Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07

1856, and the address in the city directory for
1883 places the old building street between
Sixth and Seventh streets southwest, though
a picture shows it to be on the northwest corner
of F and Sixth streets.
Rev. Victor F. O'Daniel, O. P, of the Dom
inican House Of Studies, Catholic University Of
America, with whom the writer had very
pleasant and interesting interview, and who
lent the picture Of old st. DominicS Church for
reproduction, says that the Dominican parish on
the Island" had its birth in the closing days
Of 1882. or early in 1853, when Rev. George A.
J. Wilson was sent here to begin the work Of
organizing Dominican parish in the National
Capital.
says:
THE first baptism on the records Of the par
ish bears the date of April 16 1853 and is that
of Elizabeth Frances daughter of Henry W. and
Rachel Freeman Wathen The godmother was
Ann Tul. The first marriage was that Of
William Walsh and Margaret Donahoe, July 80,
1855. Both were from County Cork, Ireland
The first death was that Of william Donovan,
who died May 2 1885, and buried two days
later in st. Patricks graveyard.
Father Wilson was received by the Islanders
with open arms. Ground was soon purchased
from Georgetown College for the erection of
church, school and convent The land thus
cured, an excellent site for the purpose. in
cluded the eastern half of block 466 and ex-
tended along the west side of Sixth street from
10 But the eTecClon OF DullolnSS In Keep
ing with the promises held out by the locality
matter of time labor and patience. Money
was scarce and small the number of the faithful
in the undeveloped territory assigned to the
new parish. Fortunately, George Mattingly a
devout Catholic and a well-to-do man, in addi-
ton to a generous contribution, not only opened
the parlors of his mansion as a place of wor-
ship for the people, but gave the fathers a
home with the family Although considerably
changed, the Mattingly house, which still stands
on the north side of F street. between Sixth
and Four-and-a-half streets deserves to be
called the first Catholic church and rectory in
Southwest Washington.
"A man of common courage who had
hard service and hard times in the West,
Father Wilson shrank not before the trials
with which he was confronted in the National
Capital. In the Spring of 1853 he was jcined
by the Rev Nicholas D. Young, whose nearly
40 years Of strenuous missionary life in the
West and South had given him q national
reputation. For Father Young the location
purchased for the future Dominican Church
had associations that were quite dear and per-
scnal. It had been the former site Of the barn
and barnyard Of his grandfather Motley
Young, . wealthy landowner of Maryland and
the District Of Columbia, which the veteran
friar remembered we'll The two priests had
the happiness July /, 1853, of breaking sod
for the sacred edifice on the corner Of Sixth
and F streets"
a 1EAR OF Two ago, Judge ftODerL e MAJ"
\ tingly in q paper read by him before the
Association Of Oldest Inhabitants, en- South
Washington, spoke very Interestingly of the
first st. Dominics Church, which was re-
moved in 1886. He said:
"On street between Four and-a-half and
Sixth my grandfather, who came to Washing
ton fro n st. Marys County; Md, in 1903, had
erected one Of the earliest houses, and one
could look therefron, view unobstructed, to the
Potomac River. That house was erected be-
fore ST. Dominic's Church was established, and
mass was said in the old house in the absence
of a church. People attending would stand
and kneel out into the street during the mass.
I have no recollection when the old church
built at Sixth and streets, but the
lower portion was parochial school; the
upper story was the church. Well do I re-
member the very high steps one assembled to
attend mass and the great difficulty expert
enced by funeral cortegeS, heavy caskets being
taken up those steps and lowered in the same
way by straining pallbearers. The school was
presided over by o good old IriShman, one