Part 1 (1/2)
A Portrait of Old George Town.
by Grace Dunlop Ecker.
GEORGE TOWN GHOSTS
_By_ WILLIAM TIPTON TABLOTT
_The ghosts of Georgetown when they meet In haunted house or moonlit street With pride recall the functions gay When down the Philadelphia way The Federal City overnight Moved to its bare and swampy site, For Georgetown then a busy mart, A growing seaport from the start, Where a whole-hearted spirit reigned, Threw wide its doors, and entertained With wines and viands of the best-- The Federal City was its guest._
_In memory of the good old days, Whose ways to them were modern ways, Congenial ghosts across Rock Creek, With formal bows and steps antique, Rehea.r.s.e a spectral minuet Where once in bright a.s.semblies met-- Beruffled belles looked love to beaus In powdered wigs and faultless hose; Or merchant ghosts survey the skies And venture guesses weatherwise Regarding winds that will prevail To speed their s.h.i.+ps about to sail._
_Still in the shaded hillside streets A trace of old-time welcome greets The pa.s.ser-by who has a flare For scenes of old. No longer there A buoyant Georgetown stands alone, The Federal City having grown Until their boundaries overlap; So that, deleted from the map, Though once the Federal City's host, Georgetown itself is now a ghost._
_Foreword_
It is not at all in my mind to write a history of Georgetown. Several have been written, but I do want, very, very much, to paint a portrait of this dear old town of my birth where my parents, my grandparents, great-grandfathers and one great-great-grandfather lived, and which I love so dearly.
A portrait, partly of its physical features, its streets, its houses and gardens, some of which still exist in their pristine glory but, alas, many of which have gone the way of so-called progress. In place of the dignified houses of yore, of real architectural beauty, stand rows of cheap dwellings or stores, erected mostly in the seventies and eighties when architecture was at its worst. In 1895 it was that the old names of the streets were taken away and from then on we've been just an adjunct of Was.h.i.+ngton.
Not only of its physical side do I wish to tell, but I want to paint a picture of the kind of people who lived here, from the beginning up through the gay nineties--nearly one hundred and fifty years. Of the kind of things they did, their work, their play, their thoughts and their beliefs, for the character of the town, like human beings, was formed largely by their beliefs, and these old Scotsmen--for they were greatly in the majority--laid a great deal of stress on their Presbyterian form of Christianity. Witness the oath that had to be taken by the Flour Inspector on February 24, 1772: ”I, Thomas Brannan, do declare that I do believe that there is not any trnsubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever.”
And yet, with this strong prejudice, they cooperated and lived on friendly terms with the Roman Catholics who, very soon after the taking of this particular oath, founded their college and established their convent for teaching young girls.
Dr. Balch counselled well when he besought his people: ”Let us resolve to be social rather than fas.h.i.+onable, and generous instead of extravagant.”
All down through the years and to this day I think that has been the hall-mark of the real Georgetonian. A great deal of fas.h.i.+on has come to Georgetown, as in the early days of the bringing of the government when Was.h.i.+ngton City was a waste and almost entirely one big mud puddle, and the foreign ministers and many high in our government sought the comfort and dignity of this town, which was then far from young.
Again in later years there has been an exodus across Rock Creek of men and women high in the government; in the diplomatic corps; in industry; in literature and the arts; lured hither by the quiet dignity of the old-time atmosphere.
There are today living in Georgetown descendants of nearly every one of the original makers of the town, and all through these years the old friends.h.i.+ps still persist and flourish.
It is impossible for me to express my thanks to all the people who have helped me and made it possible to write this book. I want to mention Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor; Miss Williams of the Peabody Room of the Georgetown Branch of the Public Library; Miss McPherson and Mr. John Beverley Riggs of the Ma.n.u.script Division of the Library of Congress; Mr. Meredith Colket and Mr. O. W. Holmes of the National Archives; Dr.
H. Paul Caemmerer, Secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts; Miss Pennybaker, of the Real Estate and Columbia t.i.tle Insurance Company; the Mount Vernon Ladies' a.s.sociation and Mr. C. C. Wall, Superintendent of Mount Vernon. Also the various people who did the typing and helped secure the photographs.
And last but not least the friends of the old regime who have given to me freely of the history and traditions of their ancestors. They are too many to name, but to each one I owe a real debt of grat.i.tude. Especially to one, my life-long friend, am I indebted. Without her unceasing interest and encouragement this Portrait might never have been done.
GRACE GLASGOW DUNLOP ECKER.
Chapter I
_Beginnings of a Town_
There are many Georgetowns up and down the Atlantic seaboard in the original thirteen colonies, and even one in Kentucky, much like the Jamestowns and Charlestowns and Williamsburgs named for the sovereign of the time, but this George Town of which I write was in Maryland on the Potomac River, and because it was situated at the head of tidewater of that great river, it became important on account of the great amount of tobacco grown in that area and brought to this point to be carried across the seas.
The earliest knowledge we have of this region, which has become The Capital City of the great United States of America, concerns the Indians who were living here when the white explorers came.