Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1897-10-23

lie COIutT HOuSG lIlnuGulHtCiJ du7
joining that of Slidell was owned and
occupied by Daniel Webster during the
whole period when he was secretary
OF state, and it afterwards became the
home of tile philanthropist, William
W. Corcoran, who, during the civil war,
rented it to NJ. Montholon, the French
minister to this capital.
Facing the northwest corner of La
Fayette park, and diagonally opposite
to the residence of Daniel Webster, isl
the antique solid double house which
Commodore Decatur built after the
war of 1912 and in which he died in
1920, on returning from his duel at
Bladensburg. After Decatur's death
the house was successfully occupied by
Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren,, vice
president; Edward Livingston, Jack,
sons secretary of state; George NJ.
Dallas, vice president; Senator Judah
p. Benjamin, afterwards attorney gem
eral, secretary of war, and secretary of
state of the confedePacy; and finally
Gen. Beale, whose guest Gen. Grant
has often been for weeks at n time.i
Van Buren had windows cut in the
south wall of this house, in order that
he might see the signals displayed by
Jackson from the white house.
Almost all of the other IL houses on
the west side of the park have been oc-
cupied by distinguished officials; hav-
ing successfully sheltered the families
of Secretary Levi Woodbury., of Van
Buren's cabinet; Secretary John C.
Spencer, of Tyler's cabinet; Gen.
Sickles, NJ. c., and Vice President Col
fax.
Directly opposite, across Vermont
avenue, is small two-story house, now
nest of business offices, where for
many years lived that fighting officer,
Commodore Morris, who commanded
the Pensacola before New Orleans,
showing the same energy that his
grandfather, Robert Morris, showed,
when as Washington's finance officer,
he made the revolution a success.
In the house number 10 have dwelt
several distinguished people. There
lived for years Maj. Rathbone and his
wife, who sat in the theater box by
Abraham Lincoln's side when he was
slain, and whose subsequent life is too
sad to be recalled.
Diagonally opposite the park is the
home Of the Cosmos cub, in the great
mastic building erected by James
Madison, when, in 1901, he came to
Washington and served as Jeffersons
secretary of state till he was elected
president. Thithcr, 20 years later,
Dolly" Madison returned after her
husbands death, and there for Is years
she held court and dispensed, during
the remainder of n sunny life, gra7
cous hospitality. 1t afterwards became
the residence of Admiral Wilkes, when
| Slidell, whom he was soon to take off
D. British ship on the high seas, lived
within stones throw.
In the next two houses have dwelt
Secretary Window, Senator Fenton
and Col. Robert G. Ingersoll; and in the
next below, Admiral Paultling, son
of that obstinate soldier. John Pauld-
ing, who captured NAL Andre. The
house was built by Ogle Taylor ard is
now owned by ex-senator Don Cam
eron.
The most famous house on the square
has been removed to make room for an
opera house. 1t was originally the
elite boardinghouse of Washington,
and numbered among it's guests John
c. Calhoun, when he was Jackson's
secretary of war and vice president, and
Henry Clay when he was Adams Sec
retary of state; then it became the prop
erty of the celebrated Washington club,
and the place where assembled the rich