Evening Star Newspaper, July 26, 1931, Page 69

pert of the city—relied largely upon pumps for deinking water. In this connection, it is hard to understand how the unprincipled spalpeens ever got away with their lives, for, although the people of this section were frequently known to fight The Star prints this item -under the head of “An Outrage,” and says: “Yesterday afternoon & rumor was afloat that a woman had been killed in Swampoodle by three men. It grew out of an assault and battery made by a man named Thomas Honan, who hails from Philadelphia. Honan, with two other young men, named John McDevitt and R. Offutt, were intoxicated, passing a pump where a woman named Mary A. Ken- nedy was getting water, having two buckets sitting by her. Honan threw a stone at. her, and then went up and kicked one of the buckets over. The woman told him to go away or she would throw water on bhim. Honan took the other bucket and struck her upon the head, inflicting an ugly flesh wound and knocking her senseless for a time. “The perty ran and were pursued by the police and others, with the hue and cry, and all were captured after a long chase and car- ried to the office of Justice Donn. The woman, having recovered, appeared as a witness with another woman who saw the transaction. It was an outrageous act and resulted in the commitment of Honan as the principal, and also the others, his companions. The evidence showed that the last two mentioned were with Honan at the time, and very much intoxi- oated, but not that they participated in the asssult on the woman.” I'T s interesting to talk with one who can give you first-hand information about the city and its people of years ago, especially where the party revealing the past has an alert mind and still retains full use of faculties, and it was just such & person that the writer found Mrs. Alice Gray Flowers to be, and even more, for no one would ever suspect that this good woman was THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY 26, 1931.° Removing the old St. Cloud Building, Ninth and F streets northwest, in 1890. It was also a favorite congressional stopping place, the entire South Carolina delegation and many members from the Southern States mak- ing their homes there. “Flint opened a bowling alley on the east side of Fourteenth street, above Pennsylvania ave- Stewart’s Castle, erected by Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, in the sev- enties, at the northwest corner of Connecticut avenue and Dupont Circle, west of the Leiter home. One of the earliest developments in this part of Washington. anywhere near the age she must be to recall events as far back as the early 70s. Her first husband, Harry Sykes, was the son of James Sykes of the firm of Sykes, Chadwick & Co., proprietors of the Willard Hotel for a few years from about 1865 on. Since her hus- pand was also interested in operating the hotel, she made her home there until the partnership was dissolved and her father-in-law, James Bykes, took over the Jenness House about 1871, when he rechristened it the Imperial, and it later became the Harris House, at 1329 E street, fear the National Theater. Of course, Mrs. Flowers remembered the Greason House and its proprietors, William Greason and his son John, who kept the hotel which stood for many years—and up until a few years ago—at the northwest corner of E and Thirteenth streets. She also recalled Miller & Jones’ billiard parlors, the National Theater before it was destroyed by fire in 1885 and Shoomaker & Hertzog’s, then at 1331-1333 E street. Mrs. Flowers says that John L. Miller of Miller & Jones married Lola, a sister to his partner, G. M. Jones, whose two brothers were EBd and Lander. The Jones lived at 513 Thir- teenth street. The writer came across an interesting item about Shoomaker’s, printed in 1882, which he repeats, as it sheds light on the history of the d . It reads:~ “The property owned and occupied by Shoo- maker & Hertsog, just west of the National Theater, on E street, was sold at auction yes- terday afternoon to foreclose a mortgage and purchased for $25,000 by William Shoo- imaker, Esquire. This brick dwelling, which is one of the most substantial in the city, was built by the late John C. Rives in 1844, cr pearly 40 years ago, While he was of the firm ©f Blair & Rives, publishers of the Congres- lobe, and he used it as & private resi- :« or a few years, when he disposed of it $12,000 to Charles Flint, who converted it Into a public house known as Flint's Hotel. house was a great resort for the members of that company and the prominent young men of Washington and Georgetown. nue, and the property passed into the hands of Ned Pendleton, the famous sporting man, the price paid being $9,000. Pendleton, with Joe Hall, successfully ran this house, and the one on the corner of Jackson Hall alley, or Pennsyl- vania avenue, between Third and Four-and-a- Half streets, for many years, both places being frequented nightly by distinguished men from all parts of the country, and the stories are many of the fabulous amounts said to have changed hands and the elegant repasts served on all occasions. The present owners purchased the property in 1869 from the Pendleton heirs for $27,500 and to foreclose a mortgage since executed thereon of $25,000 the property was sold yesterday, with the result above stated.” N the west side of Thirteenth street above ° the Greason House, she remembered a Mrs. Kelley who lived next door to her, and farther up the street a Mrs. Parish, their next door neighbors being William Roach and his two sisters, Mamie and Katie, and here Mrs. Sneede and her daughter Austine also made their home for a number of years. These ladies were both regular writers for the old Sunday Capital, conducted by Donn Piatt and George Alfred Townsend. William Roach was connected with Lewis Johnson’s bank. Much of the side of Thirteenth street be- tween E and F is now occupied by the Palace Theater, the northeast corner of these streets having been a flower shop. To the north of the corner of E street lived Mr. Diggs, and farther up the block, at No. 519, lived John L. Miller, who was of the firm of Miller & Jones. At the northeast corner of Thirteenth street and Pennsylvania avenue, on Thirteenth street, there were nothing but private residences on the east side between E and P streets, of which but three now remain, and even the fronts of these, she states, have been remodeled and turned into stores. In one lived the Mr. Diggs before referred to. Mrs. Kelly, who lived on the west side of the street, was a widow, with a son, Charles, and two daughiers—Mrs. Nagle and Mrs. Camp, who were expert musicians—and each of these had a small son living ir about 1872, Mrs. Flowers says that at that time Harry Bowers, son of the celebrated actress, Mrs. D. P. Bowers, conducted a grocery on the north- west corner of Thirteenth and F streets. Of course, this neighborhood has changed won- derfully, we all know, but it really would be asking almost too much of the present genera- tion to imagine seeing hothouses on the corner where now stands the Earle Theater, and yet that is true, probably up until about 1880, when E. and J. Cammack quit this corner entirely for their farm at what is how Georgia avenue and Rock Creek Church road and which ex- tended east along the road to the Soldiers’ Home grounds. At the corner of Thirteenth and E streets the Cammacks were succecded in the flower business by Joseph R. Freeman. As Mrs. Flowers' people were interested for so many years in the hotel business in the busiest part of Washington, across the street for a while from Newspaper Row, and then right around the corner from this celebrated square, it is but natural that she should be- come acquainted with some of the best known people of the day, and when called upon to name some of the notables she knew years ago, she mentioned Washington McLean, father u? John R. and grandfather of Edward Beale; Mr. Hensey and Mr. Bennitt of the Sunday Herald, Donn Piatt of the Capital, Gilbert Pierce, Mr. Ramsdell, W. B. Shaw of tire Boston Transcript and Stilson Hutchins. > Others whom she numbered among her friends and acquaintances were Gen. O. O. Howard, Gen. George W. Balloch, Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, President Garfield, Gen. Albert Pike, Walt Whitman, Beau Hickman, Wash- ington’s most eccentric citizen, and Senators Sherman and Sumner. She also knew Vinnie Ream Hoxie, the sculptress; Mrs. Lippincott, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, the first woman ad- mitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States; Susan B. Anthony, Eliza- beth C. Stanton, Dr. Mary Walker and many others. Home of James G. Blaine, one of thke street to the left, M. A FEW weeks ago the writer showed an old base ball fan a card of admission to the _games of the National Base Ball Club, when in 1868—s0 the card states—they were playing at Fifteenth and L streets. He took issue with a statement on the card and said it was impos- sible. However, the writer hopes to show in @Pis story a picture of Massachusetts avenue and Fifteenth street, sketched even some years after the Louise Home had been built, which clearly indicates the rural character of the neighborhood at that time. L street and Fif- teenth, as the reader, of course, knows, is just a block and a half south of this corner. It was along this street, near here, where Philip Barton Key is said to have had a clandestine meeting with Mrs. Dan Sickles, which caused the latter’s husband to kill the son of the author of “The Star Spangled Ban- ner.” Kecy was then the United States District Attorney and naturally a man of polish and re- finement, and if anybody can look at these shacks and imagine a gentleman of his type and standing meeting a woman there, he cer- tainly must have an unusual way of thinking. The writer never reads of this case but that he concludes that the rash Sickles did poor Key an awful injustice. Recently the writer had presented to him by Miss Edna A. Clark a number of photo- graphic views of Washington, between 40 and 50 years ago and some even older, taken by the late W. H. Seaman. He feels that the reader will be greatly interested in these photographs. . The removal, along about 1890, of the old St. Cloud Building, at Ninth and F streets, where now stands the granite building of the Washington Loan & Trust, is especially at- tractive. Mr. John A. Smith's residence, Ef- fingham, was a short distance north of Florida avenue and west of First street—probably back in old Moore’s lane. Regarding the water that came from a spring on this property, Mr. Bryan says: “As this water was piped down North Capitol street, it flowed into reservoirs in the east and west grounds of the Capitol, and was introdufced into the building, so that by 1833 the members of Congress were no longer dependent on pumps in the yards. In addition, the water was used to keep green the lawns and supply the flower beds and shrubbery that then adorned the im- mediate locality of the building.” residences budle on Dupons Circle. F, avenue to the A