As many of you remember, we spent much of the spring and early summer tracing the battles of the Eastern Theater of the Civil War from Manassas to Appomattox. As we got to the end of the war though, we came to realize that there was one more casualty we needed to consider and one more route to follow to gain some closure to our tour. That was the trail taken by John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14th, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. Booth and his accomplice David Herold led the authorities on a nearly two week manhunt which ended on April 26th when Booth was cornered and killed on the Garrett Farm in Virginia. This route is now one of Maryland’s scenic byways and one of the country’s more historic ones.
Our day began at historic Ford’s Theater. Ford’s Theater is a wonderful place managed by the National Park Service and just blocks from the White House which still functions as an active theater. My folks and I try and get there every December to watch their wonderful rendition of A Christmas Carol. The box where President Lincoln was shot is preserved and well cared for and there is a small museum in the basement dedicated to the assassination. After Lincoln was shot, he was taken across the street to The Peterson House, where he would die of his injury soon thereafter. The Peterson House is also managed by the National Park Service and is open for tours.
Booth, on the other hand, leapt to the stage, catching his boot spur and breaking his leg in the process, but still managed to escape out the back door of the theater. There he mounted his horse and sped off into the night, crossing the Potomac on the Navy Yard Bridge and then rendezvousing with his accomplice David Herold. The two quickly made their way to the tavern of Mary Surratt in Surrattsville near Clinton where they retrieved rifles, field glasses and other supplies they had stashed there…
This house was built in 1794 and designed by architect William Lovering who is also credited with designing the Thomas Law House (featured last in this series), The Maples (which will be featured next), the Octagon House and Wheat Row, both of which will be featured later in this series. The house was designed in the Federal style popular at the time and was built as a double house, occupying 468 and 470 N. St. SW.
The lot on which the house was built was originally owned by Notley Young who deeded it to the City Commissioners when the site of the federal city was first determined. Captain William Mayne Duncanson, a wealthy merchant who came to Washington from Europe on a boat with Thomas Law in 1795, lived in the 470 half of the double house from 1795-96. He lived in the house while awaiting his new home, later known as The Maples, was being built on Capitol Hill. The Maples will be featured next in this series.
Several years later, the other half of this house was occupied by William Cranch. Cranch was the son of Mary Smith whose sister was Abigail Adams, making William the nephew, by marriage, of President John Adams. William married Nancy Greenleaf in 1795 and had four sons and three daughters. Their great-grandson was poet T.S. Elliot
A Harvard educated lawyer, Cranch moved to Washington D.C. in 1791 where he worked in private practice for 10 years. From 1800-1801 Cranch served as a City Commissioner for the District before being nominated by his uncle, John Adams, to serve on the newly established U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia
Hello Everyone, it’s hard for me to even fathom that this is week 20 of this post series. I was hoping when I arrived home in the beginning of April that I would only be here for a few weeks and then I would be back out on the road, but here I am 20 weeks later. I’m still enormously grateful to have a place to weather this storm, especially knowing that things could be much worse if I didn’t. I just wish I knew what the end date to all of this was so I could make some plans. It’s been a quietly busy week here in Washington and I’ve actually done quite a bit which has been really nice. I’ve also had some good news in my feed this week which also helps. One of my best friends welcomed a new baby boy to the world this week in New Orleans, so welcome Theodore. Another friend of mine from grade school has announced his wife’s pregnancy this week as well. These are both reminders to me that the world has continued to turn even if my wheels have stopped doing so.
Last Thursday I began a new role which I’ve really enjoyed, even though I’ve only done it a couple of times. My friend James was called back to work after a few months of furlough, but his two year old son’s daycare is still closed. So I’m going to be spending some time with young Mason over the next few weeks or months so they can work and we can play. Mason is a sweet kid, and it’s been a real treat to watch him. His smiles and laughter are such a counterbalance to the challenges we are facing in this country and in the world, and it’s a welcome change. I’ve always loved working with kids, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to spend some time watching him grow up. It’s been great to experience the world through his eyes and I’ll be gladly helping out with this for a while until things change. That could happen tomorrow or a year from now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Last weekend was also a lot of fun here. After celebrating the “holidays” the last few weeks, we settled in on Friday for a quiet “pub night” of wings, nachos and beers. It was nice to have a relaxing night, listen to some good music and enjoy our time together. Saturday my mom and I headed out to check out some of Washington D.C.’s oldest firehouses for an upcoming photo essay I’m putting together
This post shares photos and a brief history of the Thomas Law House in Southwest Washington D.C.
The Thomas Law House was built between 1794 and 1796. It was designed by architect William Lovering who is credited with the design of several other properties which will be featured later in this series including The Octagon House, Wheat Row and the Duncannon-Cranch House. Thomas Law, formerly of the British East India Company, had recently immigrated to the United States with two of his three illegitimate sons born from his Indian mistress. He met and married Elizabeth Parke Custis, who was twenty years his junior, in 1796 and the couple moved into this newly built home which was then dubbed “Honeymoon House”. Elizabeth Parke Custis was the eldest granddaughter of Martha Washington from her first marriage. Elizabeth’s brother was George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington House (the Custis-Lee Mansion) and the father of Mary Anne Randolph Custis who would marry Robert E. Lee. Thomas and Elizabeth would live in this beautiful Federal Style home for only about five months before moving to a new home which was then under construction. They would divorce in 1811.
From 1814-1827, this house was occupied by Richard Bland Lee, brother of Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee and uncle of Robert E. Lee. Richard was the second cousin of Thomas Sim Lee, whose winter house in Georgetown was featured earlier in this series. Richard had served as a U.S. Representative from Virginia in the very first session of congress and had helped negotiate the Compromise of 1890 which established the Capital City of Washington D.C. He served three terms in congress and then returned to his family’s tobacco plantation – Sully – in Chantilly, Virginia. Financial hardships in the family eventually forced the sale of Sully after which Richard and his wife moved to the Thomas Law House. Richard would serve under President James Madison as a commissioner charged with helping rebuild the city after the War of 1812 and would later be appointed as a judge by James Monroe. He lived in this home until his death in 1827.
This post shares photos and a brief history of the Thomas Sim Lee Corner in Georgetown in Washington D.C.
At the end of the block where the Old Stone House has stood since 1765, you can find the historic winter home of Thomas Sim Lee, an associate of George Washington who had served as a colonel during the Revolution. He went on to become the 2nd and 7th Governor of the state of Maryland. During his first term, Lee consulted with then lieutenant colonel Uriah Forrest who would later live down M Street from Lee in what’s now known as the Forrest-Marbury House (read about it HERE). After his second gubernatorial term ended in 1794, Lee moved to Georgetown and built this lovely corner house. In July of that year, Washington offered Lee a role on the Board of Commissioners which was overseeing construction of the new capital city, but Lee turned him down. After the death of his wife, Mary, in 1805, Lee moved permanently to his country estate in Frederick County.
The Thomas Sim Lee house would go through several owners over the next century and a half, but it eventually fell into a dilapidated state and was slated for demolition in 1950. This was right about the time that congress had authorized the purchase of the Old Stone House a block away, and a Georgetown resident named Dorothea de Schweinitz quickly mobilized her friends to save the Lee Corner from the wrecking ball. The Architectural Review Board of the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed the property and recommended against demolition. Miss de Shweinitz organized her neighbors and helped found Historic Georgetown Inc. which sold shares at a dollar apiece and purchased the property outright. They then began renovations of the building and found renters to occupy it. The simultaneous preservation of the Old Stone House and the Thomas Sim Lee Corner was the beginning of a movement to save historic Georgetown, a move I’m sure area residents are grateful for today…
Hello Everyone, well August is upon us and I’ve personally passed the 4 month mark of being sheltered- in-place here in Washington. It’s been a quiet week for the most part which is a very good thing sometimes. I’ve been enjoying baseball games on the radio, long morning walks in Rock Creek Park and working on my book. Hurricane Isaias passed by us yesterday dousing us with some much needed rain and the heat and humidity seem to have backed off for a minute. Despite the fact that the pandemic is still in full effect, I feel pretty calm and balanced this week, and for that I am grateful. Perhaps it’s the break in the heat and the beginning of August – both of which signal that summer is winding down. There are many things I love about summer, but the heat is not one of them. Whatever it is, I’m happy to be feeling more like myself this week.
I was thrilled to see the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act this week by a bipartisan effort with the support of the president. This bill will give much needed funding to our National Parks in this country to try and relieve some of the backlog of maintenance needs which has piled up for decades. I love the American National Park System and have been on a lifelong quest to visit all four hundred and some units. This year I made a turn into the final hundred. These truly are our greatest treasures and they are even more special because as public lands they belong to all of us. Never listen to anyone if they tell you these are “government owned land”. They are not – they are yours and mine to enjoy and need to be maintained and preserved for future generations as well. Kudos to congress and the president for coming together to do something great. Beyond that, though, I’ve been trying to avoid the news as best I can.
This past Friday, as a follow-up to last week’s Christmas in July celebration, we had a Mid-Year New Year Party complete with some wonderful hors d’oeuvres and (a tad too much) champagne. Since the first half of 2020 hasn’t turned out very well, we were looking ahead at the second half with high hopes of a vaccine and a quick return to a more normal life.
Saturday I spent behind the computer writing about some of Washington DC’s oldest homes – a project which was supposed to be a single post but got too complicated so I decided to look at each property individually. It’s a project I will continue working on for the next couple of weeks.
Last week I decided I wanted to check out a little bit of history and a little bit of seascape as well. It’s the middle of summer and I miss the beach but I’m not heading to the crowded Atlantic beaches right now. So I settled on a Chesapeake Bay view from the western shore towns of North Beach and Chesapeake Beach, only about an hour from Washington D.C. at a straight shot. I also wanted to take some photos at the beautiful Maryland State Capitol Building and wander around Annapolis’ Historic District as well. Connecting these two is Maryland’s Roots and Tides Scenic Byway.
Obviously, some of the key highlights of the journey were closed due to the pandemic, but I still enjoyed a little meander through the countryside, and the beach communities I ended up at sated my need for a little bit of time on the water. It’s definitely good to be out exploring, and I really enjoyed the Roots and Tides Scenic Byway. I hope you enjoy the photos I took along the way…
This post shares photos and a brief history of Rosedale in Cleveland Park in Washington D.C.
The area we now call Cleveland Park was once part of a massive 800 acre estate owned by Colonel Ninian Beall. After Beall’s death in 1717, his property was divided among his 12 children and a tract of it was bought by a man whose name is lost to history. This man built a small stone cottage on the property around 1740 and the estate was known as Pretty Prospects. In 1793, the property was acquired by General Uriah Forrest, who had been the mayor of Georgetown and was at that time serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Forrest had a large wood-framed house built onto the front of the stone cottage and renamed the property Rosedale. Rosedale was the Forrest family’s country estate which they built while living in the Forrest-Marbury House in Georgetown (read about that house HERE).
General Forrest was a prominent citizen of early Washington D.C. and Rosedale played host to many important people including President John Adams. Forrest himself would die in the front parlor of the house in 1805. Rosedale remained in the family until 1917 when it was rented by the Coonley family.
This post shares photos and a brief history of the The Forrest-Marbury House in Georgetown in Washington D.C.
The Forrest-Marbury House was built in 1788 by John Stoddert and soon became the city home of Georgetown’s 3rd Mayor and Stoddert’s business partner, General Uriah Forrest. Forrest had lost a leg during the Battle of Brandywine in the Revolution, and would go on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 29th, 1791 General Forrest hosted his old friend and former commander, George Washington, and other prominent local landowners for dinner before their historic meeting at Suter’s Inn which I discussed briefly in my last post in this series on The Old Stone House (read it HERE). In 1794, Forrest moved out of this house and to his country estate across town which he called Rosedale where he lived out his days. Rosedale will be featured next in this series.
From 1800-1835 this house was owned and occupied by William Marbury, a successful local banker. On the last day of John Adams’ presidency, Adams nominated Marbury to be a Justice of the Peace in Washington D.C. This nomination was blocked by incoming president Thomas Jefferson and his secretary of state James Madison. Marbury filed a lawsuit asking for a writ of mandamus which would force the Jefferson administration to complete his commission and in 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Marbury v Madison. This case would deny Marbury his commission not on the grounds that he didn’t deserve it, but on the grounds that to do so was outside the constitutional power of the Supreme Court. This famous early case established the principle of judicial review. Marbury’s adversary in the case, James Madison would later live in the Octagon House which will be featured in a later post in this series…
This post shares photos and a brief history of the The Old Stone House in Georgetown in Washington D.C.
The Old Stone House was built was built in 1765 on what was then Bridge Street (now M Street) in Georgetown, ten years before the Declaration of Independence and almost 30 years before the founding of Washington D.C. Built of locally quarried stone as a one story structure by a cabinetmaker named Christopher Layman, the building would serve as both his home and shop. After his death later that year, Layman’s widow sold the building to Cassandra Chew who added a rear kitchen in 1767 and a second floor soon thereafter. The third floor was added in the 1790s. Over the next hundred and fifty years, the building would change hands, and uses, many times. By 1953, when the National Park Service purchased the property, it was the site of a local car dealership. The Park Service has since restored much of the Old Stone House to an 18th Century appearance and it is open to the public as part of C & O Canal National Historical Park. It is considered the oldest standing structure in Washington D.C. on it’s original foundation, and is one of very few pre-Revolutionary buildings to be found in the District.
Interestingly, the Park Service points to a mistaken identity as one of the reasons the Old Stone House was preserved. On March 29th, 1791 George Washington was meeting with area landowners to discuss the purchase of land by the federal government to establish the new capital city.
Hello Everyone, well another week has come and gone and here I sit and wait. I can’t believe it’s been 18 weeks since I got home and started writing these particular weekly posts to temporarily replace my This Week on the Road column. When I got home I was still hoping to be back to work guiding tours by the end of the summer and to be starting to think about what states I would spend the fall and winter in. Eighteen weeks later and my company has closed for good, my industry is basically dead and I don’t feel safe getting too far from home because the response to this pandemic has been horribly botched across the country. Cases and deaths continue to rise at ever increasing rates as states push ahead with reopening plans despite all evidence that we are making things worse instead of better. Meanwhile those who are complaining the loudest about reopening businesses are the ones who seem least likely to wear a mask which will let these same businesses stay open. I find myself frustrated because week in and week out I’m trying to keep from slithering into a pit of despair, and every week it’s nothing but more bad news with no end in sight. I find it more frustrating because my Facebook friends list stretches to all 7 continents (yes I have friends working in Antarctica), and everywhere seems to have done a better job of containing this pandemic than we have. While other countries are reopening safely and managing outbreaks properly, we push forward boldly and stupidly in a time when brashness and ignorance are costing lives. My patriotism lives strongest in my love of my countrymen and I wish everyone would think about others instead of only themselves. I’ve never seen America as a selfish place and have found kindness and generosity at every turn in my travels around the country and I hate to see the ugliness that plays out every day across the nation. I know in my heart that the people we are seeing on the news are outliers and most people are doing the best they can, but it’s still sad to watch.
Meanwhile I’m trying, as I have from the start, to keep going and keep looking towards that distant light on the horizon which will eventually come. I continue to treasure being able to spend this time with my family. I continue to work on my projects and myself with the hopes of coming out on the other side healthy, organized and ready to face the world again with an open heart and mind. In that new world I will set aside more time for reading, for international travel, for making music and for friends and family. If nothing else, I am coming to a better understanding of what matters most to me and remembering that time is precious.
I’ve continued to work on my book this week which is great, and it’s starting to gain some momentum. I’ve continued to play my violin and guitar and I’m actually playing full songs on my violin now which is pretty cool (it still sounds terrible, but it’s coming along). I’ve decided to try and double up on some of my walks each week despite the heat. I got up at 6:30 this morning and, with my Camelback loaded with water, set off on a two hour walk around the neighborhood. I miss the gym terribly, especially in the middle of summer, but I can’t keep carrying around this extra weight and I can’t wait until fall to get working on it. Waiting to go back to the gym is now officially over and I am moving ahead in my own direction for the sake of my fitness. And also this week I’ve continued to explore the area with my mom and continued to keep my folks somewhat entertained as we go. So on that front it’s been a good week.
Last week I wrote about a Gullah meal I was going to cook that night and it came out smashingly. A delicious shrimp gumbo…
The photos below come from a recent visit to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park near the town of Lynchburg, Virginia. It was the site of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia which effectively ended the American Civil War.
After the siege of Petersburg and the fall of the Confederate Capital at Richmond, General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia west with the hopes of turning south to North Carolina and joining with General Joseph Johnson’s army there. They moved towards the train depot at Appomattox Station hoping to find much needed supplies waiting for them there. Union General Phillip Sheridan and his cavalry arrived first, capturing the supply trains and forcing Lee to turn his thoughts towards Lynchburg instead. Surrounded by Union troops, they made one final push at dawn on April 9th, 1865. It didn’t take long to realize that they were surrounded and Lee called for a meeting with Ulysses S. Grant to discuss the terms of surrender.
The site chosen for this conversation was the home of Wilmer McLean in the tiny village of Appomattox Court House. The generals met in the parlor, recreated above, to hammer out the details. The terms offered were very generous as the Confederate soldiers were to be immediately paroled and even allowed to keep their horses and sidearms. Their parole papers were printed in the nearby Clover Hill Tavern. The Southerners marched into town, stacked their rifles, turned over their cannons and marched out. While the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was not the end of the Civil War, there was little chance or hope for the Southern cause in its aftermath. The war would technically drag on until early summer, with skirmishes across the south, but the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse was the beginning of the end. Four long years of fighting which cost over 600,000 lives was finally nearing its conclusion…
