The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-03-25
OGLE TAYLOE MANSION.
fHE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF DON
CAMERoN's WASHINGTON HOME.
What May BE Seen from Its Windows-A
Photographic Camera of Stirring Events
in the Past-stOries of Other Houses
in the Same NeighbOrhOOd.

Speaking of the old houses at Washing
ton, took a good look the other day at
Ogle Tayloe mansion on Lafayette square.
This is the house that Don Cameron
bought last fall for s67, 600, and the proba-
bilities are that it will be in the future, as
it has been in the past, one of the social
centers of Washington. 1t is big, old
fashioned, three-story brick building, with
ridge roof running up between two gate
like ends at the top. 1t has many windows
looking out upon Lafayette square, and
the statue of Gen. Jackson sitting on a
horse, which for ten years or more has
been balancing himself on his hind heels.
Just across the way, within a stones
throw of its front door, is seen the CHASTITY,
barn-like White House, and the whole as
sociations of its neighborhoOd are full or
history. Its third-story windows can look
into those of the Decatur mansion, now
owned by Gen. Beale, where the gallant
commodore lived at the time he was shot
by Barron: Around to the right on the
same square is the palace of the million
aire Corcoran, where Daniel Webster used
to. entertain as secretary of state, and
where the French minister took posses
sion at tae time Corcoran fed to England
at the beginning of the war.
HISTORICAL HOUSES NEAR BY.
Just below the Corcoran mansion are
the new houses of Henry Adams and John
Hay, and next to them, within 100 yards
of this Cameron house, rises old st. Johns
church, in which dozen presidents have
worshiped, and In one window of which
are the memorial paintings which Presi-
dent Arthur gave to the memory of his
dead wife. A little further on is the red
brick in which Charles Summer lived and
worked, and on the corner between ii and
Cameron's new purchase is roomy old
brick which President Madison owned at
the time of his death, and in which the
peerless Dolly Madison wore the turb ans
which cost her 81, 900 year, in entertain
ing all along down through the half
dozen administrations following that
which she presided over at the White
House across the way. tRIF
1t was within plain sight of this house
of Cameron's that Barton Key flirted with
Mrs. Sickles. Looking from its windows
one might have seen the tragedy in which
Key was shot by the irate husband, and,
had he continued to look, he could have
seen them carry Key into the old Seward
mansion which adjoins this, and in which
less than ten years later the assassination
of Stward was attempted. If this old
house formed plate of Photographic
camera throughout all these years, and
the scenes recorded on it could be repro
duced, what history of our country and
its great men it would forml If its walls
were photographs how many witty bon
mots could they give forthI It was built
in 1928, the year in which Jackson was
first elected president, and it has been
from that time to this the residence of the
Tayloes, one of the richest of the old fam
lilies of the country.
MILLIONAIRE OF THE YEAR 1900.
Col. Tayloe, the father of Ogle TaylOe,
was one of the millionaires of 1900. He
owned thousands of acres, and hundreds
of slaves, and he built the great octagon
mansion in which President Madison
once lived, and which, during a part of
Madison's administration, when the
White House was burned, formed the
presidential residence. Ogle Tayloe, the
man who built the house, was the in
innate and confdant of half of the great
men of the country for over forty years.
He roomed with John A. Dix at college,
and during the time he was at Harvard
he was associated with Prescott, the
historian. In 1917 he was private secretary
to Mr.. Rush, the American minister at
Paris, and it was shortly after he was
married that he took up his residence in
this house, which is now to be occupied
by Senator Cameron. During his whole
lifetime he was great entertainer, and
Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Quincy
Adams, and Gen. jackson often sat down
at his table. 4-
1t was at this house that Gen. Harrison
called just before he was taken with that
which killed him, and it was in
this house that Gen. Scott was dining one
day when terrible thunder storm came
up in which hail fell in such large stones
as to go through the heavy plate glass at
the capitol. 1t stopped the Tayloe dinner
hot nd Hun ha cvIoo mt Of
the windows. Gen. Scott was much
alarmed, but after it was over he drank
his champagne with great gusto and
called the hailstones with which it was
cooled celestial ice."-"Carp" in Cleve-
land Ieadar