WW Corcoran & the Louise Home at 15th & Mass Ave NW

The Louise Home on Massachusetts Ave between 15th and 16th Streets

William W. Corcoran was well known as a philanthropist in early Washington society, with his name attached to many buildings, banking institutions, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  One of his lesser known institutions, however, shunned publicity following its opening in 1871 as the Louise Home.  Named after his deceased wife and daughter, the Louise Home was founded two years earlier, in 1869, for the comfortable maintenance and support of genteel yet impoverished ladies.     

William Wilson Corcoran was born in Georgetown on December 27, 1798, and during the long life time was known as a prominent banker, philanthropist, and art collector.  His father, Thomas Corcoran, came to Georgetown in 1788 and established a leather business there that quickly became prosperous, and he was twice elected Mayor.  

WW Corcoran

At the age of 37 in 1835, W.W. Corcoran, as he was known, eloped with Louise Morris, who was just then age 16.  She was the daughter of Commodore Charles Morris, and died just five years later, in 1840.  They had three children: Harriet Louise, Louise Morris, and Charles Morris. Sadly, only the middle child, Louise Morris (1838-1867), survived to adulthood.  W.W. Corcoran never remarried. 

Corcoran had entered business at the age of 17, working in dry goods store owned by two brothers, and opened his own store two years later.  In 1828, he took control of large amount of real estate from his father, and in 1837, established a brokerage firm on Pennsylvania Avenue at 15th Street.  He was very successful and soon entered into a partnership with George W. Riggs. The firm of Corcoran and Riggs prospered and in 1845, they purchased the United States Bank located on 15th Street at New York Avenue, renaming it Riggs Bank. 

Thought Your Fireplace Heated Your House Long Ago? Think Again.

Most Washingtonians enjoy a working fireplace in their older homes,  but might wonder how it was able to heat the entire structure being as notoriously inefficient as they are.  The simple fact is, they didn't.   

Most fireplaces were outfitted beginning in the 1870s with a "Latrobe Stove.”  These devises were invented in Baltimore, Maryland by John Hazelhurst Latrobe (1803-1891), the son of noted engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and are sometimes coined a “Baltimore Heater.” 

They were squat and round, about 20 inches in diameter at the base, and stood about two feet high.  They fitted into a fireplace opening  and burned coal, requiring a daily cleaning of a somewhat messy ash tray.  There were 30,000 in use by 1878 in Baltimore alone! 

The Sears House at 4205 Military Road, NW

4205 Military Road, NW, as seen in the Sears Catalog

Hugh M. Sterling applied for and was granted a building permit for 4205 Military Road, NW on October 19, 1922, although the street was known as Keokuk Street at the time.  He indicated that the house was designed by the Sears, Roebuck & Company, and I later determined that it is the model coined The Alhambra.   Sterling estimated its construction cost as approximately $7,000.     

Pictured in 1986

According to the book Houses By Mail, the Alhambra model first appeared in the 1918 Sears catalog, as model number 2090.  It continued to be listed until 1929, but did not appear in the 1920, 1922, 1923, or 1927 editions.  It was priced between $1,969 and $3,134 for materials only.  Other examples of the house have been located in Norwood Park, Illinois, and in Dayton, Ohio.  An Alhambra model also was built close by, at 3939 Legation Street, NW., but it has since been drastically remodeled.

A typical floorplan of the Alhambra appears below.[1]  Hugh Sterling also obtained a permit to build a garage on October 5, 1922, the same day he obtained a permit to construct the house.  His permit included a nice drawing of the garage doors seen below. 

Building Inspector’s notes taken during the construction phase of the project indicated that Sterling was 95% complete with the house on March 6, 1924.  Its slow construction was due to the fact that Sterling was building the house himself, and had stored its ready-made materials in the garage, which he had built first.

Unfortunately, Sterling had built the garage a full seven feet over the property line, onto Belt Road, and he was ordered by the city to tear it down, or to have it moved.  His letter dated April 2, 1923 to the city appears on the following page, explaining his situation and a solution to the dispute.      

At the time of the application to build 4205 Military Road in 1922, Hugh Sterling resided at 723 Euclid Street, NW.  He was listed at that address as a single, 50-year-old roomer in the 1920 census.  Following its completion in 1924, the Hugh and his new wife Lillian moved into the house at 4205 Military that Hugh had built himself.   

Taylors Ice Cream Parlor: 201 Maryland Ave, NE

The building permit for 201 Maryland Avenue, NE was issued on August 13^th, 1890 to local builder J.W. Swainson, and it was constructed at a cost of $5,000. 

Upon its completion in early 1891, the corner structure, which had a residential section above and a commercial section on the ground floor, was sold to the Boyd family, who would continue to own it until 1963.   

Dr. George W. Boyd was born in the District of Columbia in November 1862, a first-generation American whose father was an Irish immigrant, and whose mother hailed from Maryland.  A physician by profession, Boyd purchased the building at the young age of 28.  He was married to Clara R. Boyd, who was three years his junior and also a first-generation American-born citizen; both of her parents had emigrated from Germany prior to the Civil War.  They had a total of seven children, many of whom would own the building until 1963. 

Taylor & Co Ice Cream

201 Maryland Avenue, NE: 

Augustus A. Taylor & Co. 

Starting in 1893, the store in the ground floor of 201 Maryland Avenue was occupied by druggist Augustus C. Taylor & Co., which operated a drug store with sidewalk ice cream service and tables in front of the store.

The store was well known as a community gathering place where a large tin of keys was kept for neighbors that found themselves locked out of their homes, and the pharmacist served not just as druggist, but also as neighborhood medical advisor, lay chaplain and even marriage counselor.

The picture above was taken in 1906, and shows the outside soda fountain patio with Dr. Augustus C. Taylor appearing in his white pharmacy coat behind the table surrounded by neighbors. Miss Elizabeth O'Cullen is seen in the white dress, facing Clyde Bailey.  Son Edward Taylor appears as a shop clerk inside the store with a bow tie.

Some 75 years later, in 1980, Taylor’s youngest son Frank, who had grown up on Capitol Hill and spent his entire career at the Smithsonian, eventually becoming its director general of museums, gave an interview to the Columbia Historical Society in which he described life growing up in his father’s drug store.

“The dominant character of the place and time was the continuous movement of the people and conveyances in the streets from early morning to late at night.  Heads of families went at daybreak headed for the Center Market returning an hour or two later pulling boys’ wagons filled with food.  After breakfast the same men went by dressed for work…

General's Row & GWU: The 2000 Block of G Street, NW

2033 G Street, NW

Many Washingtonians are familiar with “General’s Row” located on Ft. McNair in Southwest Washington, but the 200 block of G Street, NW was also home to numerous high ranking Military leaders from the 1860s to the 1920s.  While much of the block has been torn down, and now sits in the middle of The George Washington University campus, several of the once grand homes still exist today that offer clues to what was once an elegant tree lined street. 

The nine houses located between 2014 and 2030 G Street were built between 1872 and 1873.  The house at 2028 G Street that remains today was sold upon its completion to Gustavus Hall Scott, who had been born on July 13, 1812 in Mulberry Hill, Fairfax, Virginia.  Scott had a long and distinguished military career, first entering the navy as midshipman at the age of seventeen, on August 1, 1828. 

The De Soto

2028 G Street, NW

He rose in rank to Commander on December 27, 1856, and Union Captain on November 4, 1863, in charge of steamer De Soto which captured several Civil War blockade runners in 1864.  He became a Rear Admiral on February 14, 1873 when his wife moved into the house at 2028 G Street, NW.  Scott then served as the Commander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic squadron until June, 13, 1874, when he was retired, having reached the age of sixty-two years. 

Marcus Wright

After his death in 1882, his widow leased 2028 G Street to a Confederate Brigadier General Marcus J. Wright (1831-1922).  A native of Tennessee, Wright was a lawyer, clerk of court, and sheriff in Memphis before serving in the Confederate army, where he was assistant adjutant general on Cheatham’s staff, regiment commander, military governor, brigade commander, and post commander. 

The corner house at 2033 G Street that still exists today was the long time home of US Navy Lt. Maxwell Woodhull and his wife Ellen beginning about 1860.  He died unexpectedly during the Civil War from an accidental gun discharge during a salute.  His widow lived at the house until her death in 1895, and their son, General Maxwell Woodhull (1843-1921) lived there for the next several decades.   

The Relocation of The George Washington University to Foggy Bottom    

Maxwell Woodhull

General Maxwell van Zandt Woodhull was largely responsible for bringing The George Washington University to its present location from a prior campus atop Meridian Hill.  After his election as a trustee in 1911, he began a campaign to influence the school to move its operations to a rented building at 2023 G Street.

Eckington Garden Tour 1909 (and not 2009!)

Washington Post, September 9, 1906

The idea of holding a yard or garden contest for urban dwellers might always seem like an odd occurrence with our small city lawns, but they have served as an ever popular fundraiser for the past few decades.  Few may have suspected, however, that these have been popular for the last 100 years, with one held in the Eckington neighborhood in 1909, just four years after many of the long rows of town homes were built. 

The September 9, 1906 Washington Post covered a garden contest amongst members of the North Capitol and Eckington Citizen’s Association, who were “imbued with a desire to make the locality as attractive as possible.”  It was judged by “three newspapermen” who remained nameless, but who almost ensured that the event would be covered by the Post, who named three prize winners. 

The area of the citizens association included the 2300 block of 1^st Street, N.W.  It was built in two phases in 1902 by the Middaugh and Shannon real estate development company; the seventeen homes from 2302 to 2330 1^st Street were issued a building permit on March 14, 1902, while a permit was issued for seventeen homes across the street from 2303 to 2331 1^st Street on June 23^rd of that year.  The homes were designed by architect Joseph Bohn, Jr. 

2300 Block of 1st Street, NW

The house that won first prize at 2332 1^st Street was occupied by Dr. Jesse B. Schafhirt, who listed himself in the 1907 City Directory as a “surgeon dentist” with an office in the “second floor front” of the LeDroit Building at 8^th and F Streets, N.W.  Today that building serves as the eastern portion of the Spy Museum.  Interestingly, the architect of the houses on the 2300 block of 1^st Street also had an office in the LeDroit building in 1902, and was likely the way Dr. Schafhirt came to know about the development.  His house was occupied in 1910 by Eugene Finch, an assistant supervisor of a Railroad.

The second place winner’s house at 2327 1^st Street was also occupied by a new resident in 1910, Francis Phillips, a stenographer at the Commerce Department.  Fire Department employee and third place winner Harry Barker lived close by at 1625 1^st Street.              

The Pentagon & Washington DC Pics from WWII

With the 2001terrorist attacks in Washington and New York City taking citizens off guard, a few old time Washingtonians during that month no doubt began to recall several times in the past century when Washington served as a potential target for foreign attack.  Like today, city residents gathered together in an effort to thwart such an attack with whatever means possible, and joined the rest of America to pool resources for the defense of the United States.  The onset of World War II was such a time period. 

Ironically, and perhaps a bit startling, the groundbreaking of the Pentagon building was held on September 11, 1942; exactly 59 years prior to the date of its most recent, and most serious, attack.  Housed on a 360-acre campus atop 41,492 concrete pilings, the building housed nearly 30,000 workers beginning just 16 months later, thus having the distinction of being the world’s largest office building, and built in record time. 

One of the 3,100 major architectural drawings produced for its construction was a fascinating cross section pictured here, showing the multiple rings of corridors.  Large ramps, still in use, replaced the need for elevators, conserving precious metals.

Seen at left is a partial photograph of more than 300 telephone operators that were required for a building the size of the Pentagon.  They were photographed in September 1942, and their number would have typically served an estimated 125,000 persons had they been in a typical office building.  

 

  Its design in a five sided shape made possible a short, fifteen minute walk from one office to another in the structure, despite being more than five football field long on each side; I timed this when I worked in the building myself as a civilian in a historic preservation job at the Headquarters of the US Air Force in the early 1990s.  It peaked my interest and led many years later to writing Washington, DC: TheWorld War II Years.  The pictures seen here are from that book.    

The Japanese control of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya in 1942 caused an immediate shortage of rubber countrywide, a material also critical for the War effort.  In June of that year, President Roosevelt launched a rubber scrap drive, and Washingtonians responded by setting up various centers where tires and bicycle tubes could be donated, such as one along Georgia Avenue, illustrated here.  More than a million pounds had been gathered in the city just month later. 

Wrought Iron and other metals were also needed for the war effort, and like many Washington residents, the two unidentified residents shown here, replaced their iron front fence with a then more patriotic wooden picket fence.

The population of Washington swelled from 663,000 in 1940 to over 800,000 by the time the WWII ended.  Many of the new residents were women responding to the drastic need of War related work from typing to manual labor in production lines.  They often took up room and board in one of the thousands of townhouses converted into rooming houses by residents of all economic stature.

Several women often shared one rented room in a townhouse.  Seen below, the Washington Star carried a January 1945 image of servicemen sharing sleeping quarters at “Friendship House,” part of the Covenant First Presbyterian Church at 1229 Connecticut Avenue, in the office of Reverend Dr. Albert J. McCartney.

Many of Washington’s theaters, public spaces, and even private ballrooms were converted into office space.  The Washington Auditorium with stage area and balcony converted into offices, and the box seats reserved for file cabinet use.   Even the ballroom of the Leiter mansion at 1500 New Hampshire Avenue, overlooking Dupont Park, was outfitted as temporary office space, seen above in August 1943. 

The Office of Civil Defense ran an education outreach program that included a cartoon resource on protecting one’s home; It instructed one to remove attic refuse to prevent fires from incoming magnesium bombs, and carried a suggestion to heavily whitewash the attic’s exposed lumber for the same reason; perhaps solving the question for many contemporary home owners wondering why such an effort was undertaken in non-living space.    

Washingtonians and Americans obviously prevailed throughout the War effort, and celebrated on August 14, 1945 on F Street downtown, as these revelers illustrate, at right.  However, other threats since WWII have kept Washingtonians on alert, including the Cold War. 

Only a handful of Dupont residents may recall that the Connecticut Avenue underpass of Dupont Circle was sealed off in August of 1964, to provide civil defense in the event of a nuclear attack; it was filled with food and supplies as an official fall-out shelter for area residents.                          

The Tea Party's View of Washington in 1889?

Joseph West Moore described government clerks of the day in his 1889 tome coined Picturesque Washington as follows: 

“People who are unacquainted with department life in Washington are very apt to believe that government clerks, as a general thing, are indolent and improvident – a peculiar set who have obtained office by political favor, who work very little, and spend the liberal salaries they receive in extravagant living.  This is a singular but by no means uncommon mistake…it can be truly said that the majority are industrious, sober, economical, and, without doubt, fully on par with similar workers in commercial lines.” 

In 1889, male clerks usually began with a salary between $800 and $1,000, while their female counterparts began at $700 per year.  Interestingly, each also received 30 days per year of paid vacation!        

Finding the Hill House on the Hill in Mount Pleasant DC

The Hill House, DC: Where Was It Located?

When people consider the history of their row house in Washington, they often have the view that not much is to be uncovered before the house was actually built.  On the contrary, many of today’s long rows of dwellings seen throughout the city were built on portions of estates large and small, as were the homes located on the eastern portion of the 1400 blocks of Newton and Monroe Streets in Columbia Heights.  They were built on the site of a large stone and wood frame known as the Hill house, illustrated here.

            The discovery of this house came about in the opposite way that most of our house histories are researched; directly from hints contained on the back of the images themselves.  Purchased together from an on-line auction, they all obviously depicted the same house, and all dated from about 1890, having been mounted on heavy embossed cardboard.  Luckily, on the reverse of each were clues to the location and owners of the house. 

Hill House, Located between Newton & Monroe Streets, 1400 Block. 

            One image had the phrase “Martha Cooper Hill House, Washington, DC,” another stated “Sister of my mother, J. S. Hanson” while a third had “Picture of Grandma Wilkins and George Hill in Washington, DC, when he was still alive.” Armed with these vague clues, the 1896 City Directory was consulted which revealed only two men by the name George Hill lived in the city at that time: one at 3222 Wisconsin Avenue, and the other at “14^th near Howard Avenue, Mount Pleasant.” 

1887 Hopkins map, 14th Street on right

            Maps of the era reveled that the house pictured was not the one located at 3222 Wisconsin Avenue, so the Howard Street connection of George Hill was further studied.  As seen in this 1887 Hopkins map, a house with the general basic shape at 14^th Street and Howard Avenue fit the description, as did its driveway layout.  Other houses near that intersection had family names demarcated on the map, which allowed the elimination of those structures.  George Hill was then employed as a clerk at the Treasury Department, which would have allowed him to build such an elegant residence not far from the trolley lines that would have transported him to work.

Grocer Wilhelm Schmidt at 18th & T Streets becomes a Builder

Grocer Wilhelm Schmidt

Like many buildings and houses in the District of Columbia, the well known building on the northeast corner of 18^th and S Street was not built as the result of one particular building permit, but rather evolved over time from a modest house with a series of additions and alterations.  It served for many years as the original location of the famed Lauriol Plaza, a Mexican restaurant now located a block north, in a new building at 18^th and T Street; today it is the site of the popular Rosemary’s Thyme restaurant.    

Interestingly, the original configuration of the corner building was that of a brick townhouse, matching those located between 1743 and 1753 S Street today.  They were all built simultaneously sometime before 1874, the year they were valued at $3,000 each, a substantial sum for the time.  They are situated well behind the building line, providing a deep front yard.

Schmidt Grocery at 18th and T Streets, NW.  Copyright Chris Hinkle.

The end two houses, 1759-1761 S Street, at 18^th Street, were later added onto both the front and rear to form a grocery story, and later a restaurant; they also later had a duel address of 1801-1805 18^th Street when their orientation was changed to face west.  An adjoining building at 1807 18^th Street was built by Susan Fletcher in1889, the same year three rear wood frame kitchens were added to the corner buildings.     

Susan Fletcher was the owner of record of the corner building in September of 1900, when Wilhelm Schmidt applied for a permit to construct three large show windows on the corner, one measuring over 22 feet long, all at a cost of $600.  A grocer, Schmidt would operate a business at the location for about 30 years, which also carried the finest array of wines and liquors, delivered by a horse drawn truck, seen in the image above.

18th and T Street photographed recently

A separate dwelling on the site built in 1889 was the subject of a complaint by a Mrs. M. C. O’Brian of 1912 13^th Street years later, in a letter dated July 29, 1908.  She claimed that the dwelling built behind 1807 18^th Street had been recently utilized as a stable, which she found “very objectionable.”  The building inspector noted in his reply that the owner was to apply for a stable permit or face “prosecution if necessary.”

Mystery: Miss Manners Childhood Home in AU Park?

4826 Davenport Street, NW

I love it when a homeowner in Washington, DC contacts us to investigate if a rumor they heard from an old neighbor is really true.  Especially if that involves a famous person, as did the owners of 4826 Davenport Street, who conveyed with much trepidation that they had heard their house was the childhood home of the beloved columnist Miss Manners – aka Judith Martin - could it be true?  “Anything is possible,” I replied, and we went to work.        

The first thing I investigated was to find out what her real name was, and approximately how old she was.  Then we went to work on the house itself, when it was built, and creating a successive line of owners or renters.  The thought of composing a letter to Miss Manners left me many sleepless nights: how on Earth does one get it just right? Typed or hand written?     

Miss Manners

The house at 4826 Davenport Street was by William B. Pichler and William Richmond of the Pichler-Richmond Construction Company, who received a building permit on October 2, 1936.  They listed themselves as the builders, and William Crusemire as responsible for its design.  It was to be constructed for an estimated cost of $6,000.   

An advertisement for the house appeared in the Washington Post on January 10, 1937, when it was listed for $11,650.00 by real estate agent Clifton D. Kelley.  Pichler & Richmond sold the newly completed house on February 10, 1937 to Jacob and Helen A. Perlman.  They obtained a mortgage in the amount of $9,000, and a second mortgage in the amount of $7,000 that was due in three years.  The Perlman’s would own the house for the next eighteen years, until 1955.  

There was the answer: Miss Manners was born Judith Sylvia Perlman!  But, we had to make sure we had the correct Perlman family, as there were dozens in Washington at the time.  Either way, the Perlman family that purchased 4836 Davenport Street was turning out to be quite interesting.    

Jacob Perlman was born on May 10, 1898 in Byalostock, Poland.  He immigrated to the United States in 1912 with his father, Mordecai (aka Max) and mother Pauline to Madison, Wisconsin and became a naturalized citizen in 1918.[1] They had been invited by their brother Selig, who had already begun a lifelong academic career at the University of Wisconsin.

 

Jacob’s WWI Draft card (below), filled out on September 12, 1918 indicated that he was of medium height, slender build, with brown hair and light colored eyes.[2]  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1919, and spent the next two years as statistician of the New York State Department of Labor.  He was listed as a lodger at 1156 Brookline Avenue in Albany, NY in the 1920 census, and indicated that his native language was Yiddish.   

In 1921, Perlman returned to the University of Wisconsin for graduate studies and to teach in the Economics Department.  He obtained his M.A. in 1922 and his Ph.D. in 1925.  Perlman moved to Washington, DC in 1933 as a staff member of the Committee on Government Statistics, and married Helen Aronson in 1935. 

J. Edgar Hoover Houses: A Vacuum of History

John Edgar Hoover was reportedly born at 413 C Street, SE on New Year's Day 1895 in Washington, DC, to Anna Marie (Scheitlin, 1860–1938), who was of German Swiss descent, and Dickerson Naylor Hoover, Sr. (1856–1921), of English and German ancestry.  The uncle of Hoover's mother was a Swiss honorary consul general to the United States. 

Unlike his two siblings, however, oddly there is no record of Hoover’s birth, and a certificate was not filed until 1938, following his mother’s death, leading to speculation that his father was not Dickerson Sr.    

The Hoover family was enumerated there in the 1900 census, and the house later became known as 413 Seward Square, SE – since razed and today the site of the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church. 

    

4936 Thirtieth Place, NW

At Central High School, he sang in the school choir, participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, and competed on the debate team.   He obtained a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1916, and an LL.M., a Master of Laws degree, in 1917 from the same university.

Following the death of his father in 1921, Edgar lived with his mother in the same house on Seward Square, until her death in 1938, when he moved into a house a year later at 4936 Thirtieth Place, NW in the Forest Hills neighborhood.  It was built beginning in December of 1939 for James E. Schwab.  It was designed by Edwin B. and Lois B. Taylor and constructed at a cost of $12,000.    

Hoover's Living Room

We included these vintage photographs of the exterior and interior in our book on the same, also titled Forest Hills. The living room was adorned with a variety of taxidermy animals and erotic art. Despite his formidable reputation, he was remembered by older neighborhood residents as offering rides to the bus stop in his chauffeur driven limousine on rainy days. 

        

Hoover was notorious for his targeting of gays and blacks: civil rights leaders, elected officials, newspaper publishers, or even artists such as the great singer Paul Robeson.

Clyde Tolson & J. Edgar Hoover

But yet, during Hoover's tenure as head of the FBI, which lasted from 1924 until his death in 1972, there were persistent rumors--both inside and outside the FBI--that Hoover himself was gay and descended from African-Americans. The recent publication of a book by Millie McGhee titled Secrets Uncovered, a descendant of Mississippi slaves who believes that her family is related to J. Edgar Hoover, has re-opened the issue.

It is generally accepted that Clyde Tolson, an associate director of the FBI who was Hoover's heir, may have been his lover.  Hoover died on May 2, 1972 at 4936 Thirtieth Place NW.   Tolson inherited Hoover's estate and moved into his home, having accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in Congressional Cemetery.

Copyright Paul K. Williams. 

Photographs from Forest Hills, US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.