Evening star., 1924-09-26
Built Is Years Ago.

ham Courts Apartment House was built
in 1919.
Built Is Years Ago.
According to Pat O'Brien, veteran
headquarters detective, the tunnel
was built more than Is years ago
by wealthy man as clubhouse
and playroom for his son. The man,
whose name the detective does not
recall. resided on Twenty first street,
in the 1900 block
OBrien remembers that on several
occasions boys of the neighborhood
broke into the tunnel and the owner
| had them arrested and taken to
Juvenile Court. On one occasion the
case was settled when O'Brien bought
a new lock for one destroyed on the
entrance to the tunnel. as a nephew
of the detective was involved in the
affair.
Several years ago. when Pelham
Courts Apartment House was under
! construction, O'Brien said, workmen
| discovered the tunnel and its history
was recounted in newspapers at the
! time.
| Discounts SPY Story.
| nothing to the reports" that German
|
| tunnel.
| There are other stories about that
mysterious cave, too. When the
| newspaper men were preparing to
go into it a woman living in Pelham
| Courts sent her maid out to plead
! with them not to enter, saying that
some years ago another man ventured
into the dark recesses and was never
| seen afterward. 1t is said that there
iS n1l Nf !,
meath trapdoor in one of the pass
ages and he is believed to have fallen
| into this and been drowned
No one ever ventured in to look for
| him, but other persons who declared
they remembered the same occurrence
| said they thought it more likely that
the unfortunate explorer had toppled
! off a ledge into a pit of I've that is
| said to have been arranged as O trap.
| His body, they said, probably was
completely consumed by the lye and
| for that reason no one ever thought
| it worth while to institute a search
| for him.
Cautious in Search.
| These stories, it must be remem-
| bered, are all neighborhood gossip
| and some are probably grossly eXag-
gerated. The deep concern of the
woman for the safety of the reporters
and photographers, however, caused
| every one of them to step with the
greatest caution on their short jour
ney. Still another explanation was
| offered by George w. Linkins, real es-
| tate operator who lived in the neigh
/ borhood before and during the Civil
| War.
The tunnel. in all probability, was
| built nearly 60 years ago as a sewer
| to drain off the water from the. low
lands then lying in that district, said
| Mr.. Linkins.
1t was in the days when there was
1 a bridge on Connecticut avenue just
| above l. street, when Rhode Island
avenue was but a winding dirt road
| running between farm lands, when
| New Hampshire avenue was on the
! map, but not constructed, and the
| nearest structures to Dupont Circle
| were br1ck kiln and a slaughter
| house.
Points it Out ON Map.
Mr Linkins pointed all this out on
his old map of the city, one of the
very few remaining maps of 1859. At
| that time Boundary street. which ran
approximately where Florida avenue
now runs, was low marshy ground
with stream running through 1t,
with high ground on either side, run
ming up on the west to the old kalo-
| rama place and to the east across
Connecticut avenue.
This stream ran into Rock Creek
at the famous old stone paper mill,
| built before Washington was planned.
There was another small stream
| which ran into the Boundary street
| stream which had its origin in the
block just above what was then call
| ed north p street, between West
| Twenty-first street and West Twenty
second street.
! Mr.. Linkins, according to his recol-
| lection, believes that this tunnel just
| discovered was constructed just after
| the Civil War during the admins
| tration of Mayor Bowen, during the
| time when a great deal of grading
| and filing in was going on in that
| section of the city. 1t was used to
| drain off the water from the Bound
| ary street low lands and to carry off
| the brook that ran from the P street