Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-12-04

Moulden, =. T. McNeEhany, Allison NaiI0, tS
Timothy ". Noonan, Owen O'Hare, Henry
Ortiz, John c.. Parker, Robert L. Phillips, Fred
W. PilIing, A. H. Regain, B. W. ReiD, William =.
Smith, John T. Sullivan, Alys 8. Tabor, Bryson
They, Jacob Weihmeyer, Nicholas Watkins,
Thomas Williams, Wil1iam II. Williams, James
A. Wmebergef, George a. Williamson, Simon
J. Eliot Wright.
Few Of the members mentioned in this ~
are with US today, o. VIII be a& the forthcom-
Ing celebration. Instead their places will b
nrIed BY their song and grandsons, for quite
number Of the older families Of the District
have been represented in this organisation
from its beginning, and no doubt many years
hence descendants of the present members
will be carrying on the work Of the association
begun BY their pioneer ancestors. OF course,
Eliot Wright Is still an active member, having
been elected December >, 1903, and since tho
death Of Benjamin W. Reiss he has filed the
office Of recording secretary. OF those who
attended the first banquet nearly three dec
aides ago, Mr.. Wright viii probably be TIM
only one to attend the anniversary soon to be
celebrated, for the threads by death are neces-
sarily great In an organisation where the age
entrance IS restricted to men so years old
older
Although the association has held its BAN
quetS at several different places since it held
its first one at Freund's, yet for number of
years prior to the razing Of the Ebbitt House,
which began with the removal Of the first brick
January 6. 1926, it celebrated its anniversaries
In this old hostelry, principally because Of its
historic background and its associations with
the growth OF early Washington. Today the
site Is occupied by the National Press Building
the corner store of which was laid by former
President Calvin Coolidge on April 8. 1926
Many will recall the old building and espe-
:ially its attractive buffet the basement floor,
HhnNn nf ,Nfn 10 L.
discuss the political situation and other live
subjects Of the day. And the crystal parlor,
with its handsome chandeliers, the prisrns Of
which sparkled like diamonds behind the flick
ering gas lights, is but one Of the many re-
minders of this once famous hotel
It stood on ground once embraced In tina
farm Of David Burnes. which, upon his death,
went to his daughter Marcia, "the heireSs,' as
she was called, wife Of Gen. Van Ness, who
served this city as its mayor In days when we
had limited suffrage here. Richard wallach,
another mayor, whose heirs recently sold the
old Metropolitan Hotel property. once owned
one of the lots on the r street side upon which
the Ebbtt stood
1 IKE so many of the earlier hotels, the Ebbitt
L. was originally number Of dwellipgs-per-
haps some Of them boarding houses These
were combined from time to time added to and
remoleded until it came to look as we knew
accurate, it is said the Ebbitt was composed of
four dwellings, the first of which, double
brick house-formed about the central part Of
the hotel toward the street side. It was the
old home Of David Craufird, who erected it
about the time the Federal Government moved
here in 1900. Craufurd purchased this ground
from the United States on June 49, 1898, and
so extensive were his gardens that they reached
to Fourteenth street and all the way from
street nearly to Pennsylvania avenue.
The house at the corner OF Fourteenth and
streets, later merged into the hotel was erected
about 1885 by Bushrod W. Reed who came here
from Westmoreland County Va, about that
time and operated on this corner q grocery
store until 1864, when he sold the property to
o. Q: Willard. N. W. Burchel followed Reed i'm
I'M grocery business heee
- public house here was flrst the Prench-
nsns Hotet which wag purchased IN 1855 ~
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