What I’m Reading: Cherry Blossom Edition

• Have you ever dreamed of making edible mini-furniture?  Well, your dreams are about to come true.  Featured at the Milan Furniture Fair is this amazing waffle-iron by Ryosuke Fukusada and Rui Pereira that makes dollhouse sized furniture in waffle form.  

Photos by 2DM

• You can now view wonderful and amazing photos of NYC as early as the mid-1800′s for free through New York City Municipal Archives’ newly digitized collection. Although the link to view the nearly 1 million photos, maps, motion pictures, and audio recordings still isn’t working, the public will have open access to the records as soon as it comes online.  Here are a couple that Gothamist managed to download:

In this circa 1890 photo, a pair of girls walk east along 42nd Street in New York. Acker, Merrall and Condit wine shop delivery wagons are on the right and the C.C. Shayne Furrier sign can be seen on the roof overhead. (AP Photo/New York City Municipal Archives, DeGregario Collection (New York Camera Club) via Gothamist)

This circa 1983-1988 photo shows 172 Norfolk Street, which is now the Angel Orensanz Foundation, in New York. Over 800,000 color photographs were taken with 35-mm cameras for tax purposes. Every New York City building in the mid-1980s can be viewed in this collection. (AP Photo/New York City Municipal Archives via Gothamist)

• The DCist has a nice article about the alleys of SW that existed before the ridiculous 1950′s destruction of the neighborhood.  It focuses on photographs taken by social worker/photographer Godfrey Frankel who memorialized the “alley life” of 1943, was discovered by a Post reporter in the 1990′s, and published a book of his photos before he died.  For a more in depth article on this fascinating subject, check out Alley Connoisseur.

Photo by Godfrey Frankel courtesy of Alley Connoisseur via DCist

• Preservation nerd?  Want to live in NYC for free?  Don’t care about getting a salary? Become a caretaker for a city-owned historic home.  As described by the NYT:  ”The little-known program under the auspices of the Historic House Trust, administered by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in partnership with private organizations that care for the properties, was established to ensure that someone was around to protect these buildings from vandalism, fire and frost. Even though the applications are available online and anyone can apply, many of the positions go to those with connections to the world of historical preservation. Still, there is remarkably little competition for the slots and no requirement to reapply, so those who are handed the keys to these mansions often keep them for decades. The city even pays the utilities.”

Van Cortlandt House in the Bronx. Photo by the New York Times.

• Benjamin Franklin was a lot of things: statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, Francophile…and apparently a pretty good bartender.  While doing research for the fascinating restaurant America’s Eats (history + food = wonderful), head bartender Ben Wiley discovered a 1763 letter from Ben to James Bowdoin II enclosing a recipe for Milk Punch.  Washingtonian Magazine published the recipe in its April 2012 issue, naming it a great Spring drink.

A Cat’s Ninth Life

While I’m  preparing my next big post for the location, I hope you’ll enjoy this little story from the September 25, 1880 Washington Post about murder in the shadow of the Washington monument:

An adventurous and patriotic cat ascended the Washington monument the night before last by the stairs which are within the shaft.  Yesterday morning, when the men went up to work, her feline majesty took flight, and, springing to the edge, took a ‘flyer’ of 160 feet.  In the descent the cat spread herself out like a flying squirrel and lit on the ground on all fours.  After looking around a little while it proceeded to leave the place and had almost gotten beyond the shadow of the monument when a dog that stays around the base started for it, and the cat, not being in her best running trim, was easily made a victim and killed.  Had it lived, and not been so shy, the workmen say they would have bought it a collar and given it the Freedom of the Monument.  As it is the cat will be stuffed and placed in the Smithsonian, with a large card over it which will bear the legend: ‘This cat jumped, on Sept. 23rd, 1880, from Washington monument and lived.’

More on Murder Bay

I received a fantastic email from Dave, who is doing research on this era and found some juicy details about the picture of C Street in Murder Bay: “In the middle of this picture are three buildings with a white facade, 1207-1211 C Street, known as the ‘Dutch Corral’ operated by a Swiss woman named Maria Egli from 1870 to 1888. (At that time the adjective ‘Dutch’ was used indifferently for Dutch, Germans, Swiss, Austrians and sometimes Scandinavians as well.) As you can imagine, all sorts of naughty business went on there.”

CRIMINAL COURT – Judge Olin.  National Republican, Sept. 8, 1871

Mary Eckler, on appeal from the Police Court, for keeping a bawdy-house.

In this case the prosecution first called Officer Vernon, who testified that he knows Mary Eckler. She keeps houses 1207, 1209 and 1211 C street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets northwest. It is called the “Dutch Corral. She lives there still, and has lived there for several years. A number of women live there. The reputation of these women for chastity is very bad; it is that of prostitutes. Had seen men going in there at all hours of the day and night till 4 o’clock in the morning. Defendant had told witness that the house was her house and the women her women; that she had told them she had told her women to keep within doors.

 

Taken Insane to St. Elizabeth’s.  Washington Post, Dec. 23, 1888

Mary Egli, “Dutch Mary,” the keeper of a house of unsavory character at Twelfth and C streets, has become insane and was yesterday removed to St. Elizabeth’s a raving maniac. Her house, known from one end of the country to the other, was a famously infamous place during the war. The place was a mine of wealth to its proprietress, and she is now, perhaps, the richest woman of her class in the city.

She is very old and has for some time exhibited symptoms of insanity. For the last few days she has been growing more violent, and yesterday she was committed to St. Elizabeth’s.

 

Radio Time: Meet Me Down in Pipetown

Listen up!

the location is featured every month on Metro Connection, a local news magazine show on Washington, D.C.’s NPR station, WAMU 88.5.  In each segment (also called the location), I talk about a different D.C. location that has some kind of interesting or offbeat history. I also have a theme song!

Tune in this Friday, March 23 at 1pm or Saturday, March 24 at 7am.

You’ve heard of Farragut North, Mount Pleasant, and Foggy Bottom.  But what about Pipetown, Hell’s Bottom, or Bloodfield?  These were the names of real D.C. neighborhoods that existed in the decades following the Civil War. Find out what these areas were like and more on in this week’s segment.

If you live outside the area or don’t have access to a radio, you can listen to the show HERE.

To read the original blog post that inspired this week’s show, click HERE.

Hooker’s Division

A great hand-drawn map of Hooker’s Division from the Library of Congress:

The territory indicated from the accompanying diagram is in Washington, D.C. and is known as “Hooker’s Division.” During the Civil War it was occupied by the camp of General Joe Hooker’s troops in their defense of Washington.  Since then it has become the plague spot of Washington, a center of vice, liquor-selling, and prostitution, such as is characteristic of all High-License cities.  It is in the very heart of the city, extending along Pennsylvania avenue to the United States treasury. The four daily papers of the city, Post, Star, Times, and News, are published in this territory. Within its borders are the lending banks, opera-houses, and hotels.

This district alone contains 100 regular houses of prostitution, exclusive of assignation houses, 31 of which are in the single block surrounded by C, D, 13^th and 13 ½ streets northwest. Besides this there are an even 50 saloons, most of them run directly in connection with bawdy-houses.

Each one of these 100 houses of prostitution sells liquors openly and freely every day, and not a single one pays the $400 local license. There are 61 bawdy-houses in this district which hold Federal permits, while the other 48 pay no license whatever.

Grover Cleveland can sit in his bedroom window at the White House and survey this entire territory. He is within sight and gunshot  of each of these 169 dens which defy the laws which he is supposed to execute through his commissioners. The following is a list of 61 persons in this district and their addresses who are selling liquor under Federal permits and who do not pay the $400 High-License:…

Meet Me Down in Pipetown

By now, most Washingtonians have heard of Swampoodle, the historic Irish neighborhood that was destroyed by the construction of Union Station.  But what about The Island?  Pipetown?  Bloody Hill and Bloodfield (“the ancient feudal ground of the southwest”)?  These were all names of Washington, D.C. neighborhoods during the decades of the 1800′s following the end of the Civil War.

Post-war D.C. was a rough place.  According to one government official interviewed in the Post in 1902, “Washington passed through its period of lawlessness and disorder fully as bad, if not worse, than that which prevailed in Cripple Creek, Colo. or Tombstone, Ariz.”

…Small fields of corn and cabbage gardens were scattered  about everywhere, many of them within a stone’s throw of the Capitol, while cows had the run of the town from Georgetown to Anacostia Creek, grazing on the pavements, breaking into front yards, disturbing the slumbers of the citizens by their incessant lowing, and making themselves generally obnoxious.  I recollect there use to be a brick yard at Ninth and O streets northwest and not far distant was a cornfield inclosed [sic] by a stake and rider fence…

The war had ended, leaving stranded in this city a vast horde of enfranchised slaves, discharged soldiers, and a cloud of riffraff, bummers, and camp followers…and their arrival soon made this city one of the most disorderly places in America.  Fights, murders, stabbing, and shooting scrapes were of daily occurrence…

The neighborhoods with the most infamous conditions had nicknames that were never shown on any official plat.  But the Washington Post put together this amazing map on its 50 anniversary to show the neighborhoods that existed when the paper was founded in 1877.

Map of Washington as the city appeared in 1877 when the Post was founded...The old nicknames for various portions of the city also are shown. Photo by historic Washington Post.

Hell’s Bottom, a former “contraband camp” extending irregularly from 7th to 14th Streets NW, and from O Street to the Boundary (i.e. Florida Avenue), was one of the most notorious sections of the city.  Living conditions were poor and crime was high. According to a Post article from 1897, some Hell’s Bottom residents lived in shanties the size of a “hall-room”, with roofs so low that an average person could only stand upright on one side. These homes, which could house up to 3 families, were of “the rudest possible construction, few having any sashes in the window aperture, a board shutter closing out the cold winds, light and ventilation together, when shut.  The only salvation from suffocation lies in the gaping cracks existing round the doors and windows, without which many a family would doubtless be found dead in the morning of cold nights.”

Keith Sutherland, an old Hell’s Bottom inhabitant, said this about the neighborhood in a 1900 Post article: “‘Money was scarce and whisky [sic] was cheap –- a certain sort of whisky –- and the combination resulted in giving the place the name which it held for so many years. The police force was small. There was no police court, and the magistrates before whom offenders were brought rarely fixed the penalty at more than $2. Crime and lawlessness grew terribly, and a man had to fight, whenever he went into the ‘Bottom.’”  The police were unable to control the crime and violence in Hell’s Bottom, and so in 1891, the city refused to renew any of the neighborhood’s liquor licenses.  It was this act that finally led to the neighborhood’s improvement.

Murder Bay: The area east of the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue was known for its brothels, gambling, and crime.  It was sometimes called “Hooker’s Division” (see the great comments on THIS post for more details).

The "red light district" known as Murder Bay at the corner of C Street NW and 13th Street NW, April 1912. Griffin Veatch, a "night messenger" or child laborer who directed customers to brothels, is leaning against the tree at left. Photograph by Lewis W. Hine for the U.S. National Child Labor Committee.

White Chapel: A dirty alley between 24th and 25th Streets, and M and N Streets, NW.  During the 1880′s, there was almost constant warfare between the residents of this area and the police.

Pipetown: East of 11th Street SE to the Anacostia River, this neighborhood was made famous by Pipetown Sandy (1905), John Philip Sousa’s semi-autobiographical young adult novel about the neighborhood where he grew up.  Pipetown was described in one Post article as “a community of extensive commons, of ash dumps, of tumble-down houses and shacks of nondescript architecture, a place where goats browsed among the tomato cans and the travelling fair pitched its weather-beaten tent.”

Bloodfield: This neighborhood was “a vague name for the entire region around the James Creek Canal” (which started near 2nd Street SW at Buzzard’s Point), and one of the most dangerous and notorious slums in the city.  Arrest attempts by police (who would only walk their beat in pairs) resulted in injury or worse to the officer or the resident:

Policeman Muller was attracted to the Shears house by the shooting, and when he arrived there he found Shears lying dead on the floor of the kitchen having been shot in the left temple.  Curry was covered with blood from head to foot and gave evidence of having had a terrible struggle.  His badge was smeared with blood and his coat was saturated with it.

Brothels, illegal speakeasies, and tough characters filled the neighborhood:

A steel corset stay, pointed and sharpened into a dangerous weapon, was used in an affray early yesterday evening…

Sergt. Daley, of the Fourth Precinct, was abroad in Bloodfield with his raiding clothes on last night, and, as a result, a number of alleged disorderly houses were closed up…

As the city and police force grew, the neighborhood calmed, but it retained its name up to the 20′s.

Cowtown: A neighborhood located north of Hell’s Bottom and west of 7th Street, NW.

The Island: This swath of land south of the Mall was so-called because it was cut off from the rest of mainland D.C. by the canal.

I’d much rather live in Hell’s Bottom than Logan Circle, wouldn’t you?

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This article is cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington.