Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1931, Page 86

THE SUNDAY STAR, -WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 1, 1931, — — ——. | Many Force School Pupils Won Fame Its List of Teachers Became Roll of Honor and Boys and Girls of Prominent Families BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. ASSACHUSETTS AVENUE bas been one of Washington's most important streets for many years. The lower part, of more specifically that part east of Tenth street, was built up with residences a long while before that part to the west of the same street began to show Hfe except for a cabin here and there occupied by people usually of moderate means. In the Spring of 1872, one of the periodical booms in real estate struck Washington, espe- cially in that part which later became known as the West End. Shepherd and other mem- bers of the Board of Public Works had begun in earnest to improve Washington, and Massa- chusetts avenue, Scott circle, Dupont circle and vicinity were getting their share of attention. West of Sixteenth street at that time was practically unimproved; and brick yards were still being operated near Dupont circle by Wil- liam Hopkins, who had succeeded to the busi- ness of Thomas Corcoran, brother of the banker and philanthropist, W. W. Corcoran. True, a straggling village had begun to ap- pear many years before in the block bounded by L and M, Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, but elsewhere homes were isolated, and alto- gether a few thousand dollars would have rep- resented the entire amouni expended for build- ing purposes. Slash Run, or Shad Run, as it was some- times called—a drowsy. shallow branch having its main spurce somewhere around Fifteenth street and Columbia road—was still an open stream in many places, and the odor arising from the insanitary slaugbterhouses which lined the banks was even more unpleasant than in the days when William Linkins, Frank Lin- kins, John Pfeaster, John Berry, George ‘Walker, John Hoover, John Little and others did their killing hereabout. This picturesque branch, well known to the old-timer, entered the city by crossing Florida avenue at about Eighteenth street. A feeder which joined the main stream in the center of square 156, be- tween Seventeenth and Eighteenth, P and Q, added to the size of the branch as it wended its way southeasterly to near Sixteenth and L streets, where it zigzagged west to Twenty- second street and flowed into Rock Creek at a point between N and O streets. Three large springs found their way into Slash Run. One was known as Brown's, and was near Florida avenue east of Fifteenth street; another was on the south siic of Rhode Island avenue east of Connecticut avenue, and the third was in the grounds now occupied by the Louise Home. At Twenty-first and L streets, where John Berry salughtered cattle, there was a wooden bridge, and where the stream crossed Thirteenth street it was arched over. N item the writer came across the other day says that as near as it could be ascer- tained Guy Graham was the first actual settler in the Dupont circle neighborhood. “Mr. Graham,” so the article states, “was a pioneer of the District and was one of those who cut the road from the Capitol to the Treasury, which was designated Pennsylvania aveiuue. Some of his descendants, now living, remember his description of how the trees were cut so as to fall across the road, and stone and gravel were filled in for making the road- bed. He had come to this country after his marriage in Scotland, and with his family set- tled near Twenty-first and S streets about 1808, when ground was sold at .001 per foot. Por some time he was in charge of Holmead’s burial ground. The family lived here for many years, and a son, Guy Stone Graham, was also superintendent of the graveyard and manager of the Kalorama grounds. “When the Municipal Government assumed eontrol Holmead's graveyard had been laid out, and some families had placed their dead there, The elder Graham was the first superintendent, and in the 20s Philip Williams filled this office, as well as that of clerk of the West Market. After him, G. S. Graham had charge.” A descendant of this family of Grabam, C. E. Graham, is an employe of the District Water Department. All along Slash Run there was good gunning when the city was young, and, judging from its other name, “Shad” Run, it would seem that shad once made their way into this stream by way of Rock Creek. Many years before the District of Columbia was provided for, per- haps centuries ago, Slash Run was a much larger body of water than the early Wash- ingtonian knew it to be, and quite deep. On several occasions when excavations bave been made along its course tree trunks and vegeta- tion of an early r n found, some- times 20 feet belo 1's surface. ‘There are still old res living, no doubt, who in their boyhood days went swimming in this stream and gathered berries and fox grapes from fields nearby which are now oc- cupied by residences belonging to multi- millionaires, and the chances are that there still are a few who recall when there were but two or three houses on Thomas Circle, and when that park was only a circle on paper. Two dwellings known to have existed at an early period were the residence occupied by Wibiam H. Crawford, in 1821, when he was Secretary of the Treasury, on ground now oc- cupied by the National Christian Church, and the residence to the northeast of the circle for many years occupied by Judge Andrew Wylie. The oid Crawford home, Studied There Massachusetts Avenue and Thomas Circle. . The Belden Noble residence which formerly stood at the northeast corner of Massachusetts avenue and Eighteenth street. ONE can hardly form an idva of how sparseiy settled some parts of Washington were for half a century and more after the Capital was moved here until they become interested in items of the past which, directly or indirectly, describe certain parts of the city. Some time ago the writer introduced in one of his stories a scene showing cows grazing along K street northwest between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, about 1850. At that time he might have mentioned the Rugby Academy, conducted by Reginald H. Steele in the Rugby House, on the site of the Hamilton Hotel at least up to 1852, when the school was moved to Thirteenth street. How- ever, when the academy was at Pourteenth and K streets we find it said that it was so far out that pupils were not allowed to go to the city without special permission. “Highlands Terrace,” north side of Massa- chusetts avenue between Fourteenth and Ffteenth streets, was the result of the boom in real estate before referred to, which, how- ever, was only short lived, but worked wonders, particularly in the northwest, while it lasted. A number of important men bought on the terrace and erected homes there. In 1885 the Chinese Legation was at 1401 Massachusetis avenue, next door was the home of Repre- sentative Theodore Lyman, and No. 1407 was the home of Rt. Rev. Henry Y. Satterlee, first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Washington, who died here. Senator Arthur P. Gorman was then living at 1409, Senator George P. Edmunds Highland Terrace, about 1885. First house to left was residing at 1411, Senator Thomas F, Bayard at 1413, later occupied by Senator Shelby M. Cullom; Maj. Thomas B. Ferguson, assistant commissioner of fisheries, at 1435; James Ormond Wilson, superintendent of public schools, 1439; the U. S. Fish Commission, 1443, and next door, at 1445, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and director of fish and fisheries, made his home; Senator Lucius Q. C. Lamar at a later date lived across the way. Senator Orville H. Pratt was residing at 1625 Massactusetts avenue, Zebulon B. Vance in the adjoining home, and in the block to the west, at No. 1717, lived William Walter Phelps, then a member of Congress, and at the end of the block on the same side was the handsome new home of Belden Noble, which the writer believes was later remodeled into the three-apartment building on the northeast corner of Massachusetts avenue and Eighteenth street, where resides the Secretary of the ‘Treasury, Mr. Mellon, having as a close neigh- bor across the way, at 1800, Mrs. Hugh Wallace, widow of the recently deceased Ambassador to France, and daughter of the late Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller of the United States Su- preme Court. Many will recall ker marriage here in’the eighties to Mr. Wallace in the old St. John's Church. ENATOR LODGE, the Walsh family, the Leiters and other prominent people were early residents of this noted avenue, but not open space, residence of J. Ormond Wilson, superintendent of in 1885. The Louise Home, in the 1500 block, founded by W. W. Corcoran as & home fog Southern gentlewomen, is one of the buildings erected on this spot when the neighe borhood was still dotted with huts and shanties. A little over 30 years ago Bishop John R, Hurst, author, was living at 1701 Massachusetts avenue, and following him at the same addresg was Charles Francis Adams, whose olaim to distinction then was as “author.” This block seems to have been a rendszvous for authors, for Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett lived at No. 1770, in a home erccted from the proceeds of her book, “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” Here, t00, was the Force Building, a notgd public school of the West End, which has probably been attended by more children of preminent parents than any other school in the city. However, we must not forget to mention the Stewart Castle, on Dupont Circle; James G, Blaine’s residence at 2000 Massachusetts aves nue, Mrs. U. S. Grant’s, widow of the general, at 2111, and Larz Anderson’s home at 2118, nor the shewplace at the northeast corner of Florida avenue, where Mrs. Townsend lived until her recent death. It is said this mansion incloses the original house on the site, since the owner regarded its removal as bad luck, but the truthfulness of this statement the writer cannot vouch for. Two well known residences occupying the northeast and the northwest corners, respectively, of Sixteenth street and Scott Circle are occupied by Mrs, Henry F. Dimock, president of the George Washington Memorial Association, who lives in 1301 Sixteenth street, and the one on the northwest corner was once the residence of Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, widow of the Vice President, and still earlier the home of Secre= tary of the Treasury, Willlam Windom. HE old Peter Force School Building, on this prominent thoroughfare, is no doubt worthy of special mention. Its history is fragmentary, disconnected and incomplete. The upon which it stands went to the Government in the division of lots at the time the city was laid out, and in the numbering of the squares this one was assigned number 158. In all thers were 22 original lots in this block, but subse= quent to their sale by the Government, subw divisions were made and further lot numbers assigned. The first sale we find in this square was in 1802, when William Dougherty and William Simmons obtained four lots each. Between that date and 1806, Raborg & Taylor had bought from Charles Love four lots on the W street side, and evidently they erected a build= ing on their holdings, for in the 30s they were taxed $250 for improvements. In 1809 Mr. O'Neale owned property at the corner of Eighteenth and N streets, and in 1834 Grafton Powell bought a lot in this square, which he later sold to W. W. Corcoran. In 1830, Anm Shorter was assessed $50 for property here, and in 1840 B. F. Moxley was one of the taxe payers. Just when the Force School Building was begun, the record does not state; there seems to have been no corner stone laying, nor any ceremony at all. Exactly when the building was completed and first occupied is also & doubtful point the writer could not clear up. Of course, he got very close to it, but not down to the day and date. It did not “just grow” lke Topsy, we know that, and yet the Board of School Trustees, in minutes and re- ports, seems to have omitted what some might consider essential details. The columns of The Star were scanned for the missing links, bu§ even this repository of knowledge, strange to say, failed to deliver the goods, as some would say. NATURALLY, the first step was to secure the land, for, as stated, this belonged to the Pederal Government, and so, in the minutes of the board for November 12, 1878, we find among the recommendations made to the Come missioners of the District of Columbia, the following: “First, that Congress be asked to donate to the District of Columbia, for school purposes, Publia Schools; mext house, skipping one, U. S. Fish Commission; part of building to estreme left, the home of Professor Spemces T. Baird.