Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-04-12
BY OLIVER T.. NEWMAN.

| Ut is easy TO believe that the
statue of Andrew Jackson, oppo-
site the White House, recently
A came to life and roared out by
the eternaIw Gas humorously sug-
eested in Washington when a traffic
expert urged that Sixteenth street
| be extended through historic Lafay-
cite Park to the Executive Mansion.
No soil in America is more thickly
tsown with the romances and trag
| edies of American life. For CEN
| fury and a quarter the greatest men
and most beautiful women of the
| Nation have trod Lafayette Park as
stage. Statesmen, diplomats, mill
| tary heroes, foreign sovereigns, art
| lists, poets, Adventures and beggars
have swarmed in. upon and about
| this beautiful little square, directly
| opposite the north front of the White
| House.
To disturb its artistic symmetry at
this late date would be TO outrage
such sensitive departed souls as the
gallant Stephen Decatur, the bold
warrior, Daniel E. Sickles: the quaint
gayly charming Dolly Madison: the
| master orator, Daniel Webster; the
rollicking poet, Tom Moore; the
pompous general. George B. McC1el-
Ian; Clay. Calhoun, Van Buren,, Blaine,
Hanna, Seward and a great host of
| other history makers, including every
| President from Washington down.
George Washington himself, APP
proving LEnfant's plans, brought La
fayette Square into being and called
| it the Presidents Park" but not
without a knock down and drag-out
| battle with old David Burns, one OF
the original owners of the land COM
prising the District of Colum bia.
Burns holdings included the site OF
the White House. He held out for a
| high price, and Washington spent a
| year dickering with him. usually in
| Suffers quaint tavern, in Georgetown
where the President would stop on
his journeys between Mount Vernon
and Philadelphia
Had not the Federal City been laid
| out here" Washington finally told
Burns in evaporation. you would
die a poor tobacco planter"
| "Ay, mon," retorted Burns. IAN had
We no married the Wilder Custis wi
a her naygurs ye'd haze been a land
surveyor the moo, no a mighty poor
| one at that"
Through the brambles and thickets
| of Burns tobacco plantation, now
radically altered by the Washington
Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the
| White House. Treasury Department
and other historic edifices. Tom Moore
the eloquent Irish poet, rambled dur.
| ing his sojourn with Burns at the
| site of the new Capital, whence he
| wrote his friend, Thomas Hume, bach
| home:
Thus let us meet and mingle converse dear
BY Thames at home. by Potomac here.
Ger lakes and marsh, through fevers ant
| through fogs,
| Midst bears and Yankees, Democrats anC
| Thy foot shall follow me; thy heart and eye
| With me shall wander and with me despise
| X
| COON after the little Capital in the
~ wilderness" had been rudely sack
ed by the English and was heroicall,
struggling to regain its composure
on a certain Sabbath morning of {
rainy Spring a coachload of wor'
shippers might have been discovered
in Irritating difficulties, between wha
is now the White House and Lafay
| cite Park.
They were aristocrats from George
town taking their weekly journe!
through the muddy road, now Penn
sylvania avenue, clear down to tn
navy ward to attend divine services
at Christ Chapel, the only Episcopa
lchurch in the neighborhood. And the.
were stuck in the mud. The gentle
men, in highly polished pumps ant
silk stockings, and the grand ladies
| in f1ounces and petticoats, had t,
make their way as best they could t
the edge of the road while thei
slaves extracted vehicle and horses
from the mire.
why don't we build church o
our own up here" demanded one o.
the gentlemen, and save ourselve:
this terrible journey every week.
From this incident sprang st. John:
Church opened in 1916, the oldes
building on Lafa yette Square ant
one of the most noted structures IL
the Capital. Benjamin Latrobe, tn
great architect, designed it in tn
form of a perfect Latin cross, which
has since been enlarged. This many
sided man was also the first organis
of ST. Johns (the President
church." of which nine President!
were members), and, at the end o
Is years of free service, he wa
presented with a. silver goblet COSTING
$50.
Madison, Monroe or Adams Nigh
have been observed on Sabbath da.
picking his way over the mud o.
Il through the dust from the Whit
House across Lafayette Square to ST
Johns. A few years later the gallan
= Comm dore Stephen Decatur and hi
beautiful wife would have been en-