Italian Anarchist Blows Himself Into Pieces in 1919

Damage from Bombing

The Foiled Bomb Plot at
2132 R Street, NW

 The image at left, captured in front of the elegant house at 2132 R Street, N.W. on June 2, 1919, first appeared on the front page of the now defunct Evening Star newspaper under a headline that shocked many in Washington at the time: Explosion at Attorney General’s Home Starts a Nation-Wide Round-Up of Anarchists.[1]  The bombing occurred in front of the home of U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, who had been the intended recipient of the package bomb, which in all likelihood would have been successful if the bomber had not tripped on a series of iron wickets lining the front entrance of the home, blowing himself and his identity into thousands of pieces.

            What prompted such a dramatic event on the peaceful 2100 block of R Street 93 years?   The perceived threat of Communists “Reds.”  Worried by the revolution that had taken place in Russia, Palmer became convinced that Communist agents were planning to overthrow the American government.  His suspicions intensified at about 11 pm on June 2, 1919 when he was sitting between the upstairs windows of his home along with other government officials when the bomb went off outside.  Uninjured, Palmer rushed outside to find no remains of the Italian assassin, but instead floating propaganda from his destroyed suitcase that read: “There will be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder; we will kill, because it is necessary; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.”  In all, a total of thirty-eight bombs had been sent to leading politicians throughout the country.              

Alexander M. Palmer

The Evening Star reporting from over eighty years ago brings to mind the contemporary criticisms of newsprint and television journalism as being too sensational.  The story was divided up into several stories, as it was in the Washington Post the following day. 

Warning!  The following is not for the faint at heart!

(you can skip safely to the next paragraph). 

The reports read in parts: “Fragments of the anarchist’s body were literally driven into the back of the trees, the woodwork of nearby houses, scattered over the pavements and smeared on the front roofs of houses, while a large portion of the man’s torso was found hanging to the cornice of a house on S Street a block from the spot where the explosion occurred.  A part of the man’s liver was found on the top of an automobile standing nearly 100 feet away.”  “John Bryn, 14, son of the Norwegian Minister, was asleep in 2137 R Street when a section of the “Red’s” spinal column smashed through the window and landed beside his bed.”  “The enormous force of the explosion…was most clearly shown in the distance in which pieces of the scattered remains were hurled.  The legs were found across the street from Mr. Palmer’s home.  The scalp reposed on S Street, to which it had to rise 50 feet in the air and transverse a distance of more than 75 yards.”  Adding to the yawning house fronts where doors had been blown from their hinges and the litter of glass and leaves in front of the houses, was a spectacle of hundreds of minute flesh pieces covering the street and adhering in ghastly fashion to the fronts of dwellings and doors.”  “Cleaners and window washers were put to work after headquarters had collected all the remains needful.”                 

2132 R Street in 2012

Instead of Palmer going after the person or persons whom directly planned the bombing, he went after everyone who had any association with suspected Communist ties.  They discovered that most Communists or ‘Reds’ were usually immigrants, therefore they found immigration laws that they could easily work under to arrest these persons.  Palmer looked to arrest all members of these groups, with a plan to arrest large numbers of unsuspecting persons at one time, thus gaining the name ‘Palmer Raids’ which began after his bombing in the spring of 1919. 

Copyright Paul K. Williams

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[1] Reproduced later in the Literary Digest, June 14, 1919.

The Bizaare Last Will of Rainmaker George Dyrenforth

1606 19th Street, NW

Major media headlines on controversial or unusual inclusions in an individuals Last Will and Testament often make readers reassess their own wills, or to write one for the first time.  This has happened for well over a hundred years, and a particular Will written in 1909 by D.C. resident Robert G. Dyrenforth made sensational headlines in the local papers the following year, and was no doubt the hot gossip that summer.  Divorced in 1902, the contents of his Will revealed a streaming discontent with his former wife and the female gender as a whole, and set a multitude of impossible challenges for his only heir, a grandson by the same name.     

Robert St. George Dyrenforth was listed in the 1890 City Directory as a resident of a house coined “Laurelwood” in Mount Pleasant.  By 1896, however, he was listed along with his wife Jennie in the Elite List as a resident in a house at 1503 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W (replaced by a Holiday Inn today).  He listed himself as a patent lawyer, and as the “Commander-in-Chief” of the Union Veterans’ Union, with an office at 602 F Street, N.W.  He also was rather infamous for his attempts to create artificial rain.  They later moved to a house at 1311 21^st Street, N.W., where he would live until 1907.  Divorced wife Jennie moved into 1606 19th Street that same year.   

Robert Dyrenforth, WP July 1910

Dyrenforth had been born in Chicago, Illinois on October 17, 1844.  He was a cadet at Breslau, Neisse, and Berlin, Prussia from 1857 to 1861.  He graduated in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic school in Carlsruhe, Baden, and from the University of Heidelberg in 1869, with a Ph.D.  He attended law school and other programs at the Colombian (George Washington) University.  He had served in the United States Army for the Civil War, leaving service in the rank of Major. 

           

Once described as a flamboyant character, he served as a War correspondent for the Chicago Post and Times during the Austro-Prussian War in 1861, and entered service in the Patent Office in 1871.  He rose to the rank of Principal Examiner, before practicing as a patent and corporation lawyer beginning in 1885. 

           

He had married Jane “Jennie’ De Lacy in 1866.  They had four children together, including Bessie, who married Robert McGrath.  They had a son, and named him Robert St. George Dyrenforth, Jr., after his grandfather.  McGrath tragically died in 1899, when Robert Jr. was just 12 months old, and Bessie died just a year later.  In the meantime, Jennie, a Catholic, had obtained a then rare legal separation from her estranged husband, and had alimony set in the amount of $50 per month beginning in 1902.  She moved to 1606 19^th Street in 1907, with daughter Rose, while Robert moved from apartment to apartment with their son Donald, and his orphaned grandson, Robert, Jr.  

Unhappy Grandson Robert Dyrenforth, Jr.

Robert Jr., did not go willingly, however, because he had been abducted from a nurse during a stroll in DuPont Circle by Robert Sr., in 1904.  Jennie Dyrenforth later told The Post that “his grandfather turned him on me, as the affection years before was lacking.”  Courts later granted his wish to adopt his grandson.          

By the time his Will was written in 1909, however, Robert Dyrenforth had clear disdain for his wife, and all women, it seems.  Robert Jr., was set to inherit Dyrenforth’s estate, but not until 1926, at the age of 28.  He would have to meet many and often bizarre stipulations in the Will, however, in order to inherit the estate, which apparently included death benefits, property, furniture, etc.  His three brothers who lived in Chicago served as the Executors and Trustees.  Some of the challenges read: 

“I particularly request my executors thoughtfully and well guard my beloved son from women, and sensibly, that is, quietly, gradually, and impressively, though to no erratic extreme, to let him be informed and know the indirect, artful, and parasitical nature of most of the unfortunate sex, and to care that he may not marry beneath him.”

“That he [not] come under the influence of, or affiliate with, one Jennie Dyrenforth, or with her daughter, one Rose Marie Knowlton.”

“Should [Robert] be subject or exposed to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, or become a Catholic, I hereby direct that each and every bequest herein…shall become null and void...and pass absolutely to…the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.”

The Gruesome Death of Druggest Paul Reinlein in 1887

Anyone that has struggled with a tamper-proof medicine bottle or prescription pill container often recalls the days before such child-proof lids made the job of opening a vile a simple task.  What many don’t realize, however, that the debate over labeling and tamper-proofing medicine bottles began well over 100 years ago, a call for change highlighted by the mistaken and gruesome death of Washington, DC druggist Paul Reinlein in 1887.  I purchased several of his gummed labels from eBay about 10 years ago, and discovered his spectacular death once I began to research the man. 

Reinlein then resided at 1424 9^th Street, NW, near the intersection of P Street, where he owned a pharmacy close by, across the intersection at 1501 9^th Street (now a vacant lot).  His young business was successful, and he had recently opened a branch at 9^th and Florida Avenue just a few blocks north.  In the early afternoon of March 11, 1887, Reinlein would accidently drink a lethal shot of cincture of aconite, believing it to be a shot of whiskey.  His dying moments would be reported in grisly detail the following day in the Washington Post.  Oddly, nobody seemed to question why a druggist was drinking whiskey on the job in the first place.          

According to the federal census, Paul Reinlein was born Paulus Reinlein about 1830 in Germany, the son of Anton and Runigunda Reinlein.  He arrived in the United States along with his parents on July 20, 1837 aboard the Constitution, which had sailed from Bremen, Germany about a week prior.  They first located in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Paul and his wife Anna relocated to Washington, DC in 1875.  They first resided at 1428 6^th Street, NW, today the site of the Kennedy Playground, where they were enumerated in the 1880 census.  This was the second marriage for Anna, and the couple lived there with two children from her previous marriage; daughter Emma Fishback and son C.B. Fishback, who indicated that he worked as a newspaper correspondent.  Anna Reinlein died in 1885.      

At 1:55 pm on March 12, 1887, Reinlein called out for his store clerk, Theodore Melson, and exclaimed “I have taken an ounce and a half of tincture of aconite.  Get me the hot water off the stove, so I can take some ipecac, and then get a doctor quickly, for God’s sake.”  Aconite is an herbal or homeopathic medicine that is still used for nerve pain, headache, rheumatism, and to treat cold and flu symptoms, as well as fever, severe anxiety, and even nervous excitement.  It is derived from the aconite plant, and just 100 drops is enough for a lethal dose.      

Reinlein’s clerk ran south down 9^th Street and brought back Dr. S.S. Stearns, a good friend of the druggist.  In the meantime, a neighbor ventured into the store, and asked Reinlein how he felt.  He replied “Shut up – I’m going to tell the doctor all about it.”  Reinlein kept his whiskey in the same sort of bottle that the aconite was kept in, with a different label.  He had poured a shot of what he thought was whiskey about 1:50 that afternoon, and replaced the bottle. 

Stearns related that he “did not experience any unusual feeling immediately, and resumed his work.  Five minutes later, he felt a queer sensation in his stomach and with a sudden fear grasped the bottle and turned it around so that he could see the label.  He felt numb all over when he saw the word aconite on the bottle he knew that his chances for life after that length of time were very faint, but he determined to light for life as long as he could.”

Dr. Stearns described to a Post reporter the rather shocking and gruesome details that followed.  “I never saw a man appear as cool on the very threshold of death.  As soon as he saw me, he held out his hand and said just as calmly as I am talking to you now, “Doctor, I have taken an ounce and a half of aconite and I can’t throw it up.  Five minutes ago I took enough powered ipecac to make twenty men vomit, and I have drank a quart of hot water with no better effect.”  Stearns gave him “as big a dose of sulfate of zinc as he could swallow, and also a large cup of hot water” and sent the clerk to retrieve a stomach pump.  

Washington, DC Titanic Victim Clarence Moore

 The imposing former mansion at 1746 Massachusetts Avenue was commissioned by local stock broker Clarence Moore, who would only enjoy his residence for less than three years, having booked a journey on the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic in 1912.  The mansion has served as an embassy since 1927.  The Louis XV styled mansion was designed by Jules Henri de Sibour in 1906, and was completed in 1909 at a cost estimated at $200,000.   

Clarence Bloomfield Moore was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia on March 1, 1865.  After graduating from Dufferin College, he partnered with Senator Stephen Elkins and Henry Gassaway in developing several successful mineral mines in West Virginia.  His first wife, Alice McLaughlin, died in 1897, leaving two children; Frances Sarah Preston and Samuel Preston Moore.  Three years later, he married Mabelle Swift with whom he had two additional children, Jasper and Clarence, Jr.       

In 1900, Moore moved to Washington, when he became a member of the Washington, DC firm of William B. Hibbs and Co, stock brokers, who paid him an annual salary of $25,000.  At the time, the typical government worker earned less than $2,000.  Moore also owned a farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he raised cattle and horses, and had interests in real estate near Leesburg, Virginia.

Moore had been in England to shop for fox hounds for the Loundon Hunt. He purchased fifty pairs although they did not return with Moore on the Titanic despite them being portrayed in the recent movie Titanic.   

Just three years after completing the house at 1746 Massachusetts Avenue, Moore boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger with ticket number 113796, costing £42 8s in April of 1912.  His manservant Charles Harrington, age 37, accompanied him. At the time of the collision Moore was playing cards in the smoking room with his compatriots and dining companions Major Archibald Willingham Butt, Harry Widener, and William Carter. 

Interior Staircase 1747 Mass Ave (HABS/HAER)

Moore, Harrington, and Major Butt were all residents of Washington at the time of the sinking, three of just five residents aboard the fateful trip traveling in first class.  The others included Archibald Gracie IV (1859-1912) and Helen Churchill Candee (1858-1949) - Candee survived (see blog entry below). 

Gracie was an American writer, amateur historian, real estate investor, and survived the sinking by climbing aboard an overturned collapsible lifeboat, and wrote a popular and valuable book about the disaster which is still in print today.  Candee was an American author, journalist, interior decorator, feminist and geographer who resided at 1621 New Hampshire Avenue who joined the “unsinkable Molly Brown” in lifeboat No. 6.  She is famous for writing "There were no more boats, water was swirling around the upper deck, people were beginning to panic.....and the band continued to play."  

Titanic Survivor Helen Candee, 1621 New Hampshire Ave

The "Unsinkable" Helen Candee

Many people walking by the large townhouse at 1621 New Hampshire, which seems to blend in with its neighbors so well that it often goes unnoticed, might be surprised to know that it was built and owned by a prominent woman’s rights suffragist and Titanic survivor, and was later the site of a major jewel heist.  A single woman by the name of Helen Churchill Candee obtained a building permit for its construction on April 27, 1905; she also had a then small fortune of $20,000 needed for its construction.

Candee indicated that the house was designed by the architectural firm of Wood, Donn, and Deming, and would be built by contractor John H. Nolan.  The architectural firm had been established just three years prior, in 1902, and was comprised of Waddy Wood, Edward Donn, and William Deming.

Candee was born Helen Churchill Hungerford on October 5, 1858, the daughter of New York City merchant Henry Hungerford and his wife, Mary Churchill.  She married Edward Candee of Norwalk, Connecticut, and had two children by him, Edith and Harold.  After the abusive Edward Candee abandoned the family, Candee supported herself as a writer for popular magazines such as Scribner's and The Ladies' Home Journal.  She initially wrote on the subjects most familiar to her - genteel etiquette and household management - but soon branched into other topics such as child care, education, and women's rights.

Candee was a strong feminist, as evidenced by her best-selling first book, How Women May Earn a Living (1900).  Her second book, An Oklahoma Romance (1901), was a novel that promoted the possibilities of settlement in Oklahoma Territory.  Having become an established literary figure, Candee moved to Washington in 1904 where she established herself as one of the first professional interior decorators; her clients included Henry Stimson and Theodore Roosevelt.  Candee’s book, Decorative Styles and Periods (1906), embodied her principles of design: careful historical research and absolute authenticity.

  

Candee was in Europe in the spring of 1912, when she received a telegram informing her that her son, Harold, had been injured in an automobile accident.  Candee hurriedly booked her passage home on a new luxury ocean liner, the Titanic.

Candee survived the great ship’s sinking, in spite of fracturing her ankle while boarding lifeboat No. 6.  Despite the pain of her injury, Helen managed to row with the others, clearing the side of the sinking ship by a few hundred yards. She was also able to lend moral support to Margaret “Unsinkable Molly” Brown, the legendary Denver millionairess and fellow suffragette, as she took control of the boat in the absence of leadership from the crewman in charge, Quartermaster Robert Hichens.  Under Molly’s direction, Candee and the other women rowed Boat 6 to the shelter of the rescue ship, Carpathia.

Candee eventually sold 1621 New Hampshire to a single woman by the name of Miss Mary Barclay Adams, the daughter of one of the owners of the Washington Evening Star newspaper.  Adams shared her new house with a close friend named Dora E. B. Merryman during the entire tenure of her ownership, which would last until 1928. Merryman was described in the local newspaper as “the most beautiful woman in Virginia.”

In March of 1911, both Adams and Merryman made headlines in the local newspapers when they reported a theft of jewelry from the house valued at $10,000, nearly half the value of the house itself.  The theft was “one of the largest of its kind ever known in this city.”  After contacting a local maid staffing service on March 21, 1911, Adams had hired a maid that said her name was Mary Miller, following an in-person interview that same day.  The maid reported to work the following day. 

Map of our "Scenes of the Past" Subject Locations

View the updated Google Map of our monthly "Scenes of the Past" column subject locations.  We've produced 132 columns for the InTowner newspaper since April 2001! 


View Locations of the Scenes from the Past monthly column, InTowner Newspaper in a larger map

1430 Swann Street, NW and Swift Eagle

You never know what might be revealed when researching a house, and this was one of my favorites...which I first published the story in my Scenes of the Past column for the InTowner newspaper (July 2008).  Enjoy!

 

            The owner of the vacant lots where 1422 to 1430 Swann Street were to be constructed, George E. Emmons, applied for and was granted an Application for Permit to Build numbered 812 for their construction on November 20, 1883.  At the time, the Street was known as Pierce Place, a name designation that would not change until 1910 when other streets were also renamed to conform to the city’s alpha-numeric street naming system.  1430 Swann Street appears above.   

             The headline of the article that appeared in the February 2, 1932 edition of the Washington Post, seen at right, no doubt attracted attention to the morning readers of the paper.  It documents a renter of 1430 Swann Street beginning about 1932 who was allegedly ‘a full blood’ Native American named Swift Eagle, who was apparently able to live up to his name.   

            Swift Eagle was better known in local amusement and vaudeville theaters as the drum-beating and chanting sidekick to a wrestler called Chief Thunderbird from British Columbia.  Eagle’s actual life, however, might have been far less dramatic, although it did include time spent in the DC jail. 

Swift Eagle, his wife and son would rent 1430 Swann Street from 1932 to 1935.  He claimed to be either a half or full blooded Indian from New Mexico, but records show that he had actually been born in California.   

Swift Eagle and his wrestling partner, Chief Thunderbird, made headlines in Washington, DC beginning in October and November of 1937 when they were the feature attraction at the popular Joe Turner Arena, a 2,000 seat venue once located at the corner of 14^th and W Streets, NW, seen at left in a photo taken by John Ferrell in April of 1942 (LOC).  Chief Thunderbird wrestled Cliff “Swede” Olsen on October 28, 1937, and won the match, pinning Olsen in 26 minutes. 

Olsen, however, was not aware of the unusual tactics of Chief Thunderbird and his sidekick Swift Eagle, who often joined him in the ring, beating a tom-tom in concert with his Chief’s every move.  Adding chants to distract the opponent, Olsen often turned to attempt a hit on Eagle, whereupon Thunderbird would seize on the opportunity to the delight of the crowd.  Thunderbird, to the amazement of promoter Joe Turner and the crowd, had entered the stage in full Indian Chief regalia, complete with headdress, while Swift Eagle wore little more than his headband and tom-tom.          

Olsen demanded a rematch, and Joe Turner, sensing another sellout crowd, happily obliged.  The earlier match had been described in a Washington Post article on November 7, 1937, announcing the rematch to take place several days later.  It no doubt led to an interest in the upcoming match by reading: “Through the match Olsen was annoyed by Swift eagle’s tom tom.  The little Redskin released a barrage of beats every time the Chief was in danger, and this victory cry inspired Thunderbird to greater heights.”[1]  

Olsen filed a protest with Turner to prevent Swift eagle from accompanying his rival on or near the ring, but Turner’s showmanship and sense of promotion said that he could not keep Thunderbird’s “second stooge” from doing what he does best.  A full picture and article announcing the event appeared in the November 11, 1937 edition of the Washington Post, seen above.  It stated that “Swift eagle will take up his place in Thunderbird’s corner and hammer away on his antiquated tom-tom.  Whatever it is necessary during the course of the match he will go to town, so to speak, on the tom-tom and release Indian chants tantamount to a war whoop-de-doo.”      

           

            Chief Thunderbird (left) was born in 1896 in British Columbia, Canada as Jean Baptiste Paul.  He was the subject of a brief biographical article written by Greg Oliver of Slam!Sports wrestling magazine and website which reads in part:[2]    

“From his debut in 1933, until his retirement from wrestling in 1955, Saanich, B.C.’s Chief Thunderbird was the first big name native wrestler from Canada…He was born Jean Baptiste Paul in 1896, the hereditary chief of the Tsartlip Indians at Brentwood on Vancouver Island, son to Tommy Paul and grandson to Ben Paul, both who were noted chiefs with the tribe.

“My people wanted to make a medicine man out of me,” Thunderbird recalled in a 1965 interview with the Victoria Daily Colonist newspaper. “They kept putting me in cold water as part of the ritual. Finally, I ran away from home to attend a mission school at Kuper Island, near Duncan. I wanted to be an athlete more than anything else.”

At Indian college in Tacoma, Washington, called the Cushman School, “The Chief” was an active athlete, getting a remarkable eight sports letters in boxing, wrestling, baseball, basketball track and field, football, soccer and lacrosse. The feat made the “Strange As It May Seem” syndicated feature in newspapers.  As a boxer, Thunderbird won 27 of 32 pro fights, breaking both hands at various times. Wrestling would beckon. He often told the tale about being able to beat his adult coach in wrestling while at school.

He took part in an international water competition in 1933 in Coupeville, Washington, winning many events against other native warriors. During the festival, he got his first taste of pro wrestling, with a touring athletic carnival show. According to The Ring magazine from October 1936, “The Chief didn't pin the ‘carnival champion’ but he amassed the large sum of five dollars for the five minutes that he had spent in the ring before being pinned… Virgil Hamlin, a promoter in the Pacific Northwest, was instrumental in encouraging Thunderbird to take up pro wrestling…In 1937 in Walla Walla, Washington, he faced the great Ed “Strangler” Lewis in a outdoor bout at the ballpark. Thunderbird lost.

Updated Google Map of Our House Histories in Washington, DC

We've updated our Google map of completed "house histories" in NW Washington, DC, with a brief history tidbit for each location at the map pin: usually when it was built, who the architect was, the builder, and sometimes a bit more like how much it cost to build or who lived there.  We've done so many that the list is actually broken into three Google maps, so make sure you page forward to see if we have done a house near you.

In fact, if we have done a house history on your block, you save $100 off the price of having a complete house history for yourself: for a limited time only, we'll do any house history in Washington, DC for just $500.  Check out the map here!   




View NW Historic House and Building History in Washington, DC: NW Section in a larger map

The Census and Privacy

Many people concerned about their privacy with public records today have no idea just how much a historian can uncover about people walking the planet not that long ago. The federal census is one tool we house historians use to reveal interesting tidbits about those owners, and even the renters or lodgers in your house long ago. The last available in detail for researchers in the 1930 census. (The 1940 census won't be released in detail until 2012, 72 years or an average life span after it was recorded)

The 1930 census includes the more detailed information than any other prior census. It was taken live by enumerators traveling door to door, as seen at left. It listed all the people in the household at that time; the head of household was listed first, followed by everyone in the house as they related to him or her: wife, husband, children, son-in-laws, etc. It listed everyone's age, where they were born, and even where both of their parents were born. If they were foreign born, it indicates when they arrived in the US, became a citizen, or were naturalized.

It also listed anyone unrelated in the house that lived there as lodgers (typically renting without meals) or as boarders, who took meals with the family. The census also listed occupation, along with employer or type of job: janitor, for example, within the public schools. For couples, it listed how many children had been born, and how many were alive in 1930.

Another interesting aspect of the 1930 census was the fact that unlike prior census, it recorded what the home owner thought their house was worth (a year after the stock market crash), or what they were paying in rent. Washington, DC homeowners might be shocked how little their house was worth that year, or that you could rent a nice townhouse in DC for about $35 a month that year.

Census enumerators also recorded race, although they frequently made errors because it was a guess by observation, rather than a question of the subject. Census enumerators that year were instructed: “to be particularly careful in reporting the class mulatto. The word is generic, and includes quadroons, octoroons, and all persons having any perceptible trace of African blood.” Importantly, it was up the census taker to observe and determine race, not the subject being interviewed, often resulting in a multitude of errors. Anyone of the Asian race were classified as white, while those born in India might have been classified as mulatto.

DC Real Property Database = An INCORRECT building date

I just got an inquiry from a potential client that conveyed to me the the building date of her house, gleaned from the DC real property assessment database (under view property features). She said her house was built in 1900. The problem is, about 80% of the "built in" dates on the DC real property tax assessment database are just educated guesses, done by an assessor about 50 years ago. That's why the vast majority of the dates provided are even numbers! 1900, 1905, 1910, etc. I've researched houses that have had the date off by 90 years or more.

Unfortunately, real estate agents use these "constructed in" date as fact. That can lead to trouble, and I was involved as a consultant in one case in Georgetown where the RE agent told the buyer that house was built in 1835. Turns out, the house was built in 1935. In Georgetown, where the oldest house wins, that spelled embarrassment and a lawsuit.

So, please don't believe the assessment database. I wish they would simply remove the dates altogether, as they are almost completely useless and mostly inaccurate. They only way to tell is to have your house history researched and carefully documented from the original building permits that began in February of 1877, or by using a combination of maps, tax, and deed research for properties before 1877.

Cool Faux Copper ceiling Panel Installation

So, I'm writing today about a really cool faux product, and as a architectural historian, we take these kinds of products seriously...to test whether or not they look and act like the real thing. I can say that after installing the fake copper panels in our living room awhile back, they are amazing! Our guests and historians alike really think we have expensive copper up there. That our room at left, in fact!

What reminded me to blog about these is that I'm selling the spare panels on eBay this week that I just found in the basement. I'm listing tons of stuff on eBay every week, as I and my partner have a goal of living aboard a sail boat within the next two years.

In any event, I had never heard of these panels until a producer from the HGTV show called "I Want That!" called and needed a house to serve as a location for reps from the manufacturer to install the panels. We said we're in, and in about two weeks, the product arrived and so did the film crew. They were a new product from ACP company, and we got to choose our pattern and color, at least. I had worked with a few of the crew beforehand, actually, as the freelancers had been to my old DC loft to film shows like Building Character for HGTV.

The fellows from the manufacturer were on hand to actually install the panels, and Greg and I were on hand to film short shots like we were actually doing the work. Ah, the magic of television. We also sat down for interviews that ended up being edited into embarrassing snippets that our friends sill make fun of: "Copper Fantasy!" being the most used. The manufacture choose that name, not us! You can find episode 207 on HGTV here.

The installation was flawed a fair amount, as the newbies from ACP had never installed their new product. It was designed to go on with liquid nails, but the pattern we choose had lots of embossing, and little to stick to the actual ceiling. So, we came up with a compromise, and we suggested use of a staple gun to secure most of the panels while the liquid nails set. The film crew was worried that we wouldn't finish, actually, but after two days, they did a great job. I placed a border of small crown molding around the ceiling to hide the walls that were not even, of course, in our 1906 house.

They sent over a photographer several weeks later to be used on a brochure, and we forgot about the whole episode until my sister recognized our living room (and her xmas gift candles) in her big box hardware store in Michigan, of all places! The brochure cover is our living room, which we refer to as our opium den, a look we were going after when designing the look of the room.

They are not cheap, but they are a lot less expensive than real copper, and the nice part is you can cut them with scissors. Nobody has been able to determine that these are not real panels!

Hurd v Hodge, DC Racial Covenants: 50th Anniversary

So, May of 2008 marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court case Hurd v. Hodge, originating right here in Washington, DC, which found the enforcement of racial and religious covenants were unconstitutional. I recently researched the actual location of the house in question, 116 Bryant Street, NW (left) for the current owners, who had bought the house history at a Bloomingdale Civic Association neighborhood fund raiser that we had donated it to.

What struck me was the arguments used to overturn racial and religious covenants and why they aren't used in gay civil rights cases today. It was important to note that the black lawyers and black homeowners of the day were fighting to overturn all restrictive real estate covenants, not just those targeted at preventing a sale to black homeowners.

Today, the Washington Blade ran a commentary piece I composed on the subject that you can read here.

I'll post the unedited version below for your reading pleasure.

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The similarity between historic black civil rights and contemporary gay civil rights being fought in today’s courts cannot be overlooked. One old but significant civil rights argument is missing from legal cases being filed on behalf of gay rights today, however. Fifty years ago, in May of 1948, an argument was used by local lawyers to win the eventual Supreme Court case Hurd v. Hodge that found that the enforcement of racially restrictive covenants on real estate deeds was unconstitutional. The unusual argument used that year was the United States membership pledge to uphold the Charter of the newly formed United Nations.

By joining the UN, the United States had pledged on June 26, 1945 to “Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinctions as to race, sex, language or religion.” Used successfully fifty years ago to ensure the equal rights of black property owners, this precedent seems to have all but been forgotten in today’s gay rights legal cases. Combined with additional arguments used in the 1948 case, the resulting Supreme Court opinion, and with a few word substitutions, one might begin to imagine that they are reading about the results of today’s gay marriage cases.

Most importantly, perhaps, is that the black leadership behind the successful Hurd v. Hodge case resulted in the lifting of all racial and religious deed covenants in place at the time, not just those targeting African-Americans.