Evening Star Newspaper, July 20, 1930, Page 75

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D C, JULY 20, Heaton, said to be related to the Edsons, lived on the southeast corner at Eleventh street. The Veihmeyer house is numbered 1308, and the Willis dwelling was between Linwood place and Fourteenth street. TP the west end of B street is the old building of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which occupied in part the site of the old Artillery Corral, and which was completed nearly 50 years ago. An old and interesting statement printed at the time of its completion gives a brief and yet a good description of what was then regarded as an ideal plant for the making of Uncle Sam’'s legal tender. The account telis us that— “The new building of the Bureau of Engrav- ing and Printing of the Treasury Department, the erection of which. was authorized by the act of Congress of 1878, stands in the vicinity of the Washington Monument (now being com- pleted) and near the Agricultural Department on a line with the Smithsonian Institution and on the Mall leading to the Capitol. The style of architecture is Romanesque. It is 220 feet long by 135 feet in width. The north facade, which faces the city, consists of a basement and three stories, surmounted by an artistic cornice, .and is broken by three pavilions, that at the northeast corner rising into a belfry tower 130 feet in height. The south front of the building, which overlooks the Potomac, is broken by several chimneys of architectural de- sign, and presents quite an imposing appear=- ance. The west chimney is designed to carry off the fumes from the hardening rooms, and is built with massive walls to resist the action of the acids used in hardening the plates. The elevator towers are “also of beautiful design. ‘The stack from the boiler rooms in the rear of the building is 100 feet high, and is a magnifi- cent piece of brickwork. “The material of which the buiiding is con- structed is pressed brick above the basement, with string courses of molded brick. The structure is fireproof throughout. The floors consist of iron girders and brick arches, the only woodwork being the. window boxes and the dcors. The building is divided as follows: In the basement are the workshops; the first story will be occupied by the offices of the superin- tendent, assistant superintendent and clerks, and also the engravers’ department; the second story will be devoted to the surface printing department; the third story to the printing room proper and the examining room; in the attic of the pavilions are the dressing rooms and other conveniences for the employes. The turret in the southeast corner of the building contains a private staircase leading from the superintendent’s room to each floor of the building. The boiler house, in the rear of the building, is two stories in height, and contains room for the destruction of defective bank- notes and notes withdrawn from circulation to be canceled, the furnace room for heating the building and the laundry. The entrance hall in the belfry tower will be lined with ornamental and colored brick, and the stairways leading to the different stories will be of iron, lined with ornamental and enameled brick the entire height. The building will be heated by hot water and ventilated by machinery.” Some of the residents of Virginia avenue of 60 years or more ago were James Webster, whase home was at 917; the Cornwalls, next door; 931, William McQueen; 935, Walter Carter, who kept a stand for years in the Center Market. He had quite a largs family of children and has a number of descendants living in Wash- ington. Nine thirty-five was the Goldsmith house, where Zachariah Goldsmith and his wife, Anna (Blackistone) Goldsmith, reared a family of four children, two sons and two daughters, as follows: James S., superintendent of buildings and labor, United States National Museum; Nellie, who married Dr. R. A. Vitch; Gertrude, who married Dr. E. Y. Davidson, and William H., also connected with the National Museum: Sergt. Edgar Smith of the police force lived at 937, while James E. Webster lived at 930. ON the south side of the street, at 1100 Vir- ginia avenue, is the large brick residence bullt some years ago by Capt. E. S. Randall, the well known steamboat man, who years ago owned and operated River View, to which his steamers, Samuel J. Pentz and Harry Randall, took large crowds of excursionists during the Summer months. This dwelling is now owned and occupied by Dr. A, J. Olmstead. Some eight years ago Dr. Sarah M. Huddle- son, for many years connected with the Depart- ment of Agriculture, who had not lived long in the Southwest, purchased 202 Eleventh street southwest, and became so enthusiastic over that part of Washington that she wrote a paper for the Columbia Historical Society, entitled “The Sunny Southwest.” Speaking of her own neighborhood, she said: “By act of Congress, September 26, 1890, for the c..-struction and maintenance of a bathing beach on the tidal reservoir, near Washington Monument, the sum of $3,000 was appropriated, to be payable entirely out of District revenues. Capt. W. X. Stevens, a well known patent ate torney and a former English army officer, I am told, had first supervision of this basin. He owned and beautified the house in v'hich I now reside, No. 202 Eleventh street southwest. Capt. Stevens was a man of pleasing personality and of great importance. He is now in Los Angeles, and I believe our city sustained great loss by his change of residence. He was public~gpirited in the extreme.” After speaking of the Randall house, she refers to the adjoining property, 1102, by saying: “Within a door or two of this property is a frame building, locally known as the ‘Little Mount Vernon,” because of its wide ship lap and very ornate doors, said to have been sal- vaged from the refuse when the ladies of the Mount Vernon Association undertook to repair the home of the beloved first President of the United States. “Dr. George Vasey, for long years the emi- mnent botanist of the United States Department of Agiiculiure, resided on Eleventh street south- west bhelween B and C streets. The genial doctor knew the value of having his residence not far from his dally work. ¢ ¢ * 1930. B e il houses in Southwest Washington. “Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth resided for many years at the southeast corner of Thir- teenth and C streets southwest, and taught an interesting school in the building. Rear Ad- miral Robley D. Evans was one of her pupils.” Down at 317 Thirteenth street, next to the alley, is a well built pressed-brick house, built a long while ago by John Henderson, a member of the Association of Oldest Inhabitants, and whose son, also named John, and a member of the same organization, has furnished the writer with the following information of his father, with additional recollections of his own: “John Henderson, sr., one of the pioneer residents of South Washington and a prominent contractor and builder, was born in Ireland in 1824, and died in May, 1910, at the residence of his son, James B. Henderson, 1306 Buclid street northwest, in his eighty-sixth year. “Mr. Henderson came over on a sailing vessel, and landed in Alexandria, Va. From there he went to Baltimore, Md., where he married Jane McCully Cumming, a teacher in the Baltimore schools, and also born in Ireland. In the year 1852 they came to Washington and located in the Southwest section. His first home was on C street between Thirteenth street and what is now Linwood place. Later he built three frame houses on the east side of Thirteenth street, one of which the family occupied until later, when he built a brick home, No. 317 ‘Thirteenth street, directly opposite the frame houses. No. 317, when built, was one of the finest buildings in this section, and is still standing and in an excellent state of preser- vation. “Mr. Henderson had six children, all of whom survived their parents—John Henderson, jr.; William Alexander Millar, Thomas C. Hender- son, Richard W., George W. and James B. Henderson. Of these two have passed away— William Alexander Millar and George W. Hen- derson.” “WHEN John Henderson came to Washington and located in the Southwest that sectiom was known as “The Island,” surrounded by the Potomac River and a continuation of the C. & O. Canal, with the Washington and James Creek canals, which emptied into the Eastern Branch of the Potomac. In the earlier days boats laden with wood plied the canal as far as what is now Center Market. Mr. Henderson, sr., was a member of Capt. Samuel E. Owen's President’s Mounted Guard, which at the beginning of the Civil War en- tered the three months’ service and was de- tailed as a body guard to President Lincoln, and who furnished their own horses and equipment. “John Henderson and his five sons were members of the New Jerusalem Lodge, F. A. A, M., and John, Thomas C. and J. B. became past masters. “There is a small stone building standing at Seventeenth and B streets north which was occupied by a canal employe named James McGuffin, a former Baltimorean. The canal was spanned by five iron bridges—one at Four- teenth street, one at Twelfth, one at Tenth, one at Seventh and one at Four-and-half street. The Tenth street bridge was for pedestrians only, and was extensively used by housewives who went to the old Marsh Market to do their buying. “B street north is what was formerly the old canal. The water in this canal was governed by the river tides. At times there was no water in it, and at the time of its abandonment was a menace to health.” In the block north of where the Hendersons lived, at 209 Thirteenth street, resided Isaac Fairbrother, noted and much beloved public school teacher, and who later moved to 900 B street. Jacob Veihmeyer lived at 213, while John P. Hail, wholesale produce merchant, re-< ' sided at 219, and Martin Veihmeyer at 239, Across the street, at 220, was the home of George H. Aschenbach, machinist, and aftee his death his widow and their son, William H., continued to live there. Back in the eighties Alfred W. Rowell lived at 226, and Ernest Rowell is said to be the present owner. Twelfth street was well settled 50 years and more ago. A Mr. Elwood lived at 218; John B. Hammond of John B. Hammond & Co., at 220, and the Blount family at 228. On the east side of Twelfth street between C and D was Pierce’s lumber yard, where, it is said, W. T. Galliher & Bro., lumber dealers, first started in business for themselves. J. E. Roach & Co. kept a lumber yard at the corner of Twelfth street and Maryland avenue in the Ilate seventies. Between C and D streets on Twelfth, at 309, was once the residence of Capt. Charles R. Vernon, well known officer years ago of the Metropolitan police force. He later moved to F street southwest. Next to the Vernonms, at 311, is the Fish home, where the widow of Joseph Fish has resided for the past 45 years, At 315 was a grocery 50 years ago, kept by John E. F. Carlin, who was associated with the operation of Carlins Springs, in Virginia. Harry Mackey moved into 319 Twelfth street in 1385, and his widow still resides there. Three twenty-one Twelfth street is the old Haliday home, where lived Miss Belle Haliday and Miss Ellen E. Haliday, both well known and highly respected Southwest school teachers, Miss Harriet Haliday also lived there. James B, Haliday, father of a large family, whose firs§ wife was a Miss Crown and who for many years lived at 1364 C street Southwest, now lives in his father’s old home. At 323, at the far end of the bleek, lived the Bohannon family. Going east to Tenth street, we find that in 1880 Rebecca Lycett lived at 213; John J. Vieh- meyer of the family of stonecutiers at 419; Charles P. Culver, lawyer, at 301, and at a little later date at the southeast corner of the intersection of Virginia avenue was Edward Green's drug store, and another drug store was conducted nearby at 1001 Maryland avenue by M. L. Julihn, A’rznmmhmeezumw-nm:. Riley, retired school teacher of the Jeffer- son School, and farther down Eighth street, at 722, lives Mrs. Prank Gass, daughter of Thamas Auldridge, who built this residence many years ago and resided there until his death, and later Mrs. Auldridge also died there. When Mr. Auldridge purchased this property he paid $300 for a double lot, which illustrates the dif- ference in the value of property then and now. Of Mr. Auldridge’s daughters one married Frank E. Gass of the Smithsonian Institution, and himself of an old Southwest family, and an- other married James Shanks Goldsmith, who lives to relate when his parents would take the family for an outing on a Sunday on the old Belt Line street railway, which passed their home on Virginia avenue, at 5 cents a head. This car line sort of looped the city, and many of “The Island” families frequently took ad- vantage of the long ride afforded and the cheap price as a recreation trip during the warm Sum- mer months. In more recent years Albert J. Headley, fn- spector of police, has taken up his residence at 217 Ninth street, and George B. Turner was for some years a close neighbor, at 216.Ninth street, but who now lives at 900 B street. On the northeast corner of Eighth and O streets is a fine old brick mansion, built many years ago, so the writer is informed, by a mem- ber of the Johnson family, early Washington coal merchants, and later occupied by Dr. Louis A. Johnson. At the time it was built it was undoubtedly one of the most substantial residences in this part of the city, and is still a very fine old residence. At 927 C street lived Edward Culver, and at 1017 resided William B. Walton. Edwin Guthrie and Southwick Guthrie had their home at 1103, and No. 1105 is the original Tobias Walker residence, he who was the father of Charles J. Walker, builder. At 1239 C street was the gro- cery store of Hutchinson & Harvey, in prob- ably the same building, on the northeast corner of Thirteenth street, in which later on and for many years T. W. Estler also conducted a grocery. »SASERSHRESIITS P ,h?’: - S % & A row of old houses on Virginia avenue southwest. In the corner house lived Capt. E. S. Randall. The adjoining house is knows as “Little Moung Vernon House.