Evening Star Newspaper, August 17, 1930, Page 81

the place was sold was bought by Samuel Kirby, the well known cabinet maker, made into furniture. He was one of the of Washington. An exceedingly liberaily to the church he attended. Some one not understanding his peculiarity got up in church and publicly thanked him. He never could be induced to enter the church again, mor did he again contribute to its support. “He began sending a turkey every Christmas to the Washington Orphan Asylum, on H street between Ninth and Tenth, next to the Van Ness mausoleum. As the number of children increused so did the number of turkeys, until a barrel full was needed to supply the demand. Year after year the barrel was sent Christmas eve. One year no barrel came. At the very last minute the matron and manager had to hustle around to get up & Christmas dinner for the children. When asked why he had not sent the turkeys as usual he said that ‘women never could keep a secret; some of the women with their long tongues had told all about the gift of the turkeys, and he didn’t mean to send any more.’ “In this case he was a little unjust to the women, the secret having leaked out through the market man. A barrel of turkeys is a good deal for & private individual to buy and and would be apt to cause comment, but I never heard that he sent any more turkeys at Christmas.” TRANGE to say, the Center Market had its beginning in the President’s Square, and if the writer remembers aright it stood about where the State, War and Navy Building svands. Although there seems to be no cer- tainty as to when the market was erected so close to the White House, yet it was there i the Summer of 1801, when, as Mr. Bryan tells us, “the citizens started a movement to erect » market house on Market Square, on the south side of Pennsylvania avenue between Seventh and Ninth streets. The Commissioners at first agreed to help on the good work by subscribing $500 toward the building fund. But evidently the popular subscription did not warrant such an ambitious scheme, although Dr. Thornton acted as chairman of the meeting of citizens, and Willilam Brent was the treasurer, and James Hoban and Clotworthy Stephenson were constituted a building committee. Finally the Commissioners proposed that if the expenses of removal were paid by the subscribers they would give ‘the old market house’ on the Presi- dent’s Square ss a temporary aild to the market. “On a subsequent date, James Hoban was authorized ‘to remove the public sheds from the President’s Square to the Market Square.” By the middle of December, on Tuesday, the 15th, the market was opened and also on the following Thursday and Saturday, which are the market days at the present time. The place soon received the name of Center Market, which it bears to this day.” it was not a delightful area in which to place a market, being marsh land, as Marsh Market would imply, and even after this reser- wvation was taken possession of for this purpose there was no positive assurance—at least from the first—of a definite market day, for the Tiber had a habit of backing up and covering these blocks with water after every heavy rain. But no doubt, after all, it was due to the Tiber that this spot was selected, for the market place under favorable conditions could be reached by small boats, and the Twelfth Street Wharf was only a couple of blocks away, which was also an inducement. ATURALLY all sorts of methods were em- ployed in bringing supplies to the market. Christian Hines, speaking of the year 1800, " tells us: “It was customary for the country people to ®ring in their produce, such as corn, corn meal, potatoes, apples, etc., on horseback, and in re- turn, take back a few groceries, not forgetiing a jug of whisky. The tobacco, of which there was a large guantity shipped (more particularly from Georgetown) to Europe, was brought to market in a way that may appear strange to many who have never seen it. It was done in this manner: The hogshead containing the tobacco, had a hole bored in each head, and an axle rum through from one end to the other. ‘To this axle a shalt was attached something like the shaft of a cart. To this a horse was hitched and the tobacco brought to town, up and down hills, over stones, ete. It looked precisely like the roller with which the streets are now rolled.” Fifty years later we are told: “One of the great attractions of the Center Market was the fact that many fish dealers sold fish alive. When the fish were caught in the Potomac, or elsewhere, they were brought in live boxes, and it was no unusual sight to see fish jumping about the fish stands as pro- spective purchasers inspected them. If no sale was made the fish were simply dumped back into the baskets and then into the live boxes, which were floating in the canal, only 25 feet south of the market, The stock could be kept alive as long as desired or until sold, and the method had many advantages over cold storage, the chief of which was its inexpensiveness.” INES also tells us of one of the occasions when the Tiber went on the rampage and several market days no doubt were omitted. Here is what he says: “The Potomac River rose to a great height, and immense quantities of driftwood were brought down by the current. All along Water street, Georgetown, might have been seen people with their hooks catching wood, and even on the city side, from the lower bridge on Rock Creek to the mouth of the Tiber, and from that to about where Carusi’s saloon now stands, the citizens had collected for the pur- pose. ‘The most of the wood, however, lodged on the south side of the creck. A number of the citizens went to Seventh street bridge to eatch wood. “My,_brothers—Danicl, Jacob, Matiiew—and THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, I Flaut’s tanyard (fully half a mile out of our way), and crossed over a little foot bridge which spanned the canal. We then turned back again toward the Capitol, along the old road . which passed by where Breckinridge’s Charch afterward stood. “We finally arrived at the foot of Capitol Hill, and stopped at the house of Mr. Phillips, one of the employes of the House of Repre- sentatives, between Pennsylvania and Maryland avenues. Prom this we started to go home by way of Pennsylvania avenue, but when we ar- rived at the Avenue, we found it all under water from near the Capitol gate to, or above, Sixth street. The water on the south side of the Avenue covered all the land between the Avenue and Tiber Creek. At each end of the water, in the street, stood a cluster of people looking on with wonder and awe at the tremendous flood, “There were then no houses on the south side of the Avenue between the Capitol and Sixth street, all of the ground being public Jand or a part of the Mall. The creek at that time ran considerably more to the right before entering tidewater than it does now. “The old course of the stream has since been filled up, and the present one cut, so as to shorten it and give it a course nearer straight before entering tidewater. At this time there were still & considerable number of trees around In short, it was a complete little wilderness.” IT was not unusual for the visitor to Wash- ington in the early days to write up his “impressions”™ or “recollections” when he re- D. C, AUGUST .17, 1930. Center Market as it appeared in 1870. also had & marriage market. Here is what Sir Augustus is credited with having written: “Indeed, I never saw prettier girls anywhere. As there are but few of them, however, in proportion to the great number of mem who frequent the places of amusement in the Fed- eral City, it is one of the most marrying places of the whole continent—a truth which was beginning to be found out, and became, by and by, the cause of vast numbers flocking thither all round from the four points of the compass. g% B HH Bf 5E H ] 8‘:3 iss a??g g8 However, some of the thoughts put into print by the diplomat are historically valuable, and others force us to the after all—at least in some respects—we have changed but little, or are, so far as customs go, living in cycles and repeating ourselves at regular perfods. One of his remarks caused the writer to think this way at least. He said: “There were but few cases, however, of this, I must confess, though as regards the use of the powder they were not so uncommon, and at balls I thought it advisable to put om the tables of the toilette room not only rouge, but hair powder, as well as blue powder, which had some customers.” ; M_Y. how this neighborhood has changed since the Center Market was first opened on Tuesday, December 15, 1801! Just a build- ing here and there and the rope walk on the south bank of the Tiber immediately opposite the market. An old wooden bridge, built in 1795, by the Commissioners, at Seventh street, and the Twelfth Street Wharf close by, where is now the Internal Revenue Building, and only a foot walk up the Avenue made of stone chips from the public buildings. Even game, we are told, came up as far as Seventh street. Indeed, the projectors showed much courage whe nthey selected this site for their chief market. We can hardly realize the great change that has taken_ place in this area in the past cen- tury and a third. It was then almost as wild as the Indian had left it. To quote Hines again, about 1796 or 1797, “after passing the President’s House our road lay along P street until we arrived at Eleventh street west. We then passed in a southeasterly direction to a small creek that crossed E street north near where Dr. Borrows now lives. We then con- tinued along this stream in the same direc- tion until it crossed Pennsylvania avenue where the Center Market House now stands, and then we crossed the bridge. At that time there was not a single house on the Avenue from the President’s House to the Capitol. On the east side of the road there were, I suppose, several acres of elegant forest trees. On the west side there were not so many, there being only a narrow strip. I think part, or perhaps all, of them were on the Public Mall. The bridge, as well as I can Temember, was con- structed in this manner: There was a cause- way, or rather two smal between them. ways, the bridge was erected. them delicious. I have never seén any since, to my recollection.” Fnoutbefimmemnketmpuce(on this spot it was added to from time to time unti] almost the entire two blocks were taken up by sheds and buildings of different sizes and character until on Sunday morning, De- cember 18, 1870, an accommodating Providence caused the entire destruction of the market and its nondescript structures. So far as the of property was concerned, no one seemed to be sorry, as indicated by the report im the National Republican on the following # “Gone at Last, “The Center Market Totally Destroyed. “Immense Loss of Propérty. “Two Men Burned to Death. “The Old Watch House—Facts and Reminiscences. “The Center Market Houge, which for & quarter of a century had been a by-word and reproach to our progress as a city, is gome, totally destroyed by fire, and were it not that the occurrence has caused the death of two young men, besides carrying with it the loss of much private property, we would be tempted to reecho the almost unanimous voice, as mt- tered by the populace before the sad details were made known, and write—‘glad of it.’ “The incubus which has so long borne us down ss an enterprising people, the long row of sheds, which have in days gone by been pointed at by strangers with the finger of scorn, have in a few brief hours been swept from our sight, never more to greet the won- dering gaze of the visitor to the Capital of the Nation. S s “About 12:55 o’clock Sunday morning a forked tongue of flame was observed leaping forth from the roof of the main market build- ing, apparently from a point on the north wall, about 30 feet from the Ninth street entrance. Within a few seconds a sheet of fire burst forth and spread with lightning rapidity all over the building, then, attacking the piteh roof of the temporary addition across Eighth street, quickly communicated to the main building from Eighth to Seventh street. “In 10 minutes the entire structure, extemd- ing from Ninth to Sevensa street, was a per- fect mass of flame and smoke, while the locality for two blocks around was lighted up as the glare of a noonday sun. The sheds on south side of the main structure were soon o fire, extending as far south as the fish mark sheds, the flames taking in their course the R. WASHINGTON TOPHAM, who read & paper on the Center Market before the Columbia Historical Society a few years ago, gives the following names of the butchers who had their stalls in the market when it burned in 1870: James A. Hoffman, Armistead Homil« ler, Samuel 8. Hoover, Michael Homiller, Ben« jamin S. Elliott, Christian Kieny, Charles Homiiller, Benjamin F. Hunt, William H. Hoo- ver, William Miller, T. G. Hoover, Joseph Miller, R. B. Hoover, George W. Miller, John Widmayer, William Widmayer, Leonard G. Killian, George Killian,. George Leonard Botsch, John H. Glick, Joseph Kengla, Henry Ruppert, Charles H. Johnson, Benjamin F. Donaldson, Samuel 8. Coggins, Bernard Geler, Joseph Geier, John Poor, John R, Kelley, John Ruppert, Casper Schafer, Louis Kengla, Joseph Weaver, William H. Fenton, Joseph Prather, William Donaldson, John Myer, David N, Green, John Yeabower, Leonard Zeller, Anton Ruppert, John Elbert, William F. Kengla, The- odore Barnes, John Egleston, Joseph Weyrich, John H. Davidson, Frederick Meyers and Wil Ilam M. Schlorb, Beef Prices Drop. THB beef eaters of Chicago and Philadelphia have cause to rejoice, as the average price per pound of beef has dropped 11 and 12 New York did not fare so