Part 11 (2/2)
Ts of houses on Pennsylvania Avenue, known as the ”Six and Seven Buildings,” were fashi+onable dwellings Admiral David D Porter, then a Lieutenant in the Navy, occupied one of theirls' school in another, while still another was the residence of William Lee of Massachusetts I have been infor in a consular office abroad, under the appointment of President Monroe, Mr Lee was commissioned by him to select a dinner set for the White House
Architects, if I reton at this time When a person was sufficiently venturesome to build a house for himself, he selected a residence suited to his tastes and directed a builder to erect one like it Speculative building was entirely unknown, and if any resident of the District had earded as the victim of a vivid but disordered fancy
Mrs C R Latie brick dwelling facing Lafayette Square where the Belasco Theater now stands
Mr and Mrs Hamilton Fish boarded with her while the forress, and Mr and Mrs Sanders Irving, so well and favorably known to all old Washi+ngtonians, also made this house their home Many years later it was the residence of Willia there when the memorable attempt was made in 1865 to assassinate him As is well known, it subsequently became the home of James G Blaine When Hamilton Fish was elected to the Senate, he purchased a house on H Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets, which was afterwards known as the ”Porter house” Previously it had been owned and occupied by General ”Phil” Kearny
The shops of Washi+ngton in 1845 were not numerous, and were located chiefly upon Pennsylvania Avenue, Seventh Street then being a residential section The ett at the corner of Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
Mr Clagett, invariably cordial and courteous, always stood behind his counter, and I have hadoods, it was usually the custoer purchases in Baltioods store on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Eighth Street, and some years later two others appeared, one kept by William M Shuster on Pennsylvania Avenue, first between Seventh and Eighth Streets, and later between Ninth and Tenth; and the other by Augustus and Thomas Perry on the corner of Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Charles Demonet, the confectioner, made his appearance a little later on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets; but Charles Gautier, on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, was his successful rival and was regarded uerite M Delarue kept a shop on the north side of the same avenue, also between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, where small articles of dress dear to the ferocery stores on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets Benjamin L
Jackson and Brother were the proprietors of one and Jah the two latter had their business house at an earlier day on Louisiana Avenue Louis Vavans was the accomplished cook and caterer, and sent to their roo in Washi+ngton Joseph Redfern, his son-in-law, kept a grocery store in the First Ward Franck Taylor, the father of the late Rear Admiral Henry C Taylor, USN, was the proprietor of a book store on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Four-and-a-Half Street, where ated to discuss literary and current topics His store had a bust of Sir Walter Scott over its door, and he usually kept his front shos closed to prevent the light fros of his books The Center Market was located upon the sareatly enlarged and improved All the stores on Louisiana Avenue sold at retail I rerocery store of J
Harrison Semmes on Ninth Street and Louisiana Avenue, opposite the Center Market; and the hardware store kept by Joseph Savage on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, and at another time between Third and Fourth Streets
On Fifteenth Street opposite the Treasury was another well-known boarding house, conducted by Mrs Ulrich and much patronized by members of the Diplomatic Corps Willard's Hotel was just around the corner on the site of the New Willard, and its proprietor was Caleb Willard
Brown's Hotel, farther don, on Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, was a popular rendezvous for Congressional people It was first called the Indian Queen, and was kept by that prince of hosts, Jesse Brown After his death the naed to the Metropolitan
The National Hotel on the opposite corner was the largest hostelry in Washi+ngton It boasted of a large Southern _clientele_, and until President Buchanan's administration enjoyed a very prosperous career
Subsequent to Buchanan's inauguration, however, a uests of the house which the physicians of the District failed to satisfactorily diagnose It became commonly known as the ”National Hotel disease,” and resulted in numerous deaths A notice occasionally appeared in the current newspapers stating that the deceased had died from this malady Mrs Robert Greenhow, in her book published in London during the Civil War, entitled ”My Imprisonton,” attributes the epidemic to the machinations of the Republicans, ere desirous of disposing of President Buchanan John Gadsby was its proprietor at one time, from whom it usually went by the nauests on the eve of his inauguration
When I first knew Washi+ngton, slavery was in full sway and, with but few exceptions, all servants were colored The wages of a good cook were only six or seven dollars a month, but their proficiency in the culinary art was re Count Adam Gurowski, who had traversed the European continent, re as in the South The grace of manner of many of the elderly male slaves of that day would, indeed, have adorned a court
When Williah a master in statesifted in external graces, was taking final leave of the clerks in the War Departuished services under President Polk, he shook hands with an elderly colored employee named Datcher, who had formerly been a body servant to President Monroe, and said: ”Good-bye, Datcher; if I had had your manners I should have left more friends behind e into the Gouverneur faood fortune to have passed down to me a venerable colored man who had served my husband's family for many years and whose name was ”Uncle Ja e Newell, brother-in-law and guest of ex-Governor Marcy, I found hied in a ”brown study” Referring at once to ”Uncle Ja, ”An old family servant,” he remarked: ”Well, he is the most polite man I have ever met”
Some years later my sister, Mrs Eames, moved into a house on the corner of H and Fourteenth Streets, which she and her husband had built and which she occupied until her death in 1890 I naturally shrink fro in detail upon her charm of manner and social career, and prefer rather to quote an extract from a sketch which appeared in one of the newspapers just after her death:
During the twenty-eight years of her ton Mrs Eames's house was one of the favorite resorts of theround where reeable to foregather Though at first inin a house which rented for less than 300 a year, there was no house in Washi+ngton except, perhaps, the President's, where one was sure of hout the year so many people of distinction
[Illustration: MRS CHARLES EAMES, NEe CAMPBELL, BY GAMBADELLA
_Owned by Mrs Gordon-cu_]
Mr and Mrs Marcy were devoted to Mrs Eames; her _salon_ was almost the daily resort of Edward Everett, Rufus Choate, Charles Sumner, Secretary [James] Guthrie, Governor [John A] Andrews of Massachusetts, Winter Davis, Caleb Cushi+ng, Senator Preston King, NP Banks, and representative ton was often their guest The gentlemen, ere all on the most fa their less conspicuous friends fro it quite the ton since the death of Mrs Madison, and made such without any of the attractions of wealth or luxury
The relations thus established with the public thened and enriched by a voluminous correspondence Her father, as a very accoest and choicest private libraries in New York, of which, from the time she could read, Mrs Eames had the freedom; in this library she spent more time than anyone else, and e As a consequence, it is no disparage her residence there she was intellectually quite the ton Her epistolary talent was faeneration
Her correspondence if collected and published would prove to have been not less volune's and, in point of literary art, in no particular inferior to that of the famous French woton, I returned toof 1848, suffered one of the severest ordeals ofever entered eternity more beloved or esteemed than he, and as I look back to my life with him I realize that I was possibly more blessed than I deserved to be perh perfect character and to know him familiarly Fro and oppressed come to him for advice He was especially qualified to perfor tenure of the office of Surrogate Widows and orphans who could not afford litigation always found in his of others as keenly as though inflicted upon himself, his syly left behind hirateful hearts A short ti , a devoted Roman Catholic, whom from time to time my father had assisted When I was about to leave, she said: ”Say to your father I hope tothe just made perfect” This reh all these years a greater consolation than any public tribute or iy Finely chiseled monuments and fulsorateful hearts
The funeral services were conducted, according to the custoo, by the Rev Dr William Adams and the Rev Dr Philip Milledoler Members of the bar andhis two physicians, Doctors John W Francis and Campbell F
Stewart, walked behind the coffin, which, by the as not placed in a hearse but was carried to the Second Street Cemetery, where his reymen present at his funeral--the Rev Doctors Thomas De Witt, Thomas E Vere H Fisher, all ministers of the Reforuished Presbyterian divine
I findto the Scott family as associated with the most cherishedmy childhood I forhter of the distinguished General, which continued until the close of her life When I first knew the family it made its winter home in New York at the American Hotel, then a fashi+onable hostelry kept by William B Cozzens, on the corner of Barclay Street and Broadway In the summer the family resided at Hampton, the old Mayo place near Elizabeth in New Jersey, where they kept open house Colonel John Mayo of Richhter Maria was the wife of General Scott, had purchased this country seat ail De Hart of New Jersey, and Mrs Scott subsequently inherited it Colonel John Mayo, as a citizen of large wealth and great pro subsequent to the Revolutionary War, and entirely at his own expense, he built froe across the Jaraphically describe her father's trips from Richrooms, and his enthusiastic reception when he reached his destination
I have frequently heard it said that Mrs Scott as a young woe from the man who eventually became her husband because his rank in the army was too low to suit her taste, but that she finally relented when he became a General I am able to contradict this statement as Mrs Scott told me with her own lips that she never made his acquaintance until he was a General, in spite of the fact that they were both natives of the same State This did not by any e late in life, as General Scott becaadier General on the 9th of March, 1814, when he was between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age In the _Sentinel_, published in Newark, New Jersey, on the 25th of March, 1817, the following e notice appears: