The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-15

Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. was
during the first half a century Of its -xlst-
ence, in very fact, the center of the CAPT
tai. Its site was fixed by General wash
ington himself al has approval o. the o.isi-
nal plan of the city. Authorized by Con-
gress in 1901 it was built in the shape of
a Closed LAME sHvd wan ouIs4ue bencnes
in 1902; and grew, decade on decade, by
addition of other frame sheds The market
was laid out on the waters edge of the
Washington Canal. and was specially To-
Gated there in order TO be a convenience
to boats bringing fish or other river
side products as wen as to wagons haul
ing the fruits of the highlands in the
neighborhood.
Even as late as the fall of 1926 the
National Journal" of this city. announced
that "a steamboat is about to pay from
the wharf at Centre Market to AleXan-
dria." 1t would be strange now to see
the Estelle Randall sail from Centre
Market along 3 Street TO Seventeenth or
Eighteenth Street northwest and turning
south into the Potomac make her way to
the old Virginia city OF the District. Yet
that was one of the courses of navigation
the market were grown on the fields
within city limits. The neighborhood of ST.
Dominc's Church was the kitchen garden
of Motley Young, and the site of the
church and monastery is said to have pro-
duced the finest onions then grown in
this section of the country. Washington
ceased TO grow tobacco as soon as the
farm-lands were mapped out into building
lots; but fruits and vegetables were
of itg
down to the days of John Quincy Adams,
and even now the newsboy on his rounds
through the outskirts passes occasionally
a bed or two of kitchen stun grown within
the corporate limits Of the Nation Capital.
1t was not. however. until about 1916 or
1916 that the writer first became an in
habitaut of the Centre Market for one CT
two nights each week OF that time Then,
as now the market extended from Seventh
to Ninth Street. with Pennsylvania Ave
nue. on its front. but the turbid waters AID
mud Of the Washington Canal washed its
south or rear end. 1t did not require a
freshet to inundate the rear of the mar
ket, and oftentimes the square itself
seemed amphibous. It was On some ocea-
sions quite possible 10 catch large fl
from the fish benches, and at times some
kinds of fish actually swan into the fish
market.
The original site was laid out on the first
plat of the city as two acres, three roods.
and thirty-three perches. but greater
area was really enclosed within the mar
ket precincts The market however, cid
not fill up, as now, the whole of Eighth
Street, but space was left there between
Two large market sheds, one west and the
other east OF Eighth Street, and this open
+g,TT -f-
by a handsome brick engine house of TIE
Perseverance Fire Company. with a cupola
which made. in that day, one Of the adorn-
ments of the Avenue. In the rear was the
old Watch House of 1862, the first of the
city buildings, and it remained in use TO
time within the memory of no ineonsid
cradle number of living Washingtonians.
This building was not only the first Court
House and the first muni- ipal prison, but
was the headquarters of the successors o.
the original police oonstabies-Jaeob
Crawford. James B. Heard. Glen Venable,
and Zeph. Ward. who went into office
September 20. 1903. The force at the time
numbered twenty-one men. and for time,
at least, they were under the command of
the late Captain Pearson, whose memory
still fingers among those who care TO 90
back to the days before Washington as
sumed its present princely proportions.
Members of the Fire Companies.
1t was the custom of the writer and au-
other newsboy who carried papers in a
town not far from Washington, or as we
then called it, 1.-The city" to come in about
nightfall to the Perseverance Engine
House at the market. knock about" with
the boys until about II O'Clock and then
with a company of half dozen or more of
the fire ladies cross the bridge. bid them
goOd-by and wend our way homeward.
The Sunday market which continued until
1921, had then been long abolished, but the
Saturday night market ran well into Sun
day morning. and was the gala night of
the week TO the Percy boys. The mar
ket supplied us with all the food We de-
sired. Sometimes there was cash in the
crowd. but the faces were good with
most OF the dealers and We were far away
from Cuban condition. The buckets at
the engine house were in season full OF 1
fruit Root beer was the only tipple. for
all the boys were Junior Brothers of Tenn
peracce and faithful TO their pledge taken
at the meeting held in the hall of the old
Northern Liberty Engine House on Eighth
Street al its junction with X Street and
the two avenues where Mount Vernon
Park now stands.
Whether the Perseverance was as much
of a naval company as the Anacogtia. which |
- ioIslNh at the Navy 1arc. The writer |
never knew, but the Percy BOYS owned |
boat which was anchored in the canal
about a hundred yards in the rear OF the |
engine house by an anchor made of three
coils of condemned hose To navigate the
boat needed what now would be
called a bathing costume, and its
motor would have 2stonished Erics-
son. The iremen's vessel had no
more bottom than foundered horse
but the engineers OF the company had fur
nished her a midships with a cart vince! to
which they geared part OF an old horse reel
with brass handspokss, and while the
wheel would not propel the galley through
the water at all for it had no paddle it
was quite effective in mud. and as the ca
mud the engineer was obliged to run his
legs through the bottom OF the boat and
wade her along until she came TO a mud
bank; and then by vigorous plying of the
hsndspohes the wheel in the middle of the |
boat was forced to turn and carry the boat
over the mud bank. This firemen's frieate |
was the wonder and amusement of the |
market This little frigate gondolier. or |
galley was stolen off one night by the !
Franklin fremsn and left stranded near |
the mouth of the canal. No reclamation |
was ever attempted and the tradition was |
aftersard that the Secretary Of the Treasu-
ny had made it a present to the Secretary |
of the Navy as the model OF a vessel to 10 |
better on land than on water.
Two basic dogmas OF belief made UP the
creed of the Percy" boys. One, that Dick |