Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-16
IN THE OLDEN TINE
Patent Office Square Was q
Play Ground.
GUNT0N'S ICE HOUSE
WAS A RENDEZVOUS FOR ALL
THE SCHOOL BOYS.
An Old Washingtonian Recalls Some
Interesting "reminiscences Of the
Days Of Long Ago.

Looking over seventyfour years Of life
in this city. recall many pleasing. painful
and thrilling scenes said an old Wash
ingtonian today.
In 1885 or SO was little chap, attend
ing Strahan's school. H street near 9th
street northwest, along with thirty or forty
other little and big boys Many Of these
became prominent and wealthy. public
spirited citizens Of Washington.
Many Of us boys lived near Pennsylva-
MIA avenue, and used to assemble for
play on what is now patent Office square,
then an unfenced, unbuilt space Of several
blocks. including the site Of the present
general post Office. It was sport to-
begging down the octagonal shingle roof
of Gunton's ice house, 9th street between
T and G streets, our toboggans being the
seats Of our breeches. DR.. VIM. Gunton
was the only apothecary in town who dis
pensed soda water Billy Gunton, his only
son, was one Of our number. He grew to
manhood and was thrown headlong from
his horse one day and was picked up with
his neck broken. His father became very
wealthy, and was first president OF the
Bank of Washington.
1.-The boys had made the ice house roof as
slippery as glass playing. The school bell.
or the general dinner bell. Of Gadsbys Ho-
tel (since Browns, now Metropolitan called
US either to studies or to our dinners. That
bell could be heard all over the then In
hal ed parts Of the city.
"Aleck Shepherd was one Of our gang,
but he was too young and fat to be cap
tain. One day we climbed down the short,
rough ladder and found ourselves In cold
berth. When 1t was found out how we got
in we came to our senses to discover that
1t was hot water we were Inland plenty
Of it.
Robert W. Patterson and Hamilton
Clements, DR.. Gunton's clerks, and subse-
quently in turn hts successors, caught US
and administered punishment. They COM
planned to teacher and parents. and there
was weeping and wafling and gnashing OF
teeth for the next fortnight.
'All the ground about where stand the
granite and marble palaces OF today was
waste land-a common. broken by gullies.
hollows and washouts, which were cross
able by rude bridge Of forty feet or so,
built Of beams and old planks. and which
led across q path we liked to travel and
often did. 1t stretched from our side OF
the playground to the candy and ginger |
bread and lemon. orange and watermelon |
emporium Of a warm-hearted old Irish Wo-
man. Mrs. Cannon. She felt and acted |
like mother to every one OF US. We were
fond of her in our way. She would trust |
any Of US when our pocket money gave out.
We had not learned to lie; we had been |
Strahan was man of high honor and strict |
integrity. He taught US that and other |
things beside. Mrs. Cannon kept shop |
there on the other side of the square, now |
Her house was a narrow, tall rattle-trap |
frame building, one window and door to |
the shop and two windows in each Of the |
two stories above, and two dormer wind ows |
in the steep shingle roof. She had a rich |
and mellow County Galway brogue, so |
thick at times you could stir 1t with a |
spoon The 'ould woman as she called
herself was about fifty years old, and had |
nayther chick nor child or kinsfolk Of her |
own We got most all our candies of Mrs. |
Cannon. Pies. &c. we bought of Michael
Mr.. Feeney. They kept in It'll street oppo- |
site Gales & Seaton's office. the National |
Intelligencer, where each accumulated the |
beginnings Of large fortune.
Began Erection Of Buildings.
''In the course of a few years the gov |
eminent pulled down the old ice house. |
moved the Cannon house off rollers,
graded the ground and proceeded to build
the magnificent granite and marble palaces |
for the United States patent office and old
General Post Office. Our teachers forbade |
the boys to go into or through those
grounds again. Tell a boy not to do a
thing and he Is bound to go right straight
and do it. We all made short cuts to and |
from school and home by the way of the
grounds.
81 shall never forget one morning, about |
$50, when I had loitered rather long. OBJ
serving the builders hosting a huge block |
of granite to its place near the east front |
in It'll street. Nearly all the outer walls
were completed to their full height, and
watched with much interest the swinging |
block Of stone, turning and toiling upward |
by straining rope and cracking Wlndlass !
and complaining derrick. One man stood
upon the stone to guide 1t. and three or
four steadied 1t by guiding ropes from the |
ground. There was snap like pistol |
shot, followed by a conclusion which shook |
the neighborhood. The rope had broken, |
and the block. the man and the derrick |
came upon us in a mass together. The man |
on top leaped off unframed. but stunned, |
dazed and horror-struck. workman |
named Mitchell was caught, and all we |
could see Of him for hours as he lay there |
awaiting the coroner was his face, black
and bloated.
in those old days Of horse racing, cock |
fighting and all manner Of gambling; when !
the spellbinder was rife and street preach |
ing and camp meetings abounded, 1t Is not |
at all surprising that ignorance and super
stition should have gone hand In hand,
cropping in the dark, and even frightened at
the sounds they themselves had made. There |
were not many ,'whitewashed cottages
about there, but every gray block of granite
was a ghost for years afterward to the |
numerous slave population, and their tales
Of terror soon communicated its apprehen-
sions even to us who knew better.
Afraid Of Ghosts.
Patent office square became tabooed. |
Great building stones were falling from |
creaking swapping block and tackle at |
all hours. especially at midnight.
Talking about ghosts reminds mo that |
there stood. or rather hung together by |
the skin Of its rotten old teeth, ram |
shackle, leaning, tottering, caved-in frame |
and tumble down building used as q fac |
tory, and presided over by man named |
Fagin.
This building was in e street northwest |
between 9th and 10th. the site of the |
famous and historical Temperance Hall Of |
later years, and where hotel stands to- |
day Fagin's old barracks fell down one /
day; collapsed from the wear and tear of |
age. Fagin was the only one hurt. He |
was found in the DEBRIS wrapped all round |
with the betting and gearing as though he |
had been seized and throttled by some gt- |
gantlc octopus.
"Old Fagin and Dick Adams and his |
father, in D street. In the same square.