, which for 18 years served as the station for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., which had its “formal opening” on¢ August 25, 1835. This was the first railroad station in the city, and as well the first railroad to enter the city, and, naturally, it was am event of the greatest importance at the time; the landing platform then being in the square on which the old Census Office building now st-a.m:, between Pirst and Second and B and O streets, MR. JAMES CROGGON, in speaking of thid site, says: : “In 1835, lots 1 and 2, fronting on the Avenue, and part of 16, lot 17, the east end of the square, were purchased by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. as the site for thd Washington branch depot, and in a little time uu;ubee-me a most interesting point for the public. : “The house that stood near the corner of Second street, built by Mr. Henry M. Morfit; then (1835) judge advocate of the Navy, [ narrow, three-storied, brick structure, which had been used as a boarding house by Johmi Mount, was made the ticket office. This wa§ surmounted by a small belfry, from which the ringing of a small bell, 10 minutes before the departure of trains, gave notice of the fact to the public. “The tailor shop of John Sinon and the cabinet shop of H. V. Hill were removed and sheds erected for the cars.” Referring to the early residents of this neighe borhood, Mr. Croggon tells us: “At the east end of this square, the Avenue at Second street, Mr. Henry M. Morfit, an attorney, in 1830 had a three-storied brick house on the lot near the corner, and on the next lot toward Third street John Sinon, & merchant tailor, had & house, and H. V. Hil} had a lease on ground near Mr. Morfit's house, on which he had a cabinet shop.” Reference is also made to: “* * * Several three-story bricks owned by Elexius Simmsy D. D. Arden, and others, most of them occus pled as boarding houses.” MY good friend, Washington Topham, in writing of this old rallway station for the records of the Columbia Historical Society; makes mention of the following persons ag having lived nearby: “Among the houses there was that of John Purdy, who settled there in the 20s, and care rled on the painting business for some yi 1 and later became one of our leading dm and president of the Patriotic Bank., In 40s and 50s, while residing at this same ade dress, he had a lumber and coal yard around the corner on First street above the Avenue, Thenunorstreetornlleyhmemuolh. residence, where, in the intervening yi ; many families have lived, has been known three-quarters of & eentury as Purdy’s court. “At the corner of First street and Pennsyle vania avenue was Archibald Stewart’s store, and nearby the coach factory of SOloma and David Stewart. John Foy, a seedsmary and gardener of the Capitol grounds, lived om this square, “On the same square was John Donn & Son, coach makers; the Jackson Tavern of Patrick Moran; John N. Moulder, chief clerk of the second controller'’s office; Horatlg Kingsberry, Willlam Nichols and Mrs, B, Warner, in a frame building at the northeast corner of Second, at the Tiber, afterward the Rallroad Hotel of Michael Brady. . “On the square on Pennsylvania avenue off which the depot was located, between Second and Third streets, were the following: “The depot building, near the corner off Becond street, previous to its remodeling fof the depot; the boarding house of John Mount; John Sinon; the cabinet shop of H. V. Hill;