National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-04
TESTIMONY or ARCHIBALD WHITE.

nIEuIOTIdE5B5.J q. W heFe do
you live7 A. About three miles from what Il
called the corporation line, on the sevensh-
street road.
/ Q. Was that road condemned A. The ma
tterial that was put on that road was con-
1emned and allowed for by jury, but not the
Ia I'D.
q, Do you know the estimate put upon the
cost Of that improvement by the Board of
Public Worksi A. Well, as q committee VS.
examin, d some Of their papers, or rather did
as one Of the COMMITTEES, and the report was
o. That : the report of the cost Of the road
A. Yes, sir; have got the bills presented.
This property formerly belonged 70 my mother
| up to last Janu sry was year.
Q. What from tage have you upon that roadf
A. win show " VI the bills.
@. This is the s Sventh-st-eet road A. Yes
sir; they put little more frontage than there 10
there.
Q. DID you observe she improvements as they
| were going forward A. Yes, sir; took par
ticular notice, so far asS It went through this
property.
Q. How were those iml Movements made: by
contract or otherwisei A. About July they
commenced. They did It ~ days work-the
lower part If the road to thu 1st of November,
and then they moved along-thres bosses with
q small lot Of hands. On the >7th of October
they commenced the first work they done On
that property-the second sectioIL-
@. Was that work done economically or
otherwisei A. Done anything elss but that.
Sometimes would find eight or TEN hands
loading q cart, and sometimes old hsrses that
would drive
Q. You don't consider that work to have
been economically donei A. No, SIR; l don't
Q. How was the force managed withrefer-
ence to the adjacent property A. There was
no regard taken in regard to the adjacent prop
erty. This property that my mother owned
we gave the Board Of Public Works notice that
1t had never been legally taken as public
highway, as the company never had complied
with their charter, and the decisions Of the
court had been SO. They took no notice of
| that, and went on and removed the road from
the east to the west, destroyed all the shade
trees and everything on the west side Of the
road.
Q. Is this bill presented to YOU for this
| work. (referring to the bill handed to the COM
mittee by the witness.) A. That Is the bill.
Q. There seem to have been two bills. A.
| Yes, sir; one was q corrected bill.
| Q. One is q bill dated February 10, 1873, for
81, 4SS 40; and one presented April 8, 1873, for
S., 224 A, being difference in the cost of $500
$500 less than the former billl A. 1t was .
pretty good tax to put on SIS, 900 worth Of
| property, as they assessed It. They had all on
the Seventh-street road. Then there is the
Shepherd road, and the Fourteenth-street road,
also. expect will have two bills for that.
d
A. No, sir; they divided up the property. There
was originally an old ridge Of $50 acres of land
assessed to my mother under the old laws Of
the District.
Q. They charged you with frontage Of
5,S72 41-IO0. What Is the frontage on that
road in feet! A. About 100 less.
Q. notice here in the first bill they charged
you at the rate of one dollar front foot, then
in the next bill they made it ninety-seven cents.
Have you paid these billsl A. No, sir.
@. Have certificates been issued against the
property A. don't know; 1 just left that
thing to Governor Shepherd and his party.
They have not been settled.
| @. You don't know whether certificates have
been issued or notI A No, sir; 1 went to the
Office one day and asked Mr.. Beal and he said
there was.
@. Certificates had been issued7 A. Yes,
sir; and he said they were; In the Second Ma
tional bank.
By Mr.. Stewart: O. How much land was
there therei A. About fifty acres on the Sew
enth-street road. There are three rosds-the
Seventh-street road, the Shepherd road, and the
Fourteenth-street road; but they divided up the
property without any authority at all, and they
put fifty acres on the Shepherd road, and
ninety-three on the SeVenth-street, and make
no allowance for what is on the Fourteenth
street road at all.
i Q. How far out Is your property A. Three
miles from the city.
Q. The three roads 90 through it, A. Yes,
sir. OF course l would not like to pay this bill
when the property is only estimated at SIS $50
the whole Of it.
O. How many acres are there in alli A. One
hundred and fOrty-one, they say. That is what
they have got 1t assessed at. find that there
are only 13S in all.
} Q. You say you are only assessed at SIS ,0O0f
A. Eighteen thousand seven hundred and
fifty.
. o. And it is worth a great deal morel A. It
was worth great deal more. doubt whether
it will bring that to-day. Some of the land
that would have brought from $50 to $500 you
can buy now for $50 to-day. That is the way
property stands out there.
BY Mr.. Msttingly: Q. Where is there any
property on the Seventh-street road near your
place that can be bought for $50 an acrea A.
You can buy some just the other side of Gov
ernor Shepherds, which belongs to aman by
the name of johnson.
Q. In the District linel A. A portion of it is.
1t Is just on the edge of the District; there are
thirty acres on the District line. I have au-
thority TO sell that for fifty dollars an acre.
Q. Which side of the road is it onl A. It Is
not on the Seventh-street road.
| Q. Oh, mean any property on the road. Do
| you know of any property on the road that can
be bought at that price9 A. There has been no
property sold on the road.
| @. What do you consider this property of
yours to be WORTH A. did consider that
property to be WORTH sold some for 81 900 an
acre.
| Q. Wheni A. Three years agolast September.
Q. Is that the property you sold to Mr.
Emeryl A. Yes, sir. l sold q piece Of 1t to
| Mr.. Yeast.
| O. Is it your idea that It has deprecated in
value since then! A. Not my idea. l know
very well what the property is there. Look at
the finest piece of property-that at the head Of
Lincoln avenue, the property which you know
well, and that was sold for s170 an acre. 1t Is
just as valuable as any on the Seventh street
road.
Q. That is not on the Seventh street road
4. No, sir; but It is just as equally valuable as
any on that road. It Is Just at the head Of
Lincoln avenue.
Q. Was it sold at auction' A. Yes, sir.
!. By Mr.. Allison: Q. What do you consider
your property fairly WORTH
The Witness. At the present timel
, @. Yes, sir. A. l could hardly put an esti-
mate on 1t, as expect, no doubt, it will have
to be sold, If this thing continues, for taxes.
@. What do property holders around there
: regard property worth-property fronting on
the road, in your neighborhoodf A. The feel
ing IL, Just at this time, that they do not know
, what to ask for property there
Q. Because they are afraid they will ask too
} littlei A. No, sir; not at all. There is some
i little property that is little way off the Sew
| enth-street road that is very low.
: Q. But en- the road l am talking about:
r What was the condition Of that road before 1t
: was improved A. A great deal better than it
/ is at the present time.
O. How wide was III A. Twenty -four feet.
l Q. Do you mean to say there were twenty
four feet of carriageway therei A. That Is
? what the company claim.
: O. do not care what the company claim,
but I want the factf A. Well, in some places
] there wasI measured some places-and In
some places there was less.
o. How much carrisgeway is there nowl
: A. Twenty feet, taking the cutters. think
six feet outside.
: o. Is there not 90 feeti A. There are SO
feet from the outer edges of the road, but It Il
, not filed In. The road Is filed out great
deal wider at the bottom. of course there are
/ steep bottoms, and every rain goes down, and
sometimes the cutters go away.
ii O. Do you know what the grade of that
hill at Howard University was before the road
was improved A. do not.
Q. It waE pretty steep hill, was II notl 4.
: No, sir; cannot say it was very steep hill
/ O. Then you do not think it was 8 steep
him A. No, sir; do not think so for 3
I country road.
) o. What was the condition of the bridge
near your place there before the road was
| lx-i1 In hof ~