The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-06
IN ANCIENT GEORGETOWN
The Market Master Talks of the
Place as 1t Used TO Be.
w. II. Williams, the Octogcnnr-
ian Who Presides Over an An
Over Canal and River Changes
Wrought by Steam ana Electricity.


ket master of the Georgetown market is
4 frequent caller at the District Building,
where he has business with the Commits
sioners. Mr.. Williams has been nineteen
years in the position which he holds, and
has lived in Georgetown nearly eighty
years.
In conversation with Times reporter
yesterday Mr.. Williams talked freely in a
reminiscent way of Georgetown, Washing
ton, and the general growth and progress
Of the District. Despite his eighty years,
Mr.. Williams is still an active man. His
memory Of men, dates, and places is re-
variable, and his account of the time
when Georgetown was the city and Wash
ington the suburb was as interesting as it
was clearly stated.
In the thirties Mr.. Williams was just
starting out for himself, and he said that
Georgetown then offered good advantages
for young man. 1t was a commercial
town, the canal bringing down quantities
of coal and farm supplies, and carrying
back merchandise and groceries for the
country stores of the interior. In those
days, Mr. Williams said, Georgetown car
ried on vigorous shipping trade, not only
with such nearby places as Alexandria and
Norfolk, but that vessels loaded there for
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other points
on the coast. Georgetown and Alexandria
gave promise Of being large cities then,
not only in the commercial sense, but
there was shipbuilding at Alexandria, nu-
merous small industries in Georgetown,
and at least dream Of mills and factories
lining the banks of the Potomac from the
Aqueduct to the Chain Bridge. That dream,
according to Mr.. Williams, lasted down to
war times, IN the sixties.
Mr.. Williams ascribes the change that
has come over Georgetown within thirty
years to the advent Of the railroad. Both
Georgetown and Alexandria, he thought,
were sidetracked when the railroads were
built. The far-seeing men who had hold
Of those enterprises discerned that their
lines must come to Washington as the fu-
ture city and centre of the National Gov
eminent. There were no attractions for
railroad terminal in Georgetown, and from
the moment that the first train brought its
passengers from Baltimore Georgetown be-
gan to decline. Its industries fed, Its COM
merce melted away, Its property declined
In value its young men sought other fields
in which to invesi. their capital OF strength
and energy, and grass grew In its streets.
being incorporated into the city OF Wash
ington. Mr.. Williams related the fact that
Judge Bibb, the Secretary of the Treasury
In President Tyler's Administration, used
to come up to Georgetown to buy his CT
gars. and now the women Of Georgetown
watch the Washington papers for bargain
days in ribbons, gloves. and shoes, and the
railroads and street cars have wrought the
change.
Mr.. Williams said It was a pretty sight
to stand on the hills of Geors etown in the
ffties and watch the little S, 'amers ply
ing on the river. There were the Dandy.
the Joe Johnson, the Phoenix, the Essex,
and the Surprise, all running and carry
ing passengers and freight between
Georgetown and Washington, Alexandria
and Fort Washington.
In speaking of the market at George
town, Mr.. Williams said that it was first
established in 1904, the land being do
mated for the purpose by DR.. Charles
Beatty on the ondition that If the tract
ever ceased to be used for market pur-
poses 1t should revert to the original own
er or his heirs or assigns. The market
now rents out twenty-three stalls and a
number OF country people occupy some Of
the vacant spaces, paying 10 cents morn
ing for the rental. Mr.. Williams said
that the provision stores had made great
inroads upon the Georgetown market by
affording better accommodations to the
people in the way of delivering goods. 60
ing after orders, and the like. He thought
the time might come when the Centre
Market would outlive its usefulness and
might have to be abandoned as a super
animated institution. He said that there
were now sixty-fve provision stores in
Georgetown and that the number was in
creasing every year.
Mr.. Williams said that his wife was
Marcie Burnes, Of the original Burnes
family, and one of the Oldest of George
town. He stated that she was seventy
nine years Of age and In comparatively
good health. In speaking of his vitality
at such advanced age. Mr.. Williams at
tributed 1t to one circumstance. He said
that when he was seventeen years old he
was apprenticed to Richard Copley to
learn the shoemaker's trade, and it was |
a law Of the establishment that everyone |
must be in bed by 10 o'clock Mr.. Will |
liams explained that as CopIey often
worked them until 10 o'clock there was |
no time to run about and learn bad hab- |
its. THE point of it was Mr.. Williams |
said. that thus early learned habits |
Of industry and to keep away from places |
where there was any sort Of temptation
to dissipate. / have been in bed at 10 1
o'clock all my life. and that. with nat
urally robust constitution, explains 1t all, |
think"
Mr.. Williams does not think that there
Is any future for Georgetown apart from
the natural growth and progress of WASH
ngton. Its dream of industry and COM
merce, he believes, is thing of the past