Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-28

-" At the northwest corner Of Ninth
and d streets stood the house and
grounds OF Thomas Donoho. Next to
that, on Ninth street. was DR.. Blanchards
once. Mr.. Cats house stood NEXT and
tAen came my fathers house, Lambert
Tree, now Silverbergs picture store. Mrs.
Murray and her daughter, Miss Mary
Murray, q quite noted music teacher,
lived on the north Of US: then there we're
several houses with entrances below the
street. You had TO go down several steps
TO get into them. Boyds hardware and
Purcell's book store occupy the old Site
Mr. Donehos house. which stood at the north.
west corner Of Ninth and D streets northwest
Is recorded as being q beautiful cottage with
its attractive garden OF old-fashioned flowers"
Here is now old Seaton Hail. for many years
the billiard room of Michael Scanlon, of local
base ball fame. who died recently.
Mr.. DOnoho was clerk in the ONCE Of the
National Intelligencer and. according to the
city directory, lived on this corner ut least
until 1866, which would indicate that the pres
ent structure was erected subsequent to that
date.
WHAT old-timer would not give farm, If
he had 1t. just for one minute to see this
old neighborhood as it was before the war
Upon the completion of Lincoln Hall in 1869
the year 1t was formally dedicated-the
Young Mems Christian Association took up its
headquarters In the building. where it main
tanned Its parlors and lecture rooms, and where
were heard lectures by such celebrated speakers
as Henry Ward Beecher, T. De Witt Talmage
and Frederick Douglass. Later the great diva,
Christine Nilsson sang here in concert, and
to vary the program on January 81, 1880, the
National Woman Suffrage Convention was
held here and q few days later meeting was
held In this hall in favor of suffrage for the
District. On December 5, 1885, the Fifth An
nual Convention of Labor Unions opened here,
and 1t was also in the old building that the
project for erecting Garfield Memorial Hos
pital was crystallized at a mass meeting held
on the evening Of october s. 1881 less than
a month after the death of President Garfield.
For many years the third floor of this build
ing was used as the headquarters Of the Grand
Army Of the Republic, and this and other
tenants finally crowded out the Youngs Mems
Christian Association, whose struggle to carry
on here was not successful. Evidently the
Grand Army Of the Republic also vacated at
an early date, for in 1881 We find the two
upper floors being taken by Prof Henry G..
Spencer for his Spencerian Business College,
and 1t was in his classroomS on this corner
that many Of Washington's most successful men
acquired their business education.
In 1884, the main hall in the building was
rented to Daniel Herzog Of Baltimore who
opened in that year what became known as
Herzog's Ninth Street Opera House. The at
fractions here included nearly everything the
atrical: Comedy tragedy, burlesque drama,
melodrama, and all kinds Of musical shows.
1t was not long, however, before Herzog was
succeeded in the management of the house
by Joseph X. Strasburger, with J. NJ. Davis as
treasurer.
1t was while Mr.. Strasburger was managing
the theater that 1t caught fire, early ON the
morning Of December S, 1886, and was COM