Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-18
WRECKERS ARE ENDING COMEDY
BUILT ON KALORAMA GARAGES
Policeman Jerry" Sullivans Refusal to
Remove Them for German Embassy
Stirred international Circles.

Wreckers are playing the final act in
little comedy of international aspect
that was quietly launched here more
than decade ago, with historic Kalo-
rama of ultra-fashionable association
as the locale and jeremiah Sullivan,
now dead, but then a member of the
Metropolitan Police Force, in the
leading-and only-role, but which, be-
fore the curtain started descending, saw
the governments of Germany, Switzer-
land and the United States and the
District of Columbia in the cast; the
exchange of automatically worded
notes-and hintS-and, at the finish,
court action.
Row upon row of garages, some so
in all and of rather nondescript ap-
pearance at that, were props" as well
as plot" for it was the erection of
these structures by Sullivan on the
heights of Kalorama-oficially desig-
mated 2201 S street-owned by the Ger
man government, and the subsequent
efforts to persuade him to remove them,
that caused a great deal Of head
scratching in official quarters, and more
merriment to Sullivan, through all the
years.
The whimsical Gael could afford to
laugh, inaSmuch as each garage net
ted him $40 monthly, according to his
own statement, and so garages at this
figure adds up. And the efforts to get
Sullivan to move bothered him not at
all. At Washington of1cialdOm, he
simply laughed, realizing that he was
as much out of reach as though the
garages were on the other side of the
Rhine. The German government, de-
spite the fact that the matter was
raised officially, didn't press 1t. So Sulli-
van stayed.
Died IS Months Ago.
Then Sullivan died. That was 10
months ago. Just before this past
Christmas, formal demand for the prop
erty was served on his son from the
German embassy. Now but two garages
surrounded by a waste of junked metals
stand as monuments to the Sullivan en-
terpriSe, and they'll follow the rest.
But even as they pass-and with
them, the old home there-their story
will add a light touch to the brilliant
history of Kalorama which In another
day knew all the notables Of an in
FAINT republic: once sheltered the dust
of the gallant Decatur, and today looks
on the home to which woodrow Will
son retired from the White HOUSE and
that from which Herbert Hoover soon
will turn to the White House.
The modern story Of Kalorama, with
it's Sullivanesque touch, really dates
from 1905, when the imperial German
government, casting about for site
for a new embassy, settled upon the
beautifully wooded heights between
Connecticut and Massachusetts avenues
Came a day when Pvt. jeremiah Sui
Ivan, industriously pounding a beat in
that neighborhood, was asked to keep
an eye on the place. Jerry" as he
was popularity known, readily agreed.
Later, he suggested that he might as
well move in the house and do good
lob of watching, and his suggestion was
Came the World War, and Germany
put aside any building plans.
Next. the United States entered the
| conflict, but Jerry" felt entirely at
home on German territory, now being
administered by the Swiss legation, since
| Count Won Bernstorff, the German
Ambassador, had returned to Berlin.
Then arose the garage incident, and
| Sullivan, reminiscing, used to recall
| that it was an Army officer VINO gave
| him the Tip" that started MIN III
| business.
with the city overcrowded, due to the
influx of war workers, parking was at
a premium, and no more anywhere
than on Sullivan's beat. There nlgnt
| parking was under the ban. and Jerry
| was kept busy putting out tags, toi
while the residents in that section mao
their own garages, there was none foi
| transients. They took the streets, ano
Sullivan,"took" them.
one of his victims was the Army Of
ficer
"Why don't you put up some garages
on that vacant property of yours and
we wouldn't have to park in the
streets?" the officer asked him, In ef'
feet.
whether Sullivan tore up that ticket
is not of record, but he did go immedi-
ateiy to the Swiss legation and obtain
permission to erect the garages. One
by one they went up, and were rented
| without delay Sullivan could have got
ten more for them than he did, but he
decided $40 a month each was enough
The money went in Liberty bonds
Everything was fine, Sullivan said
until he clashed with his superiors and
left the Police Department, and then
he said, he began to hear complaints
about the garages from official sources
But the complaints didn't hurt the re-
ceipts and he worried not at all. He
recalled that some representations were
made through the Swiss legation tc
GUST him, but without success.
Then there was complaint from
the District, he said, that the garages
were fire menaces. His reply to that
.,,.z kLnk aua,1 4tox, u,nra thnxy xstare