330 T Street, NW, Part Deux

        A few months ago, we brought you the story of one of the owners of 330 T Street, NW, in LeDroit Park, the prominent African-American lawyer Fountain Peyton.  You can read it here.   Today, we'll focus on the original owner, Charles A. White, who had the house built in 1880.  White listed builder Fred W. Pilling as responsible for its construction, but neglected to list an architect responsible for its design.  The estimated cost of construction was $5,000, about twice that of the typical townhouse being built in Washington, DC at the time.  William Pilling was the builder.

Dr. Charles Asbiathar White and his family moved into 330 T Street upon its completion, likely in late 1880 or early 1881.  He would continue to own and reside at the residence for the next twenty-eight years, until 1908.

White was the son of Abiathar White (1793-1849) and Nancy Corey (1795-1851) and had been born on January 26, 1826 in Taunton, Massachusetts.  He and his wife, the former Charlotte R. Pilkington (1829-1902) whom he married on September 5, 1848 had a total of five children together.  They included James Albert (1849-1921), Charles (born 1853), Gertrude (born 1858), Marian (born 1866), and Leonard (born 1872).  The family was first enumerated at 330 T Street in the 1900 census. 1

         Their two youngest children, Marian and Leonard, then ages 33 and 27 respectively, were single and living at the house.  Marian indicated that she was employed as a school teacher, and Leonard revealed that he worked as a dentist.  White owned the house free and clear of a mortgage. 

        White authored a total of 236 books during his long career in geology, paleontology, and biology.  In July of 1911, the National Academy of Sciences journal contained a biographical memoir of Charles A. White (below) written by William H. Dall utilizing notes that White wrote himself.  It nicely summarized both his personal life and his long professional career.[2]  It read:    

           

The first American ancestor of the subject of this memoir was William White, of Boston, Mass., who settled at what was then called Windmill Point, about 1640. William's grandson, Cornelius White, purchased a tract of land in Taunton, Mass., as a homestead, part of which extended within the adjacent town of Dighton. Here Cornelius moved about 1700, and successive generations bearing the name have owned and occupied the farm ever since. So attached to their home were the members of the family that, according to the notes of Doctor White (which have been largely utilized in preparing this memoir), for five generations no member of the family ever strayed fifty miles from the original homestead. In the local public affairs of their community, however, they are recorded as having taken an active part. The great-grandfather of Dr. White, Cornelius White, was a captain of militia during some of  the colonial wars of his time, and on the breaking out of the war of independence was made a member  of the "Committee of Inspection, Correspondence, and Safety," organized to promote the patriot cause. His son, Cornelius, junior, though barely twenty years old, enlisted in the Revolutionary forces immediately after the battle of Lexington.  After the success of the struggle both returned to their Dighton farm.

Abiathar White, son of Cornelius White, junior, married Nancy, daughter of Daniel Corey, of Dighton. Their second son, born at Dighton January 26, 1826, was named Charles Abiathar and is the subject of this memoir.  In 1838, the family removed to settle at the site of Burlington, in the Iowa Territory. There, subject to the hard complications of pioneer life and with small and irregular opportunities for education, the boy grew to manhood. Doubtless  the  bias toward the study of nature was inborn,  but the life in a  new country full of birds  and animals differing from those to which he had been accustomed in earlier years in Massachusetts must have been full of interest to  the  youth  entering  on  his  teens. The richness of the rocks of the region in well-preserved and attractive fossils may well have been a stimulus toward the career on which he finally entered.

On attaining his majority in 1847, he revisited the east and the following year was married to a schoolmate of his childhood, Charlotte R. Pilkington, daughter of James Pilkington, of Dighton. This union proved ideal, and nearly fifty-four years of happy married life was granted them before the death of the beloved wife and mother, July 16, 1902.

His eastern travel and experiences, meeting with the scientific men of the clay, greatly stimulated h is inherent love of nature. He returned with his young wife to Burlington in 1849, and then began a systematic study of the natural history of the region in which he lived.

In those clays, when a purely scientific career was almost unknown in America and reserved for those whose financial situation rendered them more or less independent, the in evitable resource of the average student was found in the study and practice of medicine.

 

He began his studies a few years after his return to Iowa, entering, as was then the practice, the office of S.S. Ransom, M. D., a leading practitioner, as a medical student.  Having been known to his preceptor since boyhood, he received cordial aid and encouragement in his studies.  These were followed by one full course of lectures in the Medical School of Michigan University and a period of study in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, which is now the medical department of the University of Chicago. After he received the degree of doctor of medicine. His studies in geology and on the fossils of Iowa became known to Prof. James Hall, of Albany, state geologist of New York, who induced him to accept an invitation as his assistant, which Dr. White held during 1862 and 1863. As with most of the assistants and pupil s of this masterful and eager paleontologist, friction developed in the course of time, and in 1864 Dr. White returned to Iowa and entered upon the practice of medicine at Iowa City.

The desirability of a geological survey of the state had become evident to progressive citizens of Iowa, and in 1866, such a survey was established by the legislature. Dr. White received the appointment of state geologist and entered upon his duties in this capacity in April 1866.  The survey continued for four years, issuing two volumes of reports on the economic and structural geology, but came to an end by the failure of the legislature to appropriate funds for its support, in 1870.   

In 1866 he received the honorary degree of master of arts from Iowa College, and in 1867 was appointed to the professorship of  natural   history  in  Iowa  State  University,  giving part of his time to the university  du ring  the  continuance  of the state survey, and  afterward  taking up the whole duty  of the professorship. In 1873, he accepted a call to a similar professorship in Bowdoin College and removed with his family to Brunswick, Maine.

 

In addition to his college duties, at the request of Lieut. G. M. Wheeler, U. S. A., in charge of the government surveys west of the moth meridian, he undertook, in 1874, the publication of the paleontology of that survey.

The activities of the various governmental surveys of that period, more or less in a rivalry with each other as to the production of scientific results, afforded greater opportunities for research work in those lines than ever before. An opening presenting itself for such work, far more congenial to him than teaching, led Dr. White to resign his professorship and join the U.S. Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, directed by Major J.W. Powell, in 1875.  The following year, he was appointed by Dr. F.V. Hayden, directing the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, to complete and edit unfinished paleontological work left at the death of E.B. Meck, in 1876. He remained with the Hayden Survey until it was suspended in 1879. At this time he was appointed one of the salaried curators of the U. S. National Museum, in general charge of the paleontological collection.

In 1882 the geological work of the government was reorganized  as  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  under  Clarence King as director,  and Dr. White was engaged  as  geologist by the  survey, continuing  in its  service until his resignation in 1892.   During 1882, he was detailed as chief of a commission on artesian wells in the Great Plains, organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  After his return to his regular duties, he was requested by the director of the National Museum of Brazil to prepare a report on collections of Mesozoic fossils, which had been made by members of the Brazilian Geological Survey.  The report was published in the Archives of the Museum at Rio, in both Portuguese and English, in 1887.

Dr. T.W. Stanton, in a review of Dr. White’s work and his services to the U.S. National Museum, prepared for the Annual Report, has the following remarks:

Du ring all the years of Dr. White's  service  with  the  various  government surveys  his  office  work  was  done  in  the  National  Museum, where he was actively connected  with  the  ca re  and  preservation  of  the  collection  of  invertebrate  fossils to which his field   work so largely contributed.  He came to the institution at a critical period in the history of its paleontological collections.  Professor F. B. Meek, who had long had charge of  them,  had  recently  died  and  new  material  was  rapidly  coming in from the various surveys and .exploring expeditions in the western territories. Dr. White immediately took np the work of properly caring for the collections, at first unofficially and afterward as curator.  His intimate acquaintance with Professor Meek and his work, his knowledge of the subject and his systematic, painstaking habits enabled him to render invaluable service at that time.  Scattered types were recognized, cataloged, and fully labeled; those that had not been illustrated were figured, and the records and collections of the whole department were systemized.  After retiring from the active duties of a curatorship, he continued his connection with the National Museum as associate in paleontology.   

He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of America.   The State University of Iowa conferred in 1893 the degree of doctor of laws, honoris causa. He was president of the Biological Society of Washington during the years 1883 and 1884.  He joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1868, later becoming a fellow, and was elected vice-president for the section of geology in 1888.  In 1889, he was elected a foreign member of the Geological Society of London.   

After Dr. White's retirement from active service, he employed his time partly in botanical studies and to some extent in popular and reminiscent contributions to periodicals. He prepared biographical memoirs of deceased friends, three of whom, Meek, Engelmann, and Newberry, were members of the Academy, and in similar ways utilized the time of waiting, which comes to most men who pass three score and ten. Up to a short time before the end, he was remarkably alert, active, and interested in the progress of his favorite branches of science.

He died June 29, 1910, in Washington, D. C., and his remains are interred at Rock Creek Cemetery. Of eight children, four sons and two daughters survive him.

The character of Dr. White's li f e work can best  be  under­ stood through an examination  of the  accompanying  bibliography, in which, however, no attempt has been made to include fugitive papers in the daily or weekly press or  other  similar matter  not of  scientific importance.

In general, he was engaged in pioneer descriptive work in paleontology and geology, which he did with care, precision, and clearness.  In his later works, the   attempt to treat his data philosophically is very evident.  The mass of his publications is very considerable. Among those especially use fill lo later students are his summaries of American non-marine fossils and of American fossil Ostreidae.  He traveled extensively abroad and made the acquaintance of many foreign paleontologists, with whom he maintained   friendly relations.   Much of his correspondence and other papers  and  articles  of  interest arc  deposited  in  the  State  Historical  Department of  Iowa  at Des Moines; as,  though from 1876 a  resident of  the ci t y of Washington, he preserved a sturdy pride in the state in which the  formative period of his life was passed. [End]

Interestingly, Abiathar Peak in Yellowstone National Park was named in Dr. White’s honor in 1885 by members of the Arnold Hague Geological Survey.  A very brief mention in a real estate report in the Washington Post July 14, 1908 edition revealed that White sold the house “to a person that will occupy it as a home.”

---

[1] The house was apparently still under construction when the 1880 census was taken, and the 1890 census was nearly completely destroyed by a fire in the Commerce Building in 1921. 

[2] “Biographical Memoir of Charles Abiathar White” by William H. Dall, National Academy of Sciences, Vol. VII, July 1911.   

                                                         Copyright Paul K. Williams

  


 

Our Typical House History: The story behind 3120 Woodland Drive, NW

Music Stores, Newport Socialites, and even the Lebanese Government

People often ask for a sample of one of our typical "house histories," so we obtained permission from the Real Estate company that commissioned a history of 3120 Woodland Drive, NW to post the early history of the house on our blog.  We didn't post here the many images of census records and newspaper mentions nor more recent aspects to protect the privacy of the more recent owners.  We also didn't include here a section on the architects nor the neighborhood history that is part of the bound booklet provided to owners.  Therefore, the history reads in part:

The owner of the vacant lots where 3120 Woodland Drive was to be constructed, George S. Silbee, applied for and was granted an Application for Permit to Build numbered 2170 for its construction on September 10, 1923.  He listed the architectural firm of Porter & Lockie as responsible for its design, which was to be constructed by the Charles A. Langley building company.  He indicated the cost of the dwelling to be $40,000, a substantial sum for the time. 

The building permit indicated that the house was to be constructed on solid land atop a foundation composed of concrete.  It would measure thirty-seven feet deep by eight-one feet wide.  The three story houses would feature a brick exterior and a slate roof.  External brick walls were to be thirteen inches thick on the ground floor, and nine inches thick on upper levels.  The home was to be heated by a hot water system utilizing radiators.  It was built on lot 2 on Square 2124.  

Owner and builder George S. Silsbee had a lawyer for his real estate development company named George H. Lamar as his representative when the house was sold to its first owners, Homer L. and Jessie E. Kitt.  They purchased the house on September 26, 1925.  The house was later put into Jessie Kitt’s name, on January 1, 1933. 

The Kitts had moved into the house from a wood frame residence they had built in 1921 at 3407 Huntington, Street, NW at the cost of $10,000.  Homer Lemar Kitt (1880-1944) got his first job in a piano factory in his native Indiana and became a leader in the Washington music business after moving here in 1916 to work for the Arthur Jordan Piano Company.  His own Kitt music store opened in 1922, seen below. 

Kitts Music Store, 13th and G Streets, NW

Kitt, below left, had been born on March 3, 1880 in Clear Creek, Huntington, Indiana, the son of Obadiah Kitt (1850-1915), and Saloma Ann Stahl (1852-1926).  He married Jessie Elizabeth Webber on April 4, 1906, and they had two children together, twins Elizabeth Webber Kitt and Marjorie, born in 1912.  The family was enumerated at the house in the 1930 census, which reveals that daughter Marjorie either did not survive childhood, or had moved out of the house by age 17.  Kitt estimated that the house was then worth $100,000, a substantial increase over the construction cost of $40,000.  The family enjoyed a radio in the house, one of the more unusual questions asked of occupants that year.  They also had two live in servants including a 28 year old German born maid named  Marguarite Nerbuhn and 27 year old Maryland native George Mack, who worked as a butler.  

Homer L. Kitt was originally in the music business in Chicago, before founding the Kitt’s Music Company in Washington, DC in 1922.  Its successor is celebrating over a century in continuous operation. The first store was located on 13th and G Streets NW, just down the street from the White House (previous page, at an unknown event in the 1930s).  

The individual that prompted Kitt to move to Washington, DC was Arthur Jordan, a successful businessman in Indianapolis in the late 1800s, involved in the poultry, egg, and butter business, and, according to lore, was the first man to ship a trainload of poultry from Indianapolis to New York City.  At one point he owned scores of packing and cold storage plants in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio, before selling out in 1903.  He then became involved in a number of other manufacturing, retailing, and life insurance ventures, while also investing in Washington, D.C., real estate, including a building on the corner of 13th Street and G Street, home to the Juelg Piano Company.

In 1912 Juelg was on the verge of going out of business, and when Jordan acquired it he renamed it The Jordan Piano company.  In 1916 he persuaded his friend Homer L. Kitt, who had his own music business in Chicago, to move to Washington, D.C., to become general manager and run the retail store.  Kitt was soon taken on as a partner.  In addition to pianos, the store’s merchandise included reed organs and other musical instruments as well as sheet music and the phonograph, still in its infancy.

Jordan Piano would also ride the wave of popularity of the player piano, which enjoyed booming sales in the 1920s and prompted the company to open branch stores, including one in Richmond, Virginia.  Jordan and Kitt also expanded their operations to another corner of 13th and G streets.  In August 1922 they acquired Knabe Warerooms, Inc., which primarily sold Knabe pianos, a venerable German brand, as well as other high-end instruments. Officially, the buyer of Knabe was the newly formed Homer L. Kitt Company.  Jordan’s involvement was kept from the public, the newspaper reporting that the firm had $200,000 in capital supplied by Kitt and his partners, prominent area businessmen C. N. Hopkins and H. R. Appold.  In addition to carrying Knabe pianos as its main line, the Homer L. Kitt Company also indicated that it planned to add “talking machines” to its inventory. 

An image from Homer Kitts passport application appears at right, when he had planned a recreational trip to Cuba in December of 1919. 

For more than 60 years Jordan Piano and Homer Kitt Piano operated independently, though covertly joint-owned.  They carried different lines of instruments and operated under separate management, and their salespeople became fierce rivals, loathe to lose a sale to the business across the street.  Both suffered through the Great Depression of the 1930s, cutting costs and adding any products that might bring a sale, including radios and refrigerators.  In the meantime, Arthur Jordan created the Arthur Jordan Foundation in 1928 to administer his philanthropic endeavors, and when he passed away in 1934 his interest in both piano companies was transferred to the charitable foundation.

The 1930s also saw the Kitt store a victim of arson.  In the early morning hours of September 14, 1938, fire trucks were called to the scene to put out a blaze that a subsequent investigation revealed had been set separately in the basement and the first two floors.  Two earlier attempts, according to press reports, had been made to set the building on fire.  The blaze caused $50,000 in damages, including $15,000 worth of sheet music, most of which was covered by insurance.  Some of the firemen who responded to the call, however, were injured.  One man had a hand cut by falling glass, a battalion chief was briefly overcome by gas in the basement, and a firefighter named Buck Wright reportedly lost his false teeth. The store reopened for business a day later and eventually its damaged Spanish facade was replaced by an art deco design that was in vogue (right).

Kitt died in 1943, and the Arthur Jordan Foundation became sole owner of the cousin piano companies, both of which barely scraped by due to World War II, when supplies of pianos were disrupted as manufacturing focused on the war effort.  Before his passing, Kitt had in fact done his part in the war effort, opening a Music Canteen, as well as offering free repair services and practice space to instrument-playing servicemen.  Replacing Kitt as general manager was his secretary, Frances Jones.  Business picked up following the war as the economy soared and returning servicemen raised families and bought homes, many of which included a piano.

While the Jordan and Kitt stores had become the leader in Washington, D.C., they also grew staid with time.  In the 1960s when electric guitars became highly popular with young people, Kitt’s carried the Gibson line and Jordan’s the Fender, but neither offered discounts and were soon overshadowed by Washington Music Center, which sold guitars at a discount.  In 1968 the two stores were finally united when the Arthur Jordan Foundation merged the operations, creating Jordan-Kitt Music Inc.  A year later Checci Corporation, a diversified consulting firm, bought the business.

            The Arthur Jordan Piano Company and Kitt's Music proudly serviced Washingtonians for decades, before joining to become Jordan Kitt's Music.  Today, Jordan Kitt's operates stores in two of the country's most vibrant top-10 markets - DC Metro and Atlanta - and is one of the oldest, most reputable piano dealers in America. They represent only the finest brands of acoustic, digital, hybrid and player pianos.

A privately owned and operated family business, Jordan Kitt's Music has sold more than 250,000 pianos and teaches over 40,000 piano lessons annually. They have provided pianos, organs and technical services to numerous venues and institutions such as The White House, The Music Center at Strathmore, The Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Spivey Hall, just to name a few.

In addition to piano sales, a significant focus of Jordan Kitt's Music includes piano service, rentals and lessons. They also operate one of the largest concert and artist operations in the country, providing pianos for famous and up-and-coming artists performing at famous venues.  Now based in College Park, Maryland, Jordan-Kitt Music Inc. is the parent company for the Jordan Kitt’s Music chain of a dozen retail stores in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Delaware, and Georgia, as well as for its interest in The Beautiful Sound music store in Chicago, Illinois.  Jordan-Kitt is the largest piano and keyboard retailer in the United States, offering a wide variety of acoustic and digital pianos.

Most recently, Jordan Kitt's formed a partnership with the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball Team resulting in their acquisition of a brand new Viscount Theatre Organ for the stadium and numerous "Pianos in the Park" events through-out the season each year.  They also support Strathmore's annual student concerts which provide over 20,000 Montgomery County School Children with an orchestral music experience in the Music Center concert hall.

Other partnerships and events Jordan Kitt's has been involved with include providing instruments and associated services for the Pope's historic visit to Washington DC.  Every four years they provide pianos and services to all Inaugural Events, including the Presidential swearing-in ceremony.

            Jessie Kitt relocated to an apartment in the Kennedy-Warren and sold the house on September 8, 1942 to Mary Sizer Puller Gould.  Homer Kitt died on November 14, 1944 and was interred in Rock Creek Cemetery. 

           

Mary Sizer Puller Gould was the widow of Frederick Mitchell Gould of New York City.  He had been born in 1848 in Coldwell, New Jersey, the son of Mitchell Gould.  Mary was born in June of 1894 in Virginia as Mary Puller, the daughter of James P. Puller of Richmond, Virginia.  She was widowed by 1930. 

              She spent her summers at the “Gould Villa” in Newport, Rhode Island, located on Bellevue Avenue at Lake View Street, now apparently demolished.  She first began renting prominent houses in Washington, DC in 1940, and began to entertain her close friend, Mrs. Harry Truman.  That seems to be the impetuous to purchase a winter home in the Nation’s Capital.   A photograph of the house appeared in the September 13, 1942 edition of the Washington Post, announcing her purchase.   

 On February 11, 1940, the Washington Post featured Gould in their society column coined “Introducing.”  It appears below. 

            Relatively little is known about Gould or her husband, as the couple do not seem to appear in any of the ancestry online sites, nor in any census records as a married couple, most likely due to their extensive overseas travel.  She was mentioned in many Washington Post articles during her tenure, seen here.  She frequently had extended stays at the St. Regis hotel in New York City.   

   It resident during that time was Charles Habib Malik (1906 – Dec 28, 1987).  He was a Lebanese academic, diplomat, and philosopher and also served as the Lebanese representative to the United Nations, the President of the Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations General Assembly, a member of the Lebanese Cabinet, a national minister of Education and the Arts, and of Foreign Affairs and Emigration, and theologian.  He was responsible for the drafting and adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Beginning in 1945, Gould rented the house to the Lebanese government for their use as the Lebanese Legation, which lasted until December of that year.

                       

            Malik, left, founded the Philosophy Department at the American University of Beirut, as well as a cultural studies program (the 'civilization sequence program' now 'Civilization Studies Program').  He remained in this capacity until 1945 when he was appointed to be the Lebanese Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. 

            Gould died on May 9, 1964.  The Mary Sizer Puller Gould estate, represented by Edward Myers of the Riggs National Bank, sold the house on July 30, 1965 to John and Trudy C. Davis. 

Copyright Paul K. Williams

It's not fake news: There was once 109 houses of prostitution within steps of the White House!

We recently ran across this fascinating map at the Library of Congress that they believe was published in the 1890s...109 houses of prostitution within steps of the White House!