Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-24

X, HOW-
ers danditied statue OF jefferson in the Capitol,
TO be told that he was in every wav plain red
headed, and freckled, and graceful only on
horseback, Madison appeared to better adj
vantage at his country house, "Montpeer, "
than In the Executive Mansion, while Monroe
was plain, awkward, and at a loss for conversa-
tlon, and his wife distant and naughty.
In the original plan Of Washington, according
70 tradition, Lafayette Square was part of the
PRESIDENTS grounds, but jefferson thought the
President had no business to close up streets
ana occupy so much land. St Johns church,
built just after the British invasion, received
the principal subscription from John Tayloe,
and the massive 81 yer service of old Lunenourg
church, Richmond county, Va. The hrst rector
was the Rev. Mr. Wilmer. of Alexandria, who
was succeeded by DR.. Hawley, who kept the
place twenty five years, and wore small clothes
The first private house on tho square was
THR DECATUR HOUSE,
built in 1919, almost simultaneously with St
Johns Rogers and Riigley, Decatur's fellow
commissioners, contemplating similar houses
at the other angles.
Mrs. Decatur, says Tayloe, was q natura |
daughter of a Norfolk merchant. born at Elk
rluge LANDING, where her father had iron
works, but where her mother was an obscure
woman. Jerome Bonapare paid his addresses
10 her and was rejected. This did not, accord
ing 70 robert G. Harper, prevent Miss Patter.
son (Bonaparte) from slandering the subse-
quent Mrs. Decatur, and saving that Bonaparfe
only wanted Miss Wheeler for a mistress De-
catur choice was not relished by high society;
ne declined to take property from his father-in-
law, ana the latter died bankrupt and IN De.
hury, after Decatur was killed. Tayloe saws
that Mrs. Decatur, for year or more after the
duel, entertained lavishly on Decatur's sterling
plate, with the intent to make a catch" of the
British minister, Stratford Canning, and be-
came Roman Catholic only to "catch" the
senlle Charles Carroll of Carrollton. If an or
binary society reporter were to say as much, he
would probably be horsewhipped by somebody
on Lafayette Square.
NADINE Bonaparte liz equally punctIred. The
day before Decatur fought Barron he looked ill.,
distracted, and out of spirits. Elliott, Barr,n's
second, is charged with having contrived the
duel to get Decatur out of the way. Decatur
dled In the basement-room of his house, to the
leLt OF the hall, and the first man in from the
held, at full gallop, was Commodore Morris,
VINO reached Capitol Hill about IL O'Clock, De-
catur Is represented by Tayloe as brave, chiy-
alrous, and patriotic, but so avaricious of fame
as TO be often unjust. In the sequel, Decatur
was very generally condemned After Mrs
Decatur left her house for Kalorama, Baron de
Melville, French Minister, lived there and
about year after the duel the Russian Minis
ter, Baron Tuyl, occupied it, equity epicure
Next, clay took it as Secretary of State, and
I1r I1I n handsomely. Van Buren, succeed
ed Clay both in house and office, and entertain
ed vel, and Edward Livingston of Louisiana
followed at Decatur's threshold with fine wife
ana dressy daughter. Sir Charles Vaughan,
DIlush Minister, came next, and entertained
charles and Fanny Kemble there, and also
reatherstonehaugh, the Arkansas traveller,
and British consul to Havre, and then John
Gadsby, ex-landl0rd of the National Hotel, oc-
cupied 1t till his death, when Mrs. 9adsby let
the rooms out to Joseph Gales, the sons of Ru-
us hing, &c. Hon. VIM. Appleton preceded
was the last tenant before the war using some
OF the splendid furniture OF Louis Philippe from
the Iulleries, but entertaining little.
ME-. CORCoRAN's MANSION,
diagonally across the way from the Decatur
House, was partly built by Thomas Swami, of
Alexandria. Its rrst tenant was the deaf Rus
sian Minister, Krudener, son of the female de-
voice who influenced the Emperor Alexander
to form the Holy Alliance. The second was
Aaron Vale, Van Buren's Assistant Secretary
OF State, and husband of Miss Sales who Is
snubbed in this book. The third was Daniel
and entertainer of Lord Ashburton, and for
Webster the house was purchased by his adj
mlrers, but the money diverted" Mr. Cor
eofan bought the house after Webster left the
cablnet OF Tyler, and IL was said with his i'm
provements to be ''the most splendid town es-
adjustment in the country" Mr. Corcoran's
influence in affairs was at its zenith in Pierce's
when his dinners were not less
crowned for their splendor than for the beauty
of the ladies brought together there.
THE MADISON MANSION.
The old house at the corner of Vermont ave-
nue., diagonally across from Senator Summers.
was erected prior to the Corcoran house by
Richard Cults, officeholder, who was in the debt
Of President Madison, and therefore Mrs Madi-
son obtained the property about 1885. She was
ruined by her son, Payne Todd. ''an epicure and
4 gambler" and about $4,000 was sunk by
this step-sOn of a President, so that his old
mother had to go to the country, and next the
house passed excessively to Attorney General
man Roosevelt. Admiral Wilkes bought the
house at Mrs. Madison's death, and il was
McClehan's headquarters in 1862, when the
orleans Princes, three in number, often hob
nobbed there. a.
The Seward House waEunt bv Commodore
Rogers about 1880, and
THE COLFAX MANSION,
on the west side of the square, was built little
earlier by Doctor Ewell, of the navy, and was
probably the birth place of the rebel General
Ewell. In the latter house Generals Meade,
Pleasanton and Lowell resided in their boyhood.
and afterwards Justices Thompson and Wood
bury and Secretary Southland. William G. Riyes
in the navy, an, Daniel Sickles ali lived there.
1t was the scene Of the Sickles- Key intrigue
and long the home of Vice President Coifax,
VINO TOOK his second bride there.
THE SEVENTH HOUSE.
The old house belonging to the Freedman's
Bank, at the southeast corner of Lafayette
square, was built about 1896 by DR.. Gunnell, a
dentist, Van Buren's City Postmaster. Post
master General Hubbard lived there, and La
fayette Maynard, who saved the shipwrecked
passengers of the steamer Atlantic bought the
property for SO 600. In the adjacent quarters
General Heintzelman resided when military
governor of Washington.
THE FREEMAN HOUSE.
The eighth house in point of time erected on
Lafayette square was that beautiful mansion
next to St. Johns church begun by Matthew
st. Clair Clarke, Clerk of the House of Repre-
sentstives, who considered that he was worth
100000, but was ruined by speculation and
never removed from the marble yard in Balti-
more the So 900 white marble portico proposed
for the portal. Here lived Joseph Gales Lord
Ashburton, Sir Henry Bulwer, George Riggs.
Secretary VIM. NJ. Meredith, and finally Col.
Freeman, Of General SCOTS staff, whose widow
is still the owner.
THE STOCKTON HOUSE.
The yellow house next door to Mr.. Corcoran's
was ninth in chronology, and was commenced
by Thomas Corcoran and bought by Thomas
Richie. Folks anti Blair editor After Ritchie's
death John Slidell was the tenant, and next
Gideon Welles.
SOUTHWEST CORNER.
IT was several years before any other houses
were put up on Lafayette Square, and the next
were the thrssoat the southwest corner
the corner DIR. Parker, ex-envoy to
China; the neQ keneIal Towns end and the