Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-09
rou.rrrsra STREET AND PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.

a. In La. uAIu Aept the mouse, now long
OF it was when Azariah Fuller kept it as the
City Hotel. When the general post Office
was burned that department occupied the
building. and 1t was after that Fuller took pos
session and kept it for some years. On the
same square. above the Owen House, was SAN
fords Washington Hotel, and between
ana the corner was Williamson's
Hotel. While Fuller kept the City Hotel
was the resort Of the officers of the
Bum, Cor many years the manager of Drury
Lane Ineater. London, stopped at Fullers, and
ne gives an Illustration Of American life at
that time by publishing q placard issued by
EDWARD Fuller charging Capt. schomberg
with swindling and other disreputable prac-
tices. and details the shooting Of Fuller by
Sehomberg. remember the affair, and at the
time 1t created great excitement Fuller's
card was terrible arraignment Schom-
Derg hao oeen dismissed from the army and
lie was the father of Mrs Hughes Hallet,
whose marital troubles in London caused q
good deal OF scandal. Fuller recovered from
the severe wound and Schomberg was fined
and imprisoned.
THE K1RKwooD HOUSE.
Inc rulers then built the hotel at the corner
OF Pennsylvania avenue and 18th street, and for
some time occupied it, and, whether succe ssful
or not, 1t was sold out, or in some way Thomas
HOWARD corner
Maiden lane and Broadway, became the pro-
prletors and changed the name to the Irving
House. The house under their management
was admirably kept. They were the first to
introduce the improved style of hotel keeping.
~ ~ 100 s Senator oP5am OF Vermont died there
Oh smallpox, and the house, of course,
was closed and remained closed for many
months, when John and Albert Kirkwood
opened IT as the kirkwood House, and
tor several years were very successful. The
house was tne resort OF the members and Sem
ators from the south, and they took in AZ an
annex the house on 18th street, for wears the
residence OF Col. John H. Riley, There John
Z. Breckinridge, Senator Powell of Kentucky
ana senator Grimes Of Iowa and Albert Pike
mao tneir rooms. In that house was given the
last dinner at which keitt of South Carolina,
Johnson and Hindman of Arkansas, Wipfall,
Pike and others met for the last time until the
war had ended. OF all who were preseut at
that dinner can recall but two survivors, Gen.
ihomas Il. Crlttenden and myself At that
time the southern boat left some time after
midnight and it was a sad parting at that late
hour; but very few returned at the close of the
war. Andrew johnson was at the Kirkwood
House on the night of the assassination of Pres
ldent Lncoln and was included in those who
we're to be killed, but how he escaped do not
recall
THE WILLARD BROTHERS.
After the Fullers had removed from the
Wizards. Henry, Joseph and Edward, came
into possession. The house was remodeled
and furnished anew and the opening was an
event which was duly chronicled at the time
Mr. George Washington Parke Gusts presided
and the Hon. Edward Everett responded for
the Wizards. From the day Of the opening
the hotel was a success, and soon they had pur-
chased the dwellings on the corner Of street
where for many years Maj. James Kearny of
the engineers and DR.. Kearny of the navy re-
sided and extended the hotel to F street. and
DR.. Laurie church became Willard Hall. The
motel obtained almost world wide reputation.
The balls which were given there for several
years were very brilliant; one to Lord and
Lady Napier was particularly so. After the re-
firing OF the Brothers Willard Henry and
Joseph, the hotel was kept by Chadwick Sykes
and during the war it was the headquarters of
the army which WAS for soma two or three
years encampe6 on the Virginia shore. The
prevalence OF brigadier generals in the hotels
and streets during the first two or three
years OF the war gave point to the
witticism OF Senator Nesmith of Oregon.
During a debate in the Senate on an
increase of the army Nesmith objected to an
increase of generals ana said they pervaded the
hotels and the streets Of Washington to such an
extent that a man threw stick at an ANNOYING
dog and missed the dog but struck three briga-
dier generals, and he SAID: 1t was not agood day
for brigadiers. either" After Chadwick l.
Sykes had retired cannot at this moment re-
call the next proprietor. but the hotel has
never been closed and has maintained its repu-
tation. l remember early as 1859 Caleb
Willard. He kept the hotel at Old Point
Comfort during the war and was the kindly
custodian Of those who were passing under
government sanction between the two
contending parties. When he took the
Ebbltt House 1t was a very small affair. When
first remember it Mrs Smith kept the two
brick houses it then comprised as a boarding
lCnse / uha fharN
took 1t from her, but when he got possession he
enlarged II until he reached the corner where
Wm B Reed had grocery store and continued
toextend the hotel until he absorbed more than
half the block on 14th street and has become own
ers OF the entire street front from the hotel to
the corner OF 18th street, with the exception Of
the small store next and east of the hotel. On
the west and next to Wizards on PENNSYLVANIA
avenue is the Owen House. Mr.. Edward Owen
for years was the army and navy tailor and the
tailor OF the young men Of fifty years ago. He
made fortune and built that hotel. and his
son, Samuel W. Owen, kept.it for years. until
his death. On the opposite side of the avenue,
corner 18th street, is the Randall House. For
many years the various offices Of the Treasury
Department occupied several of those houses;
in TACT nearly all the houses on the south side
were used as government offices after the Treas
ury was burned
BILLY o'NEALE's HOUSE.
The Riggs House, the Arlington. the Nor
mandie and Welcker's, &C., are modern and of
the present day, but on the avenue beyond the
Presidents House William ONeale, the father
of Mrs. Eaton, kept the Franklin Hotel, and
there Gen. Eaton boarded when Senator in 1921
and met Peggy Neale and married her, and
she became historical. There were many
stories told of Billy O'Neale, he was called.
His hotel was on the north side Of Penn
sylvania avenue between goth and 2lst.
In. Georgetown the Union Hotel had
been among the first hotels built in the Dis
trict and remained a hotel until some few
years ago, when it was turned into other bust
ness places. Pecks Hotel, in Georgetown in
1921 must have been an important one, for I
find MIR. Van Buren,. Rufus King, Senators
at that day from New York, aud stephen Van
Rensselaer,, Charles Fenton Mercer, Samuel
Edwards OF Pennsylvania, Benjamin Gorham
OF Massac husetts, Lewis McLane of Delaware,
John Nelson Of Maryland and Henry X. War
field OF Maryland boarded there-a very dis
tinguished mess, as they used to be called.
Lang's Hotel in Georgetown, just above High
street, has been there for years and is still a
hotel. remember or recall. as I return from
my mental trip to Georgetown, that next to the
Owen House, where stores are now, Galibrun
kept hotel for some years, and as recall it
it was patronized by the foreign ministers, and
on the avenue between Sd and ~ streets was
the United States Hotel, kept at one
time by Capt. Jas. H. Burch, and on
the south side Of the avenue be-
tween 9th and ~ was Hepburn's Hotel,
and on street the Exchange, kept by Gilbert.
l am forgetting Tom Loyds Hotel; he called