This is a terrific old photograph of East Capitol St., before a street was even there. This was from the Library of Congress, and apparently was mislabeled as Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. This too was taken by William M. Chase.

Bird’s-eye view of the east Capitol grounds, including the Greenough statue of George Washington, and East Capitol Street taken from the dome of the U.S. Capitol.

Don’t forget to compare this with the East Capitol shot we posted the other day.

The post Incredible 1860s View of East Capitol Street appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

This is a great view down East Capitol St. from the Dome, taken around 1880.

Photograph shows Carroll Row, a block of five houses at 1st & A Street, SE, razed in 1887 for construction of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. Includes the sign “Architect.”

UPDATE: GoDCer Leonard sent along this great shot (a little blurry), from the same vantage point today. So cool!

view down East Capitol from the Dome

The post Excellent View Down East Capitol from The Capitol Dome appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

The hospital still exists, but it’s no longer in the original location. Providence Hospital once stood between 2nd and 3rd St. and D and E St. Southeast. The block is now Providence Park, which is an awesome place to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Providence Hospital in the early 1900s (Library of Congress)

The former hospital used to occupy square 735 and was subdivided into 14 lots (see map below). According to the hospital’s website, it is the longest continuously operating hospital in the city. It was initially established as a teaching hospital during the Civil War.

The hospital expanded in the early 1900s and continued to provide care at the Capitol Hill location until the facilities began to show its age and a new hospital was needed. In the 1950s, discussion began on rebuilding the hospital. At the time, the decision was made to relocate the hospital to its current spot in Northeast D.C.. when engineers noted that rebuilding on the same lot would necessitate a two-year closure of the hospital. Thus, the spot at 1150 Varnum St. NE was selected.

square 764 – Baist real estate atlas 1909

The new hospital was mentioned in the Washington Post on January 6th, 1952, noting that it would cost upwards of $7 million.

Providence Hospital, begun here in 1861 to care for wounded soldiers of the Civil War, is going to build a new seven-million-dollar plant.

For the project, the Washington public will be asked to contribute one million dollars in a fund-raising campaign to begin early next month, officials of the hospital announced last night.

The new Providence Hospital, they said, will be constructed on a 15-acre site at 12th and Varnum sts. ne., near Catholic University.

The hospital moved to its current location in March 1956. Five years later, the old campus remained and on the 100th anniversary, the Baltimore Sun wrote the following article, on June 11th, 1961.

Providence was founded June 10, 1861. the grounds on which it stood for 95 years and where the Library of Congress and the nation’s Capitol still stand, were all originally part of the famed Cerne Abbey Manor tract, acquired in 1730 by a pioneer settler of Maryland, Thomas Notley. It was named for an old Benedictine abbey in Dorsetshire, England.

A portion of the tract descended through the much-intermarried Carroll family of Maryland.

…

A month after admitting its first patient–a typhoid case named Lawrence O’Toole, Providence was receiving casualties from Bull Run.

Hospital records show the admission, on July 22, 1861, of two privates of the 71st New York Volunteers, William Behan and George A. Cooke. Behan was described as suffering from “a wound of thigh.” Both were wounded the day before at Centreville in a skirmish preliminary to the First Manassas.

The old facilities were being leased by the Commerce Department (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) after the hospital left for Northeast. In October 1963, plans were announced to build a massive 10-story apartment building on the site, pending zoning change approvals. Four businessmen has purchased the property in 1962 for over $600,000 from the Sisters of Mercy.

One of the challenges these men were facing was a 1955 law that placed the property within an area of land in which Congress could eminent domain property to expand the Capitol grounds. Well, long story short, this real estate speculation didn’t work out for the investors, as they were unable to get the zoning change. Nevertheless, they paid $55,000 to have the entire complex demolished.

Following the failed attempt at developing apartments, the owners pushed to construct a parking lot on the site. They were unable to generate any revenue with the property and were looking to defray the carrying costs by charging fees on a temporary parking lot. The neighbors rallied against this as well, claiming the increased traffic would destroy the neighborhood.

By the end of the 1960s, the District government had considered the lot for a new junior high school. The Architect of the Capitol also expressed interest in acquiring the site. An article in the Washington Post on February 4th, 1969 stated that the plan was to purchase the lot and build a new headquarters complex for the Capitol Police roce. A total of $1,250,000 was written into their budget for the 1970 fiscal year. This plan also fell through.

For almost a decade, the property was the center of major feuds between neighbors, the investors and members of congress. Finally, there was some movement in June 1972. The Senate Public Works Committee formally rejected any proposals to convert the site to at temporary parking lot. The Committee also voted in favor of federal acquisition of the property as the new location for a school and dormitory for congressional pages.

A total fair market value of $1.4 million was allotted to acquire the land, now a pile of dirt. The proposed school on the site was to be named after recently retired former House Speaker John W. McCormack. Construction plans were set to take four years, and until they began, the site ironically was to service as a free parking lot for Capitol visitors. The neighbors rallied one more time against the parking lot and successfully killed the idea.

The Architect of the Capitol held additional meetings in 1977 with members of the Capitol Hill community to discuss options for the site, in the event that the page school idea failed to be realized. The winning proposal was the build a sizable housing complex for senior citizens. In addition, the community successfully lobbied Congress for $375,000 in funding to turn the ugly, dirt-filled lot into green space, crossed by two concrete paths.

The page school project died due to lack of funding, and the senior citizens project failed to gain enough support.

proposed senior citizen housing – Providence Place

The park was yet again in the middle of real estate controversy in 1990 when the University of California was looking for a location to build a multimillion-dollar education facility. Fortunately, the neighborhood was blessed with luck again and the university selected an alternate site on Rhode Island Ave. NW, near Scott Circle.

What was formerly the site of the oldest hospital in Washington, has successfully fended off numerous proposals to rid the neighborhood of its beautiful park. It remains today as a great, open green space, criss crossed by two concrete paths, with the nickname X-park.

Check out the Google Street View of the park today.

The post Lost History: Providence Hospital and the Story Behind Providence Park appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Here’s a great 1903 map of Eastern Market, as requested by GoDCer Orestes. Hope you enjoy it!

1903 map of Eastern Market

And below is the Google Map of the area today.

The post 1903 Map of Eastern Market appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

This map is a little difficult to see, but it’s a great old plan of Washington on Capitol Hill. The streets are laid out and the lots and marked. (To orient yourself, up on the map is west.)

Plan of part of the city of Washington : on which is shewn the squares, lots, &c., divided between William Prout Esq’r and the Commissioners of the Federal Buildings, agreeably to the deed of trust / laid down from a scale of 200 feet pr. inch by N. King, 1800.

The post 1800 Plan of Washington and Capitol Hill Lots appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Now this is a truly historic and fascinating story from the annals of untold D.C. history.

About a week ago, GoDCer Kicha sent us a great tip on a story from 1869. The story includes an interracial love affair, a complicated love triangle, rife with jealousy, and a gruesome murder. The latter leads to this historic trial, the first in Washington where the jury was racially mixed.

The jury that tried Millie Gaines in 1869 for the murder of a white man, and freed her on an insanity please. It was composed of six colored and six white men. This was the first murder trial in the District in which a mixed jury sat. Reading from left to right seated; 2, David Fisher; 4, the Rev. James D. Reed; 6, Leonard C. Bailey. Standing from left to right; 2, Charles Humphries; 4, John A. Gray; 6, Herbert Harris (The Baltimore Afro-American – May 4th, 1935)

Millie Gaines was a black woman who had a brief affair with a white man, James Ingle. The two met at a boarding house on 1st St. NE, between A and B streets, where she worked and, ultimately, where Ingle was murdered. James had been lying on a couch when Millie brought a large ax down on his head, splitting his skull, instantly killing him.

On July 13th, 1869, the Baltimore Sun published an article detailing the case.

In the Criminal Court to day the case of Millie Gaines, a colored girl, charged with the murder of a white man, James A. Nigle [sic], was called for trial. Mr. D. D. Barrett, assistant counsel for the prosecution, asked that the case be continued on account of the absence of Mrs. Governor Blair, of Michigan, who was an important witness, and who was detained by sickness. Mr. Biddle, for the defense, demanded that the ground for a continuance should be stated in an affidavit. Mr. Barrett responded that the defense could not require the prosecution to furnish affidavits to secure a continuance of the case, inasmuch as it was competent for the District Attorney, being the representative of the President, to decline to prosecute the case at the present time, or at any other time, if he should see fit, in which ase the prisoner would simply be entitled to a discharge from jail on her own recognizance.

The court said that the President, nor the Great Mogul, nor anything short of God Almighty, could keep a prisoner in jail until the District Attorney is ready. Neither the President of the United States nor the District Attorney was beyond the law. He must comply with the requirements of the statute. He must state what he expects to prove by the absent witness, in order that the defense may, if they choose, admit it; or else the court could discharge the accused upon her own recognizance.

The prosecution then said they expected to prove the following by Mrs. Blair:

“On the morning of the homicide, and in the room where it was committed, the prisoner, in the presence of Mrs. Austin Blair, said to the deceased, ‘I will to it,’ to which the deceased replied, ‘You dare not.’”

The defense agreed to admit that the above would be proved, and the court then proceded to empannel [sic] a jury to try the case.

Below is a current Google Map of the approximate location for the boarding house.

The following day, the Baltimore Sun published even more scandalous and salacious details.

The trial of Millie Gaines, charged with the murder of James A. Ingle on the 5th of March last, was resumed to day in the Criminal Court before Judge Fisher. The jury, as selected, is composed of six white and six colored jurors.–There was a very large crowd at the court-house all day, principally of colored people, and the case excited a good deal of interest. The case was opened by Mr. O. D. Barrett, who recapitulated the facts he expected to prove. Mr. A. K. Browne, for the defense, hoped that while the jury pitied the victim they would also have some feeling for the accused, who, he said, was now pregnant. He accused the deceased of having been a libertine, and having had criminal intercourse with the prisoner, and said they expected to prove that at the time of the homicide she was laboring under a hereditary paroxysm of excitement, and subject to such when under the influence of anger. In short, the defense was that she was temporarily insane, partly by hereditary and partly by moral causes, and was justifiable in taking the life of her betrayer. Doctors C. M. Ford and F. S. Walsh testified to having been called to see the deceased on the morning of July 5th, and described the wounds, which seemed to have been inflicted with an axe. Mrs. Van Buskirk, with whom Ingle boarded, and in whose house the girl was employed as a domestic, testified that so far as she knew the relations between the prisoner and deceased were the same as existed between the other boarders and the servants, and never knew of any special intimacy between them.

Now this is where the details get crazy …

Lieutenant John F. Kelley of the Metropolitan police force, testified that the prisoner made a confession to him at the central guardhouse when she voluntarily delivered herself up. her confession was substantially that she had killed a man at Mrs. Van Buskirk’s house, on Capitol Hill; that she kileld him be cause he had gotten her with child, and that he had refused to support the child; that she had told Mrs. Van Buskirk about it, and she told her to keep her mouth, that he was keeping company with a Miss Schaeffer; that one night Ingle told her that he was about taking Miss Schaeffer out to the inauguration, she told him not to do it, on one occasion she locked Miss S. up in her room to prevent her going out with Ingle; afterwards ingle and Miss S. evaded her, and went out, she then went to a room of one of the guests of the house and procured a pistol, and secreted a hammer in her pocket; she then went into the room where Ingle was lying on the sofa, and he jumped up; she aimed the pistol at his breast, but it missed fire, she then struck the deceased with the hammer, which she pulled from her pocket, three or four times, and he fell senseless.

Emma Justiss, a fellow servant with the accused at Mrs. Van Buskirk’s testified to the accused telling her, on the morning of the day of the murder, that there was to be a fuss in the house. After examination of the other witnesses upon points analogous to the above, the court adjourned until to-morrow morning.

The jury acquitted Millie of the crime on the account of insanity. Below is the report as delivered by special dispatch to the Baltimore Sun on July, 21st, 1869.

The trial of the colored woman, Millie Gaines, charged with the murder of her paramour, a Northern man, some months ago has ended, as every one expected, in acquittal. The jury, composed of six black and six white men, rendered a verdict to that effect to-day after a deliberation of less than five minutes. When the verdict was rendered the court room was so crowded with spectators, nearly all of whom were colored people, that it would have been almost impossible to have made place for another person. The crowd showed a disposition to applaud, but this attempt was promptly suppressed by the officers of the court. It remains now to be seen whether the woman’s counsel will show their faith in the defense they set up by proceeding according to law, and making application to the Secretary of the Interior permission to have her placed in the government hospital for the insane. The homicide it will be remembered was committed in a respectable boarding house, where the prisoner was a servant and her victim a boarder. She crushed his skull with an ax while he was reclining upon a sofa.

Millie gave birth to her child at the Washington Insane Asylum on Saturday, October 9th, 1869.

The post First Racially Mixed Jury in Washington appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

This is an incredible view down New Jersey Ave. in 1863. The caption reads:

Southeast view with New Jersey Ave. on the right and A Street and B Street (i.e., Independence Ave.) in the foreground; view includes the Washington Navy Yard, the Eastern Branch (i.e., Anacostia River), the Ebenezer United Methodist Church (i.e., Mount Joy Baptist Church), “Duddington” house, temporary government(?) wooden buildings, the Casparis House, Capitol Hill Restaurant and the Holmes Restaurant.

Southeast view with New Jersey Ave. in 1863

The post 1863 Photograph Down New Jersey Ave. appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

This is the first guest post by GoDCer Tim. Given that we have “ghosts” in our name and with today being Halloween, it’s appropriate to have a post about the paranormal. Also, don’t forget to check out Tim’s recently released book on Amazon about haunted Capitol Hill.

Capitol Hill Haunts – Tim Krepp

On Capitol Hill a few blocks from the Eastern Market Metro Station is a fully functioning relic of a time gone by, the Metropolitan Police Department’s First District Substation. MPD traces its origins back to the Civil War, when rapid government expansion, an incoming horde of unscrupulous opportunists and not a few drunken soldiers made the existing system of a fifteen-man auxiliary watch untenable.

Today, MPD is a thoroughly modern crime-fighting organization, but the 1D-1 Substation hearkens back to a different time—when patrolmen walked their beat, checking in via call boxes still visible on many city streets, and used whistles to call for backup. Local residents are largely familiar with it as the place to go to get parking permits for out-of-town residents, and a step inside gives a whiff of Joe Friday. It’s a throwback, a historic building still in active use, not gussied up with new wood paneling, with an actual desk officer, slightly bored and almost always helpful, there to answer questions.

Ghosts and cops have a long, symbiotic history together. In days past, and today to an extent, they would often be the only two classes of beings walking around deserted city streets at two o’clock in the morning. Many a ghost has been sighted by a police officer, and even when the ghost appears to someone else, reporters instantly turn to the officer on the local beat for confirmation. More often than not, the cop is a believer and can regale even cynical reporters with prior instances of apparitions, streets he won’t walk down and other dark doings of the night.

So it was no surprise a few years ago when a local MPD officer (who has asked to remain nameless) told a tale of a mysterious occurrence at the substation. It happened, as these tales so often do, on a dark and stormy night, when the officer was on desk duty at the front door. The station was equipped with a closed-circuit TV camera, naturally, and just when the officer felt that he was losing the long war against drowsiness, he noticed another officer on the TV, which was odd, as he was mortally certain that he was alone in the building.

It was hard to see, but the phantom officer didn’t look like any of the police officers then assigned at the station. What’s more, he was wearing an anachronistic jacket and a long coat, seemingly dripping with rain. Via camera, our confused and slightly apprehensive officer tracked the mysterious being as he headed out a side entrance and disappeared into the gloom. A search was made: the side door was still locked and showed no sign of being opened recently, and there were no wet floors that you might expect from a dripping coat. Playing back the tape revealed only the ordinary quiet of a virtually empty police station in the wee hours of the morning.

The officer had no explanation of the tale and has often managed to convince himself that it was all in his head. But the question lingers: who was the phantom officer?

Officer Sprinkle in 1914

Well, there’s certainly a candidate that fits the bill. On the evening of March 5, 1909, at 7:45 p.m., policeman John W. Collier boldly walked into what was then the Fifth Precinct station house and shot the precinct commander, Captain William H. Mathews, five times, emptying the last three rounds directly into his head. Captain Mathews’s deputy, Lieutenant J.L. Sprinkle (longtime favorite of Ghosts of DC readers!), and two other officers instantly wrestled Collier to the ground, but the damage was done. A doctor was summoned, but he could only confirm what the officers already knew: Captain Mathews had been ruthlessly killed without warning by one of his own officers.

Collier offered no resistance nor defense. “I shot him, all right, and I’ll give my reasons later. I was rational and sober, and there was nothing wrong with me,” he calmly told Lieutenant Sprinkle as he was taken to the District Jail.

In the coming days, some semblance of a picture gradually emerged of the events of the fifth and before. Captain Mathews was known as a by-the-book cop, a “strict disciplinarian,” as the Washington Times put it, but he was later accused by defense attorneys of being “quarrelsome, vindictive, and violent.” Collier was a slacker who had been before the trial board (a disciplinary board for police officers) nine or ten times. His mother defended her son but offered what was perhaps not the best defense: he felt he was being persecuted for being late.

On the day of the murder, Collier was supposed to go on duty at midnight. A 4:00 p.m., he called in sick. The captain had had enough and told him to come in to the station so that he could see if Collier was sick or not. Just past 7:00 p.m., Mathews received another phone call from Collier that made him turn red and slam “the receiver on the hook with such vigor that the telephone nearly overturned.” Collier showed up about half an hour later, talked to no one and walked by the other officers, who nudged one another and whispered, “He’ll get his when the captain sees him.” Seconds later, the shots rang out.

Collier testified several months later that this was a case of self-defense. He said that the captain had told him in the telephone exchange, “I wouldn’t give 15 cents for your chances when you come into the office.” Upon his arrival, the captain told him that his goose was cooked, to which Collier replied, “I think you have another thing coming, Captain.” Then, according to Collier, Captain Mathews muttered, “Damn you, I’ll get you for that,” and reached toward his hip pocket. Thinking that Mathews was going to shoot first, Collier fired and killed him.

The trial was a particularly tense affair, as at one point the defense attorney took a swing at the district attorney. The assistant district attorney jumped between them and got a punch in the face for his efforts. The fight was then broken up by a police officer and, believe or not, the defendant. Perhaps that swung the jury a bit, or perhaps they found his story plausible, as Collier was found guilty of only manslaughter and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Is Captain Mathews the mysterious ghost seen on the video cameras? Who knows, but to answer the inevitable question, it was cold and clear out on the night he was murdered, although Washington was recovering from a snowstorm so intense the night before that it drove President Taft’s inauguration indoors. So perhaps it was melting snow on the overcoat?

The post Officer Sprinkle and the Haunted Police Station appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Real estate ads are one of our favorite things to post. Here is a great one from Saturday, December 13th, 1919. Pull together $7,300 and you can have a nice home near Lincoln Park.

Lincoln Park real estate advertisement (Washington Times)

The post Modern Homes Near Lincoln Park appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

We’re sharing a ton of great old photos this week and this is a great moment, frozen in time from 1943.

It’s a shot of a soldier, sitting near a woman posing for a photograph. If you look closer at the man, it appears that he’s eyeing the woman.

1943. On maneuvers in wartime Washington. “A soldier and a woman in a park, with the Old [Russell] Senate Office Building behind them.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency, photographer unknown. Office of War Information.

The post Man Ogles Woman Near Russell Building (1943) appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Current street signs at the block-long section of F Street, SE also known as Capitalsaurus Court.

Workers were digging a sewer trench beneath a Capitol Hill street in 1898.  They came upon a few fossil fragments — among them, a 6-inch bone that now represents the largest piece of the District’s controversial “official dinosaur,” the Capitalsaurus.

The contractor on that sewer project, J. K. Murphy, presented his workers’ discovery to Smithsonian scientists on January 28, 1898.  Here’s how the fossils were described in an interview with the Smithsonian’s curator of vertebrate paleontology, Dr. Charles. W. Gilmore:

“About 30 years ago,” he said, “while excavating for a sewer out on F street, between First and Second streets southeast, workmen came upon some curious large bones and brought them to me.  They were found about 45 feet down.  One of the bones was a section of of the backbone and tail of a dinosaur.” -Washington Post, 6/13/1934

Dr. Gilmore was often asked to describe the District’s prehistoric landscape.  This particular bone was central to his depiction:

“One of the bones found in Northeast Washington” he said, “was in a state of almost perfect preservation.  It consists of a single tail vertebra that can be recognized as belonging to one of the huge flesh-eating forms of dinosaur, an animal not less than 30 feet in length.  This monster, when prowling around on its hind legs, would be approximately 15 feet high.  What its presence would mean to a crowd of men and women in the National Capital today may be gauged without much difficulty.

“Visualize to your heart’s content an area populated with the horrible forms one sees in nightmares, and you will scarcely go wrong in drawing a picture of the District of Columbia during that distant age.“-Washington Post, 11/27/1927

More than a century after it was unearthed, there isn’t consensus on the actual identity of this prehistoric beast.  Paleontologists don’t have much material to study.  The bone you see here is basically it.

In 1911, a Yale professor identified the vertebra as part of Creosaurus potens.  By 1920, the Smithsonian’s Dr. Gilmore determined that it closely resembled a similar tail bone from a dinosaur found in New Jersey.  With some uncertainty, he renamed it Dryptosaurus potens.

A new identity emerged in the late 1980s when local paleontologist Dr. Peter M. Kranz examined the F Street fossil.  He determined that the vertebra bore little resemblance to Dryptosaurus bones in other collections.  In a series of articles, Dr. Kranz promoted a new name for the species, Capitalsaurus.

The scientific world hasn’t yet been convinced — and the capitalsaurus name remains only an informal designation.  But D.C. Council has slightly lower standards.  They embraced the classification wholeheartedly in the “Official Dinosaur Designation Act of 1998, Bill 12-538.”  Capitalsaurus is the District’s official dinosaur and January 28 is “Capitalsaurus Day” in D.C., marking the date that Murphy presented the bone to the Smithsonian.

The block of F Street, SE where the fossil was discovered was formally dedicated as Capitalsaurus Court on January 28, 2000 (it’s the block that fronts Garfield Park).

It’s worth noting that the single bone of Capitalsaurus (or whatever you choose to call it) is hardly the only dinosaur fossil unearthed in Washington, D.C.  Later sewer projects yielded even larger specimens.  A few homeowners have stumbled upon fossils in their backyards.  Dinosaurs definitely roamed our streets before they were streets.  Dr. Kranz — the biggest promotor of Capitalsaurus — has an excellent PDF booklet on the topic, Dinosaurs of the District of Columbia (2003).

This post was written by Aaron who stumbled upon the capitalsaurus name while looking for directions on Google Maps (where you’ll see the 100 block of F Street, SE incorrectly labeled as Capitolsaurus Way).  Reach him on Twitter, @aaronemyers.

The post Capitalsaurus appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

It’s map Friday! Hopefully you liked the last map we posted, because maps seem to be super popular among GoDCers. Check this one out and click on it for greater detail.

Related articles

• 1907 Map of LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale (ghostsofdc.org)
• 1851 Map of the City of Washington, D.C. (ghostsofdc.org)
• Old Columbia Heights: Where the Streets Have New Names (ghostsofdc.org)

The post 1815 Map of the Capitol and Its Surroundings appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

It has been over two months since our last “If Walls Could Talk” post (Shaw’s Tavern), so it’s high time we crank out another one.

We’re going to head down to Barrack’s Row on Capitol Hill to do a little research on one of Bryce Harper’s favorite haunts and a place where the President popped in for lunch with some volunteers. Ted’s Bulletin at 505 8th St. SE is a favorite of many, so it’s a good subject for our next post.

Ted’s Bulletin front (source: tedsbulletin.com)

One-story brick store

A building permit was listed for 505 8th St. SE in the July 8th, 1928 edition of the Washington Post. Joseph Shapiro Co. was to erect a one-story brick store with an approximate cost of $10,000.

Joseph Shapiro started his real estate company on October 24th, 1919 and seven years later, the Post wrote an article marking the anniversary.

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the Joseph Shapiro Co.’s entry into the real estate field. Starting in 1919 with a small office at 914 New York avenue northwest, this company opened general real estate offices, and two years later opened tehir [sic] building department, their first operation being a group of houses on Crittenden street, between Eighth and Ninth streets northwest.

Today the company occupies the first and second floors of the Edmunds building, 919 Fifteenth street northwest, and have to their record the erection of hundreds of homes in the northeast and northwest sections of the city and a large number of apartment buildings.

Shapiro was originally from Russia and, as a Jew, likely was treated harshly by the Czarist Russia, leading him to emigrate with his family to America in 1914.

By 1930, he is listed in the U.S. Census living in a home (that he owned at 4411 16th ST. NW) valued at $50,000. By the age of 60, married for 25 years to his wife Mary, he very much realized the American Dream of wealth, freedom and success.

Joseph Shapiro household in the 1930 U.S. Census

His son Jacob, at the time the president of Joseph Shapiro Co., was not quite as lucky. He was indicted on six charges of false pretenses and fraud in real estate transactions. He was charged with selling property in the city in which “hidden trusts” were discovered after the fact, and it was claimed that he was aware of the trusts. Not only that, but he was under investigation by Congress in the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia.

Fortunately for Shapiro, the case was poorly prosecuted and he was eventually acquitted by the jury in late 1930.

He continued his successful real estate practice with his brother and partner Maurice, and his last residence was listed in 1940 (with his brother) at 1748 Hobart St. NW.

District Lock & Hardware

Some of you long time Capitol Hill residents might remember when 505 8th St. housed a local hardware store, one that claimed to have the largest supply of locks, keys and security devices in the D.C. metro area. I find that hard to believe, but it’s probably tough (and too time consuming) to disprove.

District Lock & Hardware Company advertisement – February 23rd, 1981 (Washington Post)

The store was a fixture on Barracks Row since it was opened in 1946 by Harry J. Kroll. He operated it for 48 years until he sold it to Michael Horwat in 1994, who ran the store with Steven Harrell. The Post had a nice article about hardware stores in the District on May 13th, 2003, in which they mentioned the store.

District Lock and Hardware, on Eighth Street SE, is chockablock [sic] with inventory, including windshield snow brushes, signs saying “I’m Proud to be an American,” and $40 snowmobile gloves beloved by policemen for their warmth.

Realtor Stan Bissey, waiting to have a key made, recently moved to Potomac after living on Capitol Hill since 1969. “I still do all my business here,” he said. “They have everything you need. And, they actually wait on you.”

District Lock was started in 1946 by Harry Kroll, who sold it to Horwat in 1994. “This is an old-fashioned hardware store,” said Horwat, 58, who now owns the store with Steven Harrell. “We do a lot of key-cutting, a lot of custom-made things, opening bike locks.” But the store also specializes in security systems and makes house calls to fix problems. “You’d be surprised at the number of old women that are helpless out there,” Horwat said. “They’re living alone in a house and in their eighties. We get a lot of that.”

Harry Kroll (legacy.com)

Harry Kroll lived out his final years in Falls Church and passed away in May of this year at the age of 92.

Ted’s Bulletin is great, but it makes me a little sad to realize that something so central to the neighborhood is no longer. Hopefully Old School Hardware in Mt. Pleasant, Frager’s Hardware on Capitol Hill since 1920 and Browns’ Hardware in Falls Church since 1883 (!) can survive the assault on neighborhoods by Home Depot and Walmart.

But, given that Ted’s Bulletin is such a popular place to gather, let’s hope that it has the staying power to last over fifty years. Maybe Bryce Harper will be having his favorite meals there for the next twenty of those.

Ted’s Bulletin interior (source: tedsbulletin.com)

Go get some breakfast at Ted’s Bulletin this weekend. Maybe you’ll run into Bryce Harper … wait, they’re on the road. Never mind.

Related articles

• If Walls Could Talk: Shaw’s Tavern and 520 Florida Avenue NW (ghostsofdc.org)
• If Walls Could Talk: Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar (ghostsofdc.org)
• If Walls Could Talk: Embassy of Ireland (ghostsofdc.org)

The post If Walls Could Talk: Ted’s Bulletin appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

This is one of the most popular weekend spots in the city. Who doesn’t love to wander through the aisles of Eastern Market and take in the sights, sounds and smells of the old market? And to think that they wanted to knock this beautiful building down in the 1960s to replace it with some crappy suburban-style grocery store. The development of the 50s and 60s ruined so much of D.C.

Eastern Market after fire renovations (source: Flickr user A Culinary (Photo) Journal)

It’s high time we focus a little bit on one of our own favorite stomping grounds, Eastern Market. So, without further ado … three things about Eastern Market.

1. The Holy Hill band plays the grand opening in 1873

The opening of Eastern Market was cause for great celebration on Capitol Hill as it brought a great center of commerce to the neighborhood east of the Capitol Building. To put a frame of reference around the opening, the country was less than a decade out of the Civil War, Union General Ulysses Grant started his second term as president, the population of D.C. was a little over 130,000 and the country only had 37 states (Colorado would be next in 1876).

The first day of business was November 12th, 1873 and the National Republican published the following write-up about it.

The new Eastern market house was opened for business yesterday morning. The attendance of sellers and purchasers was fair, considering the stormy day, and it was conceded by those that the opening was a suspicious one. The butchers and others having produce for sale had generally the very best commodities on their stands, and there was some competition among them as to who would make the best display. There are eighty stalls in the market, of which about fifty have been sold, and these were yesterday occupied, while on the west side of the market were some country people. In the centre of the market were the butter merchants–Oyster, Weitzell, Fearson and others. On the sides were the butchers talls of Carroll, Hoover and others, making good displays. The Holy Hill band was in attendance for several hours during the morning, and discoursed very pleasing music. Mr. Joseph Carroll, who introduced and worked energetically for the passage of the bill authorizing the establishing of this market, was complimented with a serenade by the band. It is proposed to erect fish stands west of the building.

Sadly, I couldn’t find anything else on the Holy Hill Band. I’m imagining a bluegrass-type band “discoursing very pleasing music.”

west rear on south side – Eastern Market, 7th St. SE (Library of Congress)

2. Highway bandits assault farmer en route to Eastern Market

This is a horrible way to start a day. A farmer and his wife were heading down to sell their goods at Eastern Market early (really early) in the morning when they were approached by a band of men intent on robbing them. Here’s the Post’s account of the incident as published on August 1st, 1915.

attempted highway robbery

The police have been unable to find any clew [sic] to the identity of the two highwaymen who assaulted Philip T. Sweeney, a farmer living near Forestville, about a mile outside the District line, while he and his wife were driving to the Eastern Market, this city, shortly before 4 o’clock yesterday morning. One of the highwaymen struck Sweeney with a hard, blunt instrument, inflicting a deep cut on his head. After the two assailants had been beaten off they fired two shots, one penetrating the shoulder of Sweney’s [sic] coat and the other going wild.

A posse composed of residents of Prince Georges county, Md., scoured the vicinity of Forestville and two central office detectives detailed from police headquarters worked on the case all day yesterday, but owing to the meager descriptions given of the robbers great difficulty was experienced in finding a clew.

Detective Sergeant Weedon, who is in charge of police headquarters after midnight, sent Central office Detective Boyle to the scene of the assault immediately after the Maryland authorities had notified him of the attempted robbery, although the assault took place outside the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan police department.

An active interest in the hunt for the two robbers was taken by Sheriff Hardy, of Prince Georges county, who with three deputies has been working on the case since early yesterday morning.

Mrs. Sweeney escaped without injury. Sweeney’s injuries were treated at Casualty Hospital, and later he completed his journey to Eastern Market.

On account of the darkness and the suddenness of the attack, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Sweeney could give any adequate description of their assailants. Last Sunday morning two farmers living in the vicinity of Forestville were held up by four young white men and robbed of $10, and it is thought that both crimes can be traced to the same parties.

3. Child abductor sentenced and fined

Here is a bizarre story I came across in the Washington Post. This is from September 11th, 1907.

William Page Southern, the negro charged with the attempted abduction of Gertrude Miller, daughter of C. B. Miller, who resides at 216 Seventh street southeast, from the Eastern Market last Saturday evening, was fined $500 and sentenced to serve 364 days in jail by Judge Mullowny, in the Police Court, yesterday morning.

Southern was accused of having picked up the little girl while she was playing about the market and carrying her for about ten squares. For some reason, he left the child upon the street and fled. Detective Smith, of the Fifth precinct, stated that Southern had been arraigned several times before on similar charges. Owing to certain technicalities, it was impossible to charge the defendant with attempted criminal assault or kidnapping, and, consequently, he was charged with assault, a misdemeanor offense.

east front of Eastern Market, 7th St. SE (Library of Congress)

Related articles

• Three Notable People Connected to Old Ebbitt (ghostsofdc.org)
• Three Things About Poplar Point and Anacostia Flats (ghostsofdc.org)
• The Flea Market at Eastern Market Every Sunday, Year Round!!! In the Hine Schoolyard, 7th & C St. SE, Capitol Hill (filipinofestival.wordpress.com)
• Arrival of First Japanese Embassy at the Navy Yard (1860) (ghostsofdc.org)

The post Three Stories About Eastern Market appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

If you work on Capitol Hill, you’re going to find this one fascinating. This is the underground subway that many of you take between buildings. Okay, it’s changed a little bit since then, but check it out. Click on it for the high-resolution version and then share this with your Hill friends on Facebook.

U.S. Senate subway circa 1915 (Shorpy)

What’s up with the kid’s white shoes? And what’s with the look on the guy’s face next to him?

Related articles

• Georgetown Canal Boatmen Brawl; Brutal Fight Ends in Murder (ghostsofdc.org)
• Email From a GoDCer: Alexander Graham Bell’s Georgetown Home (ghostsofdc.org)
• They Were Neighbors: Officer Sprinkle Lived Here (ghostsofdc.org)

The post The Senate Subway in 1915 appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Here’s a great photo from Shorpy. This is the inside of Weller’s Pharmacy, located at 755 8th St. SE. Franklin Pierce Weller was a long serving druggist on Capitol Hill, starting in the 1890s, operating his business for several decades.

Inside Weller's Pharmacy in 1915

Below is his obituary From the Washington Post on March 28th, 1933.

Funeral services for Franklin Pierce Weller, pioneer Washington druggist, who died Sunday night at the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Hynson, 3435 Thirty-fourth place, will be held today at 2:30 p. m. at the Hynson home. Interment will be in Congressional Cemetery.

Honorable pallbearers are Gratz E. Dunkum, Eugene E. Thompson, Albert W. Bright, Francis H. Criswell, Paul Pearson and Philip G. Affleck.

Mr. Weller, 78, was born in Thurmont, Frederick County, Md., December 21, 1854, of Revolutionary ancestry. He came to Washington 70 years ago. During the early eighties he served as a pharmacist in the United States Navy on board the U. S. S. Galena. Upon his retirement from the Navy he engaged in private practice and opened a drug store in Washington at Eight and I streets southeast which has been a landmark for a generation. He retired from business last October.

Seal of the Knights Templar

He served in the hospital corps of the District National Guard for 27 years. He was a member of the Metropolitan Presbyterian Church, of the De Molay Commandery, Knights Templar, and St. John’s Lodge, F. A. A. M.

He married Margaret Francis Young, who died three years ago. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Hynson.

Um … Knights Templar? Did Weller’s Pharmacy hide the Holy Grail?

U.S.S. Galena in 1862 (Shorpy)

Also, I sent GoDCer Jacqueline Drayer down to the wrong address to take a contemporary photo (sorry about that). The Post reports had the wrong address. I’ll confirm with Google Street View next time. I still wanted to share a cool photo she took of the neighboring property.

Front door of 753 8th St. SE (via @jackie_bird)

Related articles

• Cooling Off in Rock Creek (ghostsofdc.org)
• Amazing Photo of the Old Post Office (ghostsofdc.org)

The post Weller’s Pharmacy: Capitol Hill’s Connection to the Knights Templar appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

I love the Library of Congress. Who doesn’t? It has to be one of the most, if not the most ornate building in the city. If you haven’t been inside, you need to, because it’s beautiful and extremely impressive … almost like you’re in Europe.

[gigya src="http://embed.5min.com/517229561/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="opaque" width="560" height="345"]

I also wanted to share with you a few photos from a GoDC reader Joseph (aka, @librapaj). These are two nice indoor shots of the library and our first user contributed photographs. Thanks Joseph!

Inside the Library of Congress (via @librapaj)

Ceiling of the Library of Congress (via @librapaj)

Related articles

• The Library of Congress, in Partnership with Zepheira, Launches Viewshare.org (girlinthearchive.wordpress.com)
• Founder’s Day Ball at the Library of Congress (auambassadors.wordpress.com)
• Library of Congress Adds DC Comics To Collection (landbar.wordpress.com)
• Native Americans at the White House During the Civil War (ghostsofdc.org)
• Death Runs His Hands at a Careless man! (ghostsofdc.org)
• Washington’s Rough-and-Tumble Lost Neighborhood of Murder Bay (ghostsofdc.org)
• The Watergate: Cutting Edge Luxury Living (ghostsofdc.org)

The post Library of Congress: Oldest Federal Cultural Institution in America appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

Don Glendening (1946)

This is a horrible story that I came across in the Washington Post. Read this in the context of it being the 1940s because it’s very disturbing.

In early June of 1946, the murder of a Don Glendening was front-page news. He was found dead in his apartment on Capitol Hill, having been bludgeoned to by a club.

Joseph Sturiale, the son of apartment’s owner, discovered Glendening after he. I can’t imagine a more gruesome and disturbing scene to come upon. On the floor next to the body lay an Indian war club. Don collected these old clubs and his attacker had beaten him to death with it.

This is an account of the 10-day manhunt across 13 states to find the killer, with daily updates and sensationalized headlines in the local newspapers. I should add that the papers often had ages, addresses and dates incorrect, but you’ll be able to follow the story.

June 4th: Police checking military stations in areal victim’s auto is missing

Don B. Glendenning [sic], 42, his head crushed with an Indian war club, was found slain yesterday morning in his apartment at 321 E st. ne.

…

Believing a serviceman might have killed Glendenning, police were checking all camps and stations in the Washington area for persons who might have known the man.

They also were searching for Glendenning’s car, a 1941 Chevrolet couple, bearing District tags, 89–105, which they said was missing.

…

According to the story given police by neighbors, Hubert Andrew, 41, a watchman at Tompkins Construction Co. who lives on the second floor above the Glendenning apartment, called Sturiale about 9:30 a. m. yesterday to complain about “a strange odor” permeating the house.

…

A neighbor, Sergt. Frank E. Chase, who lives at 319 E st. ne., said that a “big birthday party had been held in Glendenning’s apartment Wednesday night in honor of his forty-second birthday.”

Chase also told police, they said that “thought that Glendenning had been married twice; that one of his wives had died from natural causes and the other had been killed in an automobile accident.”

Washington Post front page photo (1946)

June 5th: Murder victim admitted his interest in men

June 5th Washington Post headling (1946)

The next day, an major twist was revealed when the Washington Post reported that Glendening was homosexual — remember, this is the 1940s, just a year after World War II. Homosexuality was (shockingly) not declassified as a mental disorder until 1973.

Needless to say, this twist in the story whipped the media into a frenzy as they covered this sordid tale.

A sex angle was injected into the Indian war club slaying of Don B. Glendening last night as police searched for the suspected killer, a blond young former serviceman.

Friends of the murdered man told detectives that Glendening had freely admitted homosexual interests, but that he disclaimed such an interest in the veteran.

…

A witness, Mrs. Laura Suber of 513 Rhode Island ave. nw., told police she had seen a mark park [Glendening's] car there between noon and 1 p.m. Saturday–within a few hours of the time Glendening, 42-year-old radio repairman, was clubbed to death in his apartment at 321 E st. ne.

…

Police have narrowed the time of Glendening’s slaying to a 3-hour period from 9:30 a. m. to 12:30 p. m. Saturday. He talked to Fred Brown, assistant manager of Kitt’s Music Store, where he was employed until about a year ago, at 9:30 a. m.

June 6th: Unnamed man is sought in club slaying

Washington, June 5 (AP)–A youth who so surrounded himself with mystery that his name never was mentioned during a week’s acquaintanceship with the victim was sought by police today in the Indian war club slaying of Don B. Glendening, 39-year-old radio repair man.

Advancing a belief that the slaying was premeditated, police said it was probably that for that reason the man sought made every effort to keep his true identity a secret.

From neighbors and friends, police learned that the man had lived with Glendening for nearly a week before the repair man’s body was found Monday on a blood-soaked bed in his apartment. Glendening’s head had been crushed with the war club, which lay on the floor near by.

…

Investigators said the man sought was taken to Glendening’s apartment by a man, identified as an art-gallery guard, who met the youth in a park on May 28.

From friends of Glendening, police said, they learned that the man sought had been on parties with the victim May 29 and 30, and also spent last Friday night in Glendening’s apartment.

June 7th: AWOL soldier sought in war club murder

By June 7th, the D.C. police department had a suspect positively identified. Henry Eisenbarth was the teenage soldier accused of murdering Dan Glendening. The Washington Post reported the following on Eisenbarth.

A 17-year-old soldier who went AWOL from Fort Belvoir just February 16 was being sought last night as the slayer of Don B. Glendening.

The youth was identified as Henry Eisenbarth, of 730 Grand Concourse, the Bronx, New York City. Police said evidence linking him to the Indian war club murder of the 42-year-old radio repairman would be presented to a coroner’s jury at an inquest at 11:30 a. m. today.

The police radio broadcast a lookout for the youth and said he was “wanted for murder.”

Police said the suspect has used the aliases of “Hank” and “Harpo,” that he appears to be about 20, although his actual age is 17, that he is between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 7, weighs about 150 pounds, keeps his light blond curly hair combed back, has a round face, with a few freckles and a slightly turned-up nose.

The police lookout said Eisenbarth when last seen was wearing a white shirt, gray trousers and brown plain-toed exfords [sic]. It also contained the information that the youth was known to frequent taverns in the 1700 block of Pennsylvania ave. nw., the 400 block of 11th st. nw., and the 1100 block of 17th st. nw.

…

The youthful soldier was introduced to Glendening on Tuesday, May 28, by a friend of Glendening. He remained at the apartment. Glendening confided to one woman friend that his only interest in the youth was to teach him radio repairing as a profession.

June 8th: War-club slaying arrest ordered

By the June 8th, the suspect had been identified through fingerprints left in the car. The Baltimore Sun reported the following that day.

Washington, june 7 (AP)–A coroner’s jury today ordered Henry Eisenbarth, 17-year-old soldier held for grand jury action, if and when apprehended, in the Indian war club slaying of Don B. Glendening, 39, radio repairman.

Policeman John H. Haynes testified at the inquest that fingerprints found on the steering wheel of Glendening’s car were identified as Eisenbarth’s. Police said the youth has been a.w.o.l. from Fort Belvoir since February 16.

June 9th: 13 states hunt GI deserter in slaying

There was no hint yesterday as to the whereabouts of Henry Eisenbarth, 18-year-old Army deserter who is sought in conection [sic] with the Indian war club slaying of Don B. Glendening.

Local police have sent out 10,000 wanted circulars and have asked police of 13 States to be on watch for the youth.

The FBI also has an interest in capturing Eisenbarth as an Army deserter. he deserted from Fort Belvoir February 16.

At an inquest into the death of Glendening, whose nude and battered body was discovered last Monday in his apartment at 321 E st. ne., a coroner’s jury ordered Eisenbarth held for action by the grand jury if and when captured.

June 14th: Niagara Falls police seize ‘war club’ case fugitive

Henry Eisenbarth, 18-year-old Army deserter, sought as the wielder of an Indian war club which was used as the murder weapon in the slaying, June 3 of Don B. Glendening, 42-year-old radio repair man, in his apartment at 321 E st. ne.

…

In Niagara Falls, two city policemen arrested Eisenbarth in the bar of a cheap downtown hotel at 4:55 p. m., Police Chief Martin T. Considine told The Post.

The policemen, George Truesdale and Roy Daubney, made the arrest after studying circulars and pictures they received yesterday from Inspector Robert J. Barrett, chief of detectives here.

Considine said Truesdale and Daubney remembered seeing a man answering Eisenbarth’s description in the downtown area they patrolled. He said the two policemen started canvassing bars, poolrooms and hotels as soon as they reported for duty yesterday at 4 p. m.

…

The young soldier, who went AWOL February 16 from Fort Belvoir, had $3 on his person when arrested and was wearing Marine trousers and civilian shirt and jacket, Considine said.

Considine said Eisenbarth told them he had with him a jacket and a pair of trousers taken from Glendening’s apartment.

The Niagara Falls police chief said the young suspect readily admitted clubbing Glendening to death. Eisenbarth claimed that Glendening, who admitted homosexual interests, had made advances toward him, Considine said.

Considine said Eisenbarth told them he had left Washington on the day Glendening was murdered and had been living in Niagara Falls on $70 which he took from Glendening’s clothing.

Two days ago–before Niagara Falls police received the “flyers” sent out by Barrett–Eisenbarth walked into the Niagara Falls police headquarters and reported a car had been stolen from him, Considine declared.

June 15th: Club slayer begins bitter trail back to D. C.

Niagara Falls, N. Y., June 14–The bitter trail back to Washington began tonight for 18-year-old Henry Eisenbarth.

Strippde [sic] of his characteristic glibness and shorn of his victim’s finery, Eisenbarth, confessed slayer of Don B. Glendening, boarded a train handcuffed to Detective Sergeants R. Emmett Talbot and Robert G. Kirby of the Washington Homicide Squad.

He was returning to Washington to repeat his defense that he clubbed Glendening to death because the latter made perverted advances.

Eisenbarth is not very tall. About five feet six at most. But when first seen, one is impressed with the latent power he carries in his stocky frame. You notice then his dull, almost vacant expression. He does not smile. His eyes are slumbering and deep set.

…

Earlier, the young Army deserter had not objected when asked to line up for a picture with the two Niagara Falls polcement [sic] who captured him. Nor was he unusually surly when aroused about midnight last night to talk to a Washington post reporter.

“Sure, I hit him–once,” Eisenbarth had said. He looked grubby in a dirty shirt open at the neck then. He was wearing a pair of Marine trousers. He turned to Capt. Norman Wagner and Detective Lieut. John R. Shay of the local force and asked for a cigarette. He lit up.

…

“He tried to get dirty with me,” said Eisenbarth, meanwhile letting the cigarette sag on his lower lip and peering sleepily through the bars.

Did you know you had killed Glendening?

“I heard him groan. I didn’t know he was dead,” he said.

Eisenbarth talked on. He was uncertin [sic] about dates. He wasn’t sure that date he had first met Glendening. he wasn’t sure what day it was that he picked up an Indian war club and crushed the skull of the 42-year-old Glendening in the latter’s aptrment [sic] at 321 E st. nw. [sic]

…

He said he had been in the Masonic Home at Utica, N. Y., from the age of 5 to the age of 15.

He nonchalantly admitted that he had picked up about $70 in cash and a complete set of natty clothing before leaving the scene of the murder.

Eisenbarth admitted these same things again today. Only this time dragged him back and forth painstakingly over each detail.

Te [sic] told them, too, that his blow against the “perverted” piano tuner Glendening had been one of passion and rage.

He repeated that he had taken about $70 of his victim’s money. Police believe he stole more.

He repeated the story of his trip to Niagara falls and of how he had squndered [sic] all of his cash and was receiving charity from a new-met girl friend. But above all, he repeated: “I hit him just once when he asked me to do something dirty.”

Masonic Home in Utica (Library of Congress)

I’m not even sure how to comment on this crazy story. It’s just so shocking and appalling.

By the way, these were the least proofread articles I have seen thus far. Ridiculous typos and the incorrect quadrant for the victim’s address.

The Glendening murder was a tragic tale of a middle-aged man, who became one of 91 homicides in the District during 1946. Eisenbarth was sentenced to serve between 3 and 15 years in prison for manslaughter. He was initially indicted for first-degree murder, but was allowed to plea the lesser charge in light of his youth and lack of premeditation.

Related articles

• If Walls Could Talk: The Seaton at 150 Rhode Island Ave. NW (ghostsofdc.org)

The post Murder Victim Admitted His Interest in Men appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

I thought it would be a good to branch out and do a on Eastern High School (check them out on Facebook) near RFK Stadium. It’s a beautiful building at 1700 East Capitol St. NE, originally built in 1923. The original Eastern High School building was building in the 1890s at 7th and C St. SE.

This past fall, they started a unique program of enrolling a new ninth grade class, growing the school by one class each year until this incoming class of 300 freshman graduates in 2015.

So, the next “If Walls Could Talk” will be Eastern High School: The Pride of Capitol Hill. Also, I know the poll we’re running is for the next “If Walls Could Talk,” but I thought I could slide this one in before since it’s a school and not a restaurant. I’m sure you won’t mind … and plus, Capitol Hill is underrepresented on Ghosts of DC.

Eastern High School, 1700 E St. NE (Wikipedia)

The Rev. Curtis Lee delivers commencement address

In the evening of June 24th, 1897, sixty young women were graduating from Eastern High School, receiving their diplomas from Washington’s Mayor Hooper. This was the 45th annual commencement at Ford’s Opera House (the current building was constructed in 1890). The Rev. Curtis Lee, pastor of the First Baptist Church, was the keynote speaker — his wife was a graduate of the school.

Below is an excerpt from his speech:

“This municipality spent a million and a quarter dollars last year for education and I should like you young ladies to say to yourselves, What do I owe this community for what has been spent upon me? You have enjoyed is privileges for twelve years and there are duties you owe in return.”

…

“Personally, I pray that the day be not far distant when women’s wages will be measured only by the standard of women’s accomplishments and not by the weakness of their sex.”

…

“Not all men get married, either. There’s one here tonight who has been the admirer and the friend of thousands of pretty girl graduates and has been interested in hundreds of those women who are teaching in these public schools of Baltimore. Yet he has never surrendered to one woman. While there is life there is hope, though. The young lady who delivered the salutatory tonight mentioned his name in the same sentence with that of Queen Victoria. She is a widow, and would not surprise me some day to read that Mr. Morris had taken steamer to Europe to lay his hand and heart at her feet. Why not?”

In the ninth inning

I came across a short notice in the July 9th, 1899 Washington Post about an exciting baseball game at the old National Park. Eastern High School was facing off against Congress heights in a thrilling match up.

The Eastern High School nine, by a great batting rally in the last inning, won the game from the Congress heights team at National Park yesterday afternoon. It was one of the prettiest contests seen on the amateur diamond this year, and was full of star plays. Wahler, the husky pitcher of the Heights team, seemed to have the youngsters at his mercy, but they pounded him for four hits, and aided by a wild pitch and an error, scored four runs.

Stuart, the second baseman, made a number of good plays and also did well at the bat, leading his team in the streak which won the tame.

Eastern ended up winning the contest 7-4 after scoring those four runs in the top of the ninth inning. Amazingly, the game only took one hour and forty minutes.

Proper dress required

Seems like adults have always complained about the appearance of teenagers.

Editor Post: Principal M. F. F. Swartzell, of the Eastern High School, cannot be too highly commended for his prompt and vigorous suppression of insubordination and its immediate cause. No more convincing proof is required that laxity in dress is closely associated with laxity in manliness, self-respect, courtesy to superiors, and personal dignity than was afforded by the recent shirt-waist episode.

Clothes are a great factor in this material world. A man in evening dress will conform to the manners of a gentleman so far as he is capable, and would scorn an act that he would practice in an obnoxious “shirt waist“–a poor term to be applied to a man’s clothing. The latter garment is most unbecoming to most men, bringing natural defects into undue prominence. It is no more sanitary or cool than a light coat worn without a waistcoat, and the fashion is deteriorating and an incentive to rowdyism, as is too apparent.

Fathers and mothers ought to feel indebted to teachers who combine with a knowledge of classics and a higher education will and power to teach the deportment of a manly man and help their sons acquire the manners of a gentleman with respect and courtesy to all whom he may meet. The boys who have graduated from the high schools and have made and are making such honorable progress in the world would never be guilty of such dishonorable conduct as this intended disrespect to their preceptor, Mr. Swartzell. Silly women–and they are increasing–delude themselves wi the idea that approving of laxity of dress of men in their presence is a sure passport to their favor. instead, it lessens respect for them, for men are grateful to women for the self-restraint so necessary to the highest type of manhood. Thomas Carlyle, in his “Sartur Resartus,” gives his readers an idea of the value of cloths and how judiciously we should use them.

Congratulations to Mr. Swartzell, for liberty soon degenerates into license.

FRANCES F. COUGLE.

Change a little bit of the language and this could possibly be a letter to the editor today. I really applaud the beginning of the third paragraph and think it is so applicable today.

On a side note, Principal Swartzell was a seriously controversial figure in the neighborhood, as many in the community disliked him extensively and called for his removal.

The french teacher committed to St. Elizabeths

St. Elizabeths Center Building (Wikipedia)

Poor Miss Mathilde Mellee, a 35-year-old french teacher at Eastern High School. She was committed to the House of Detention and was being transferred to St. Elizabeths in August of 1900.

…She is a woman of intelligence, with an attractive presence, and speaks English fluently with a French accent, which gives an added charm to her words. She has traveled extensively in this country and filled positions in private families and schools as French tutor. She is without relatives in Washington, though she has numerous acquaintances and friends here.

…

Her case was diagnosed as hallucinations of the ear, and it is thought proper treatment and rest for Miss Mellee at the asylum will soon result in cure. Her condition is not regarded as dangerous, but if she were permitted to retain her liberty in her present state of mind and without relatives or near friends to care for her it is feared her mental condition would grow worse and develop into melancholia.

…

“One thing I cannot understand. Recently I have been hearing voices, strange words urging me to do certain things, teasing me. They were like spirit voices. I heard them, though I do not believe in spiritualism. I have no relatives in this country. I am a native of Paris.

The article goes on to state that she was crossing the street during a thunderstorm, stepped on the streetcar tracks and was electrocuted. She claims that as a result of being “electrified,” her mental condition had been altered.

Victory for Eastern

Eastern High School had a powerhouse football team in the early 20th century. Here is an article from the Washington Post on September 30th,, 1905.

Eastern High School defeated the Gallaudet Reserves on Kendall Green yesterday afternoon by a score of 16 to 0. Capt. Mikesell, of the varsity, refused to allow his substitutes to play on the reserve team because of the Georgetown game to-day. This, with only two of last year’s Reserves remaining, and only a week’s practice, left the Reserves with a patched-up team. Eastern appears to be heavier than last year, giving its average weight as 150 pounds per man. The high school boys played a faster game than the Reserves, and their teamwork was better.

Fields, for Eastern, until he was injured and forced to retire toward the close of the game, was by far the best ground gainer of his team, and carried the ball nearly half the time. Bender and Perry also did fine work for Eastern, while Preston, Eider, Stover, and Leitch did the best work for the Reserves.

Slowness and fumbling were the chief faults of the Reserves. Four times they lost the ball on fumbles, and their interference was ragged.

Eastern has been at work for three weeks, and seems to be stronger than last year.

Ha! An average weight of 150 pounds. AVERAGE! They couldn’t beat a junior high school team today. Take a look at the team photo from 1905 below. Looks like a bunch of dapper, weeny athletes (sorry, no offense guys).

Eastern High School football team (1905)

Eastern meets Central on the gridiron

Eastern High School versus Central High School — Cardozo High School after 1949 — was a large football rivalry in the city. Thousands would attend their games. This was Washington’s gridiron battle royale of 1923. It was scheduled for October 19th at Central Stadium at 11th St. and Florida Ave. NW.

EASTERN and Central High school football teams face each other this afternoon on the gridiron at Central stadium, signaling the opening of the interscholastic titular series of 1923. Play will start at 3:15.

A week ago the teams were acknowledged to be of about the same strength, and the chances of each for a victory was a toss-up. The outcome of today’s game depends upon the relative improvement of each team during the past week. Central seems to have the edge.

Well, the game was postponed due to rain and rescheduled to October 23rd … but, yet again, that was rained out as well. It finally took place on November 3rd, 1923.

CENTRAL HIGH yesterday set a pace entirely too fast for Coach Guyon’s Eastern team at Central stadium, easily winning its second start in the scholastic series 22 to 0.

Central presented a line that was the best shown so far in scholastic football this season. Eastern could make little or no impression on the Mount Pleasant forwards, while the Central backs–Johnson, Harper and Kauffman–found little difficulty in plunging through for substantial gains.

Mike Gordon was again the star of the game. This Central flash was entirely too fast for Eastern’s ends and secondary defense, getting away for several long runs. One went as a touchdown after a 52-yard dash. The ability of Quarterback Harper to make the distance needed for a first down was a prominent factor of Central’s offense. Harper crashed through seven times for first downs.

Too bad for Eastern, but below are two photos from that game. I think you’ll agree that these photos are amazing. Maybe the first one is of Mike Gordon being brought down by an Eastern defender.

Eastern High School vs. Central High School football - November 3rd, 1923

Eastern High School vs. Central High School (1923)

Two teenage girls drink poison in church

Here’s a bizarre story I came across from March of 1926, not unlike the suicide by acid story I posted weeks ago. There seemed to be an epidemic of suicide by poison in the 1920s.

Standing in the vestibule of Holy Comforter Catholic church at Fourteenth and East Capitol street, two 15-year-old pupils of Eastern High school, Margaret Carragher, 1307 F street northeast, and Lillian Miller, 700 Sixteenth street northeast, drank poison, dropped the bottle in the church vestibule, walked to the corner and collapsed.

Hurried to the hospital, they later were taken to the Fifth precinct police station and then sent to the house of detention where they went to bed. Their condition is not serious.

Self-administered poison sent another young woman to the hospital and caused the death of a woman patient of Freedmen’s hospital yesterday, bringing the total of poison cases involving women to thirteen in the last three weeks, with two deaths resulting.

When the two High [sic] school girls were taken to the police station, after hospital treatment, they declared, police said, that they were dissatisfied with conditions at school and wanted to discontinue attendance. Their parents had refused to permit them to do so, they said and they agreed to end their lives.

This is crazy, and there seemed to be an epidemic of depressed women in D.C. attempting to end their lives by consuming poison.

Eastern basketball team disappears during snowstorm

This is something that probably would never happen these days with Facebook, Twitter and foursquare. In early March, 1932, The Eastern High School basketball team was on a bus near Lexington, Virginia, when a snowstorm cut all communications and rendered roads impassable. They were stranded 12 miles outside of Lexington, unable to move, and for 24 hours, the community had no idea where they were.

After a 24-hour silence as to their whereabouts, members of the Easter High School’s basket ball [sic] team returned home by train yesterday, to the relief of parents and school officials, who were about to send a Ludington Line plane in quest of the young athletes when news of their safety was received.

…

General concern for the safety of the boys was felt, as the last message from the party, before the storm broke communications between Washington and Lexington, was received Saturday night, announcing their intention to leave Lexington by bus. The storm shattered communications and made roads impassable, blocking their return.

Okay, not exactly the Capitol Hill version of the Donner Party or the Andes flight disaster, but plenty frightening to experience I’m sure.

Eastern’s yearbook rated ‘All-American’

Eastern High School, “The Punch and Judy,” apparently had a nationally recognized yearbook.

Eastern High School’s yearbook “The Punch and Judy,” has been awarded All-American honor rating, the National Scholastic Press Association of the University of Minnesota announced yesterday.

The award is the highest given in the national competition by the association. The yearbook was entered among schools with an enrollment from 1400 to 2000. Judges termed the annual a “fine, able yearbook, well conceived and well sustained.”

Editors were Joan Ruth, 17, editor in chief, of 1329 North Carolina ave. ne.; William Atchison, 18, managing editor, of 1741 A st. se.; Maria Forbea, 18, of 1021 15th st. se., and Barbara Horn, 17, of 1608 G st. se., art editors.

Congratulations Eastern … that sounds impressive.

Pupils say integration is winning

D.C. school integration in Anacostia in 1955 (Library of Congress)

A short article in the December 7th, 1954 Post talked of the recent high school integration in Washington after the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Five District high school students agreed last night that integration in classrooms and sports was “on the way to success” by were divided on the question of whether their classmates were ready for social integration.

“We have to do it sooner or later,” said George Miller, of 620 H st. sw., a student at Eastern High School, when the question of social integration came up at a panel discussion at a meeting of the Southwest Citizens Association. “This delaying could go on for the next 20 or 30 years.”

…

Student at Roosevelt did not take part in the demonstrations against integration this fall, but several hundred at Eastern stayed away from their classrooms.

Another Eastern student, Hannah Lipsitz, of 727 6th st. sw., pointed out that curtailment of school social activities may force pupils to seek less wholesome recreation elsewhere.

Wailey Wing, of 928 New York ave. nw., told how students of both races now go to classes together, play in the gym, and dress in the same locker room at Eastern.

D.C. marine dies fighting at Danang

This is a sad story from April 3rd, 1969 in the Washington Post.

Marine Pvt. Ronald Jones, 19, a 1968 graduate of Eastern High School, was killed in action in Vietnam March 27.

Pvt. Jones, who lived at 4953 F st. se., was serving with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, when killed in action about three miles south of Danang. He had arrived in Vietnam in January.

Pvt. Jones enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after his June graduation from Eastern. While attending Eastern he belonged to the Washington High School Cadet Corps.

A native Washingtonian, Pvt. Jones attended Young Elementary School and Browne Junior High School. He helped pay his high school expenses by working part-time as a maintenance worker at George Washington University Hospital and the Langston Terrace housing project.

He is survived by his mother Virdie M. Jones, four brothers and four sisters, all of the home address, and his father, Cecil Jones.

Young Ronald Jones had only been in Vietnam for three months … and out of high school less than a year.

Filling in the gaps with some photos

Here are some great old photos I dug up on Shorpy.

Eastern High School in 1910 (Shorpy)

And zooming in on one of the girls in the photo, you’ll notice the sassy one below. What do you imagine this girl was like? In an age of being quite prim and proper, check out the way she’s posing for the camera with that hat and hand propped on her neighbors shoulder.

a sassy young woman

Eastern High School, High School Cadet Corps, Company F (1915)

Eastern High School typing class (1920)

Eastern High School (1935)

Eastern High School newspaper club (1941)

UPDATE: The principal of the school was kind enough to share their brochure. Check it out here.

Related articles

• If Walls Could Talk: Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe (ghostsofdc.org)
• If Walls Could Talk: The Seaton at 150 Rhode Island Ave. NW (ghostsofdc.org)
• If Walls Could Talk: Corte Salon and Arzo Boutique – 1019 U St. NW (ghostsofdc.org)
• If Walls Could Talk: Pearl Dive Oyster Palace (ghostsofdc.org)
• Friday Roundup: Thanks For Reading and Sharing Ghosts of DC (ghostsofdc.org)

The post If Walls Could Talk: Eastern High School appeared first on Ghosts of DC.

I thought the triple homicide post I put up was crazy. This one is right up there.

The National Capital Brewery (cool PDF here) was a giant presence in southeast, near Capitol Hill. The plant stood at 14th and D St. SE (where Kentucky Ave. interests them). The Washington Post reported a crazy story of a murder-suicide that happened in the fall of 1912.

The article below is from October 1st, 1912.

Confronted by a mystery involving the disappearance on September 17 of Arthur A. Webster, and the suicide on Sunday of Lennte L. Jette, the latter a former employee of the National Capital Brewing Company, and the former and habitue of the same place, the police last night were bending every effort to determine the facts in what they term a most extraordinary case.

Webster, on the evening of his disappearance, told his wife he was going to the brewery, where Jett was employed as a fireman. That he did enter the brewery, and that there ensued a passage of words between him and Jett, is attested by a police witness. From that evening, until the present time nothing has been heard from Webster. His wife is firm in her conviction that he was murdered.

National Capital Brewing Company advertisement (1910)

The article continues below and it gets even crazier with the disappearance of Webster.

Jett, on Sunday night, sent a bullet into his brain and died a suicide. The police, consequently, are seeking now to fathom the “mystery of the brewery.” It is singular, the police reason, that one man, visiting the brewery, and following an alleged altercation, should suddenly vanish, and that within two weeks the other principal should suddenly and his life.

A statement by an important witness, made yesterday to Capt. Mulhall at the Fifth precinct, following a succession of other unusual happenings at the brewery since Webster dropped out of sight, has, in the opinion of the relatives and others, gone a long way toward showing that he met with foul play.

The witness is Michael J. Barrett, of 355 H street southwest, a helper in the boiler room at the brewery, who was on duty there the night of September 17, when Webster went there the last time. Their suspicions already aroused by Sunday’s developments, the Fifth precinct police began their investigation all over again yesterday.

Patrolman Kenney, whose post takes in the brewery, found Barrett at his home, and escorted him to the station to tell what he knew. Barrett no longer hesitated to talk freely about the events of Webster’s last night in the boiler room. Last night he told a Post reporter what he had told Capt. Mulhall.

“I will tell you just what I told the police,” said he. “Webster had been coming to the brewery at night a long time. There was one man in the boiler room, Jett, who, I understood, did not like him. I knew this, and that, Tuesday morning about 2:30, when Webster came along, Jett was right there with me. Webster stopped in the doorway, as if waiting for an invitation to come in. I did not ask him in. But very soon Webster came on in uninvited, and when he got to me I said to him: ‘You had better be careful. You know Jett does not think a whole lot of you.’ Our men shift around from day to night duty, and a large part of the time Jett was not around after midnight, when Webster was in the habit of calling.

“I noticed that Webster had been drinking. When he got to the rear of the room he drew a flask of whisky from a pocket and invited Jett and me to have a drink. We accepted, and I went back to my work. I was raking the ashes out of the furnace. Presently Webster and Jett disappeared from sight just around the corner of the end boiler. Soon I heard Webster say in loud tones something about an old quarrel between the two of them, and before long I heard more loud words. I could not catch all that was said for the occasional roaring of the furnaces.

A bottle of whiskey at work? … around giant furnaces? That does not sounds like a good idea, nor does it sounds like a safe working environment.

National Capital Beer label (via The Hill is Home)

“The talking suddenly stopped, and Jett came from behind the boilers. About 15 or 20 minutes afterward I walked back behind the end boiler, and to my surprise found Webster either lying down or sitting on something very low behind No. 6. That is the number of the end boiler. I finally concluded that that drink I had had with him had knocked him out. I went back to work, at at 4 o’clock got ready to quit. I was relieved at that hour. Before leaving I said to Jett: ‘Webster is lying back of No. 6.’ Jett said nothing. Nor did I say any more to him.”

Asked who else was in the boiler room from 4 o’clock on, Barrett replied that there may not have been anybody there between 4 and 8 o’clock. “The watchman made his last round at 3 o’clock,” said he. “The engineer sometimes drops in once or twice in those four hours, but he is not obliged to, and seldom does. He drops in oftener early in the night.”

Regarding the old quarrel between the two, Barrett said, “that occurred last spring in the street right in front of this brewery. Webster knocked Jett down with one blow of his fist. That was all there was to that, but it is well known about here that Jett never forgave nor forgot it, although he subsequently shook hands with Webster at Chesapeake Beach.”

The Wednesday after Webster disappeared, Barrett also dropped out of sight, but was found at his home. He reported that he was sick with chills and fever, and did not report for duty again until yesterday afternoon. He said the occurrences of Webster’s last night at the brewery had absolutely nothing whatever to do with his absenting himself from work.

On Sunday night, Jett committed suicide at his home, 627 Florence street northwest. He had left no note showing why he had planned to kill himself, but his family still suppose that he did so because he had been discharged from his employment. It was stated that the brewery that he was dismissed because on last Saturday afternoon he refused to work after quitting hour until another fireman came in to relieve him.

Barrett’s statement to Capt. Mulhall was more or less involuntary, and is generally credited.

While officials of the brewery all ridicule the idea that the missing man was cremated in the furnace there, none denies that it could have occurred. The fires are never banked there except on Saturday night. All hours of the day and night, and particularly on toward 5 a.m., the hour for beginning of the day’s work, the fires are kept raging. The boilers generally carry about 125 pounds of steam. They held that much last night as early as 9 o’clock, and more towards morning. Officials admitted that a human body might have been crammed into any one of the six furnaces by a strong man, and entirely cremated between 4 o’clock that morning, when Barrett left, and 8.

The ashes of the dead would have been so mingled with the coal ashes that the difference could not have been detected by an ordinary process.The ashes of this brewery are all dumped on a lot only a few squares from the place. They are carried out every day, so that if Webster’s is among them they are probably buried so deep that they can never be found.

For all this, Webster may still be alive. Some time ago he spoke to his wife of quitting his work here and going to St. Louis, Mo., to accept a position his brother had promised to get him. It is certain that he had about $40 the morning he disappeared, and a few friends still cling to the hope that he availed of that opportunity to go there.

National Capital Brewery (1917)

Still alive and in St. Louis? I really doubt that. He did not update his Facebook status and he did not check-in on foursquare. I’m guessing this does not end well for Webster … or rather, already had ended poorly for him (I’m guessing and don’t want to give it away).

His wife and mother both sent special delivery letters to his brother a few days after he went away, requesting him to let them know if Arthur appeared there. Neither has yet received a reply.

Some of the men about the brewery also inclined to the belief that Webster went West. Joseph C. Carry, who was in charge of the brewery last night, invited the reporter to go through the place and talk with whomever he pleased about the case, and seemed anxious to see the mystery cleared up.

The police say that Barrett’s statement, though apparently truthful in every detail, is almost unsusceptible of proof. He alone, they say, really knows anything that bears directly on the point.

The newspaper had an article the next day with the title “1 Body in Furnace; 1 Dead by Bullet” … intense. Here’s an excerpt:

A mass of charred bones and human teeth, raked yesterday from an ashpit of a giant boiler in the engine room of the National Capital Brewing COmpany, and the dead body of Lennte L. Jett, fireman at the brewery, lying at his home with a self-inflicted bullet wound in his head, furnish a deep mystery which is baffling the police.

The police had enough evidence with the bone fragments as well as blood stains on bricks near the boiler, to come up with the theory that Jett had bludgeoned Webster and then disposed the body in the furnace. A gruesome way to go.

Enjoy this post? Follow us on Twitter (@GhostsofDC) or Facebook to get updates from Ghosts of DC.

Related articles

• Boldly Going Where No Jacksonville Brewery has Gone Before (sprbrewcrew.wordpress.com)
• Lost Capitol Hill: The National Capital Brewing Company (thehillishome.com)
• Introducing New York City’s New Craft Brewery (thedailymeal.com)
• The Greek Murder: A Triple Homicide (ghostsofdc.org)

The post A Suicide and Disappearance at the National Capital Brewing Company appeared first on Ghosts of DC.