Part 16 (2/2)
My dear Mr. Corcoran:
If you should find yourself dest.i.tute of amus.e.m.e.nt this evening, while the belles are at church, I beg you to come and listen to some of my lamentations.
Yours sincerely, S. DECATUR.
My dear Mr. Corcoran:
I am happy to say that I can take you under my wing today, on the way to heaven, and I pray you to call for me at ten o'clock.
Yours sincerely, S. DECATUR.
Union Hotel, Monday morning.
My dear Mr. Corcoran:
The Iturbides have deferred their visit until Wednesday evening and I hope you will be able to come and meet them, with your sister and Colonel Thomas.
Yours sincerely, S. DECATUR.
If you have a moment to spare this evening I pray you to come and tell me how your brother's family are after this dreadful alarm.[A]
[Footnote A: The destruction of Mr. J. Corcoran's dwelling by fire.]
As we know, it was of no avail, for he seems to have remained ”fancy free” until he met and married Louise Morris.
About 1828 Mrs. Decatur became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church through her close acquaintance with the Carroll family, it is thought.
The latter part of her life was spent in a frame house on the brow of a hill about one hundred yards from Georgetown College, which she rented from Miss Hobbs. Here she died about 1860.
Among the souvenirs of the college is the portrait of Commodore Decatur by Gilbert Stuart, his ivory chess-board and men, and his jeweled toothpick box. The grave of Mrs. Decatur was discovered some time ago in the cemetery of Georgetown College. It had been overgrown and neglected and forgotten.
So had this part of Georgetown, until Admiral and Mrs. Spencer Wood bought 2808 and brought it back to its pristine glory. This house was built by John Stoddert Haw, nephew of Benjamin Stoddert, one of the founders of Christ Church, of which many of his descendants are still pillars. When the Woods lived here, there was at the back of the house a very lovely, unusual green garden, which gave a feeling of restfulness not always produced by a riot of glorious colors, opening off a paved area under a wide porch, like so many houses used to have.
The old house at 2806 is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Walker. He is the curator of the National Gallery of Art. Thomas Beall of George sold the land to John M. Gannt in 1804, who may have built this lovely house.
It was purchased by Elisha Williams in 1810; also owned by Thomas Robertson and Thomas Clarke in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In the 1920's it was the home of Mrs. Hare Lippincott.
Across the street, at number 2723, a good many years ago, was where Thomas Harrison and his sister lived for a long time. Miss Virginia kept a little school for several years and her brother was a translator at the Naval Observatory until he was well up in his eighties. When he was over ninety he used to go out calling on Sunday afternoons, as spry as could be, and with his cheeks as rosy as pippins. They were a couple much beloved and typical of old-time days.
Chapter XI
_The Three Philanthropists_
George Town produced three eminent philanthropists: one whose benefactions were solely to Georgetown; a second, who became the greatest benefactor the City of Was.h.i.+ngton has ever had, and inaugurated the tremendous gifts to schools and colleges that have since become the fas.h.i.+on among men of great wealth; the third started his gifts at home, then crossed the ocean and made enormous contributions to the largest city in the world.
The first one, Edward Magruder Linthic.u.m, had a hardware store on the northwest corner of High (Wisconsin) Avenue and Bridge (M) Street, the business hub then, as now, of Georgetown. He was a trustee of the Methodist Church and member of the Town Council.
He built the home at number 3019 P Street, which has such a beautiful doorway, and lived there until in 1846 he moved up on the Heights to The Oaks, for which he paid $11,000. William A. Gordon, in his book _Old Houses in Georgetown Heights_, says of him:
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