Evening Star Newspaper, August 3, 1930, Page 87

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 3, 1930. e e @eorge Alfred Townsend speaks at length of John Welker and his celebrated establish- ment, and since this noted Civil War corre- spondent has told the story so iuterestingly, his description of this noted hotel man will be given without charge. Here is what Mr. Townsend says: “Dining in Washington is a great element fn politics. The lobby man dines the Rep- resentative; the Representative dines the Sena- tor; the Senator dines the charming widow, and the charming widow dines her coming man. For reed birds the politician consults Hancock, on the Avenue; for oysters, Harvey; and for an ice or a quiet supper, Wormley or Page; but there is no dinner like Welcker’s. He possesses an autograph letter from Charles Dickens, saying that he kept the best res- taurant in the world. He has given all the expensive and remarkable dinners here for several years: and talking over the subject of his art with him a few days ago, we obtained some notions about' food and cooking at Wash- ington “Welcker is said 10 be a Belgian, but he has resided in New York since boyhood, and he made his appearance in Washington at the beginning of the war as steward of the Tth Regiment. He is a youihful, florid, stoutish man, with a hcarty address, a ready blush, and a love for the open air and children. “Every Summer he goes down the Potomac, shutting his place behind him, and there he fishes and shoots off the entire warm season, wearing an old straw hat and a coat with only one flap on the tail. Nobody suspects that this apparition of Mr. Winkle is the great caterer for the congressional stomach. No- body imagines that this rustic is the person whose sauces can please even Mr. Sam. Ward, that distinguished observer for the house of Baring Brothers. Nobody knows—not even the innocent and .festive shad—that this Welcker i8 John Welcksr, who came to Washington during our civil broil, drew and quartered for Provost Marshal Fry, fed all the war ministers, and gave his historic period the agreeable flavor of mushroems. Q‘IN the early days of Washington, entertain- ments other than family ones were given st the taverns, some of which, as Beale's, stood on Capitol Hill. Afterward Mrs. Wetherill, on Carroll row, set especial dinners, breakfasts and suppers to order. In later t'mes, Crutchett on Sixth street, Gautier on the Ave- nue, and Thompson on C street established restaurants a la carte. Gautier sold out to Welcker, who had such success during the war that he bought a large brick dwelling on Fifteenth street near the Treasury, and at times he has leased several surrounding dwell- ings, so that he kept a hotel in fact, though without the name. “Welcker has a large dining room, 80 feet Jong by 16 feet wide, with adjustable screens, adapting it to several small parties, or by their removal to make one large dining room, which will seat 100 people. Welcker's main lot is 133 by 25 feet. “The character of Welcker's entertainments is eminently select, and his prices approach those of the English Castle and Falcon, or of Phillippe’s, in Paris. His breakfasts and din- mers a la carte are about at New York rates, less than those of the Fourteenth Street Del- monico and matching the St. James and Hoff- man Restaurant prices. The most expensive dinners he has ever given have cost $20 a plate. Fine dinners cost from $10 to $12 per plate, and breakfast from $5 to $8 per plate. He has fed betwecen six and seven hundred people per diem, as on the day of Grant’s in- auguration. “His best rooms rent at $8 & day and con- sist of a suite of three rooms, but the habitants thereof pay the establishment for food, wine, etc, not less than $50 a day. “Welcker’'s chief cook is an Italian Swiss, obtained from Martini’s, New York—the same who distinguished himself at Charles Knapp's great entertainment in 1865, the .cost of which was $15,000. Welcker supplied the food for Mr. Knapp's last entertainment, in 1867, at the I street mansion, now occupied by Sir Bdward Thormton. There are five cooks in all at Welcker's, and the establishment em- ploys 30 servants. During the past session he has given at least two dinner parties a day, averaging 12 guests at each, and each costing upward of $100. “The best fish in the waters of Washington is the Spanish mackerel, which ascends the Po- tomac as high as Wicomico River. They come as late as August and bring even $5 a pair when quite fresh. “Brook trout, propagated artificially, Welcker thinks lack flavor. He obtains his from Brook- Iyn, but says that there are trout in the Vir- ginia streams of the Blue Ridge. “Preezing boxes, or freezing houses, such as are established in Fulton Market, New York, do ngt exist in Washington. These keep fish solid ‘and pure for the entire season. The inventor of them is a Newfoundland man, and he proposes to put them up in Washington for $300 apiece. “Welcker says that the articles in which the District of Columbia surpasses all other places are celery, asparagus and lettuce. The pota- toes and carrots hereabouts he does not esteem. The beef is inferior to the Virginia mutton, which he thinks is the best in the world— better than the English Southdown. Potomac snipe and canvas-back ducks Welcker thinks the best in the world, and the oysters of Tangier, York River, and Elizabeth River he considers unexcelled by any in the world. The Virginia partridge and the pheasant—which are the same as the Northern quiil and the par- tridge—Welcker also holds to be of the most delicious description. “OUR markets, he says, are dearer than those of New York and Baltimore and less variously and fully stocked. The market system here requires organization, being car- ried on by a multitude of small operators who are too uninformed about prices to institute a competitive system, and hence it often happens that potatoes are sold at one place for $1.50 a bushel and somewhere near by for only 50 cents a bushel. His market bill will average during the session $600 a week, and sometimes rises to $300 a day. “The most expensive fisheries on the Potomac rent for about $6,000 a year. Messrs. Knight & Gibson, who have the Long Bridge fishery, opposite Washington, paying $2,000 a year for it, pay also $6,000 for a fishery near Matthias Point, about 70 miles down the Potomac. Knight & Gibson keep a fish stand in the Center Market. “The first shad which reach the North come from Savannah, and bring in the month of February as much as $6 a pair. Alexandria is the chief mart for saving and salting shad. Gangs are often brought from Baltimore, Fred- erick and Philadelphia to man the shad boats, and five miles of seine are frequently played out. The black bass in the Potomac River were put in at Cumberland several years ago and have propagated with astonishing fecun- dity. How much nobler was the experiment of this benefactor of our rivers than the wide- spread appetite for destructiveness we see everywhere manifested. B e s Old Riggs Bank Building, with residence of the cashier at left. The building was erected in 1824 and demolished in 1904. “The most expensive dish furnished by Welcker is Philadelphia capon au sauce God- dard, stuffed with trufiles, named for the cele- brated Surgeon Goddard of Philadelphia. The best capons come from New Jersey, but good ones are raised in the region of Freder.ck, Md. The capon is probably the most delicious of domestic fowls, attaining the size of the tur- key, but possessing the delicate flesh and flavor of the chicken. Truffles cost $8 a quart can and $4.50 a pint can. They comc from France and North Italy and grow on the roots of cer- tain trees. Truffle dogs and boars are used to discover them, and the boars wear wire muzzles to keep them from eating the precious parasites. Truffles look l'ke small potatoes, except that they are jet black through and through. The capon is boiled and served with white wine sauce and with sweetbreads. “TAKE next for an example the prices which we receive in the Arlington, which is a small hotel, with a capacity for no more than 325 persons. “Senator Cameron paid for himself and wife $450 per month and had but two rooms. Sen- ator Fenton had a parlor, two bed rooms and an office and paid $1,000 per month. Mr. S. S. Cox and wife paid $250 per wzek, and he gave & buffet supper for 100 persons which cost him $1,500. Mr. W. S. Huntington gave the Japa- nese the finest spread ever set in the Arlington Hotel. There were only 20 persons, and he paid $1,000. Dr. Helmbold paid $96 per day, and his bill for two weeks was about $1,600. A parlor and three bed rooms in the second story of the Arlington, with a small family occupying them, are worth $450 per week dur- ing the season, and one guest here pays for a parlor, bed room and bath room $300 per month. “At the Delevan House, Albany, Dr. Gautfler used to pay $375 per week, and Gen. Darling; with a parlor, three bed rooms and four per- sons, paid $400. The hotel at Lake George had 37,000 on the register last season in four months; it took in that space of time $294,000, and the net profits were $52,000. “The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, rents for $200,000 a year, including the stores be- neath it. The St, Nicholas rents for $95,000, although it cost but $425,000. Mr. A. T. Stew- art has just rented to Willlam M. Tweed the Metropolitan Hotel, New York, for $65,000 a year, to put his son, Richard Tweed, into busi- ness as a landlord, and the Lelands, who go out, paid $75,000. “The cheapest piece of hotel property, in National Savings & Trust Building in 1885, northeast corner of New York avenue and Fifteenth street. point of rent, in this country, is the Brevoort House, New York, which rents for $27,500, and has three owners; it is kept on the Euro- pean plan, excepting the table d’hote, which it does not keep up, as it has made its repu- tation on the best cuisine in the world.” THE original proprietors of this block, known as square 222—bounded by Fourteenth, Fif- teenth and H streets and New York avenue— were John Davidson and Samuel Davidson. It was at first divided into 15 lots, lot 1 being at the corner of Fourteenth street and New York avenue, and lots 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 also facing that thoroughfare, the last numbered lot being at the corner of Fifteenth street, where the National Savings & Trust Building stands. Lots 7, 8 and 9 faced Fifteenth street, lot 10 being on the corner now occupied by the Wood- ward Building, and on the H street side were lots 11, 12, 13, 14, and ending at Fourteenth street with lot 15. When the time arrived for dividing these lots between the Government and the original propriétors lots 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14 were assigned to the heirs of John Davidson, as was probably also lot 10, and to the Govern- ment went lots 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12 and 15. Subsequent to the signing of the agreement with the original proprietors and the date of the agreement accepting the division of the lots, John Davidson had evidently died, for we find his widow, Eleanor Davidson, on March 23, 1797, agreeing to the division “for herself and as mother, natural guardian, and next friend to Mary Davidson and Samuel Davidson, infant children of John Davidson; Margaret Davidson, and Thomas Harris, for himself and Eleanor, his wife.” LATIR on in years, the original 15 lots in this square were subdivided and in some cases combined and even duplicate numbers crept in, so that in 1887 we find on New York avenue the following owners: Lot 1, at the northwest corner of Fourteenth, occupied by the Clarendon Hotel—A. Gleason; lot 2 had three buildings on it; on lot 3 there was the building of the Young Men’s Christian Association (still standing to the rear); lots 8, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were then owned by John T. Lenman, and upon which was the Lenman Building; the National Savings & Trust being og lot 8, on the corner. On the Fifteenth street side Welker had lots 6, 10, 11 and 12, and the Columbian (now George Washington University), covered lots 9, 10 and 11, at the southeast corner of Pif- teenth and H streets. On H street, J. T. Lee owned lot 12; Richard Smith, lots 13 and 14; Clara A. Rines, lots 15 and 16; W. P. John- ston, lot 17, and lot 18 was the southwest corner of Fourteenth street. Mr. Israel, a part of whose notes regarding this square, of about 50 or 60 years ago, the writer will also avail himself of, mentions on the New York avenue side Fussels, A. C. Plant, grocer; and the savings bank. Facing Fif- teenth street, at No. 721, lived Fernando Wood, members of Congress and mayor of the City of New York. Willlam Pinkney Whyte and William T. Hamilton, both of whom served as Senators in Congress and as Governors of Mary- land, and George Vickers, a Representative from that State, also lived at this number, but not in the present building. At an early date Horace I. King kept a boarding house at 705 Fifteenth street. Regarding the site now occupied by the Woodward Building, Mr. Israel says that this corner was once occupied by an old antebullum mansion, where the French Minister once re- sided. It was surrounded by a large garden, and, probably because it was vacant for a long time, it had the reputation of being haunted. This old residence was probably the Ripley mansion, once occupied by the Metropolitan Club and the building that was removed when the Columbian University was erected on this corner.