Evening star., 1932-04-09
.OLD GEORGETOWN
KEEPS ITS CHARM
Visitors Will Find Homes Lit
(: tie Changed Since Eight
eenth Century.
BY ESTELLE HARRIS.

Georgetown, which has retained its
individuality, though politically part
of Washington, has a wise and alto
Rether delightful custom of ushering
in the Spring by making pilgrimages,
first to the houses, and then to the
gardens. April and May finds the old
places looking their prettieSt, Eight
eenth century Georgetown has re-
mained much as it was, activity of re-
cent years having consisted more in
restoration than in removal of land
marks.
The unusual fact that the city began
to grow again in its old age did not
Danish the eighteenth century as a re-
suit, but instead, it wove the charm of
the old over the new. Only a few of
the old houses and the old and new
names connected with them are men
toned here, Just bit of the old his
tory and the old gossip.
Lord Baltimore bestowed many hold
ings along the "PotoWmack" On Ninian
Beall, hunter and fisherman, but when
he reached the palisades of the river.
he felt settled in the new work, for it
was like his home in Scotland. He
built his hunting lodge and went to
fishing in earnest.
/: Ninian had grandson who felt the
same way about life. This George
Beall built his lodge bit up from the
water on land now Thirtieth and N
streets. Another George had arrived
by now and established tobacco trad
ing-poSt, and the first thing the two
Georges knew, the Maryland Assembly
insisted on building town on their
land. This was all right with George
Gordon but George Beall declined to
put price on his hunting preserve.
The governor called in a jury, which
appraised the wanted 60 acres as worth
$3.50, and advised that the two men be
allowed two lots each when the lots
were auctioned. The city is named for
the two Georges, and not for the
English King. and it soon lost the
character of the Indian village, Tohe-
gee, which had covered part of the site.
Fine Homes Built.
: The lines of the five streets were like
three pencil strokes east and west and
two north and south. Within decade
after this 1851 settlement, fine Georg-
fan homes were built on the Heights,
and the town was Springing up to meet
them. The early American custom of
naming streets according to their
usageS prevailed, the owners coming in
for their share and any spectacular
locality.
Bridge street, now M. was for busi-
ness; High street, now Wisconsin ave-
nue.. was UP the hill and out of town.
Below Bridge, Water was a continu-
alton Of High, and ran down the bank
bo the Virginia Ferry. Fishing lane,
DELIGHTFULLY."- suggestive for Summer
mornings, was below Bridge, also Duck
lane and jefferson street. The names
of the residence streets that soon fol-
lowed were quite obvious in their orr
gin, Beall, Dumbarton, washington,
Gay, Lafayette, and so on.
The Union Hotel is still at the cor
ner of Washington and Bridge (Thir-
tieth and M, the interior only having
been remodeled. Society met here.
George Washington first, Louis Phil
ippe. Talleyrand, Randolph, Irving,
Fulton. Jerome Bonaparte, whose lady,
the former Miss Patterson, shocked
Georgetown at an assembly in her
honor at the hotel by appearing in
costume "as near to nothing as any
thing could be-"
The small stone house half block
down Bridge was the headquarters OF
Gen. washington and Maj. LEnfant
when surveying the Federal City In
1871. On Bridge also is the small,
sturdy house that was the birthplace OF
w. w. Corcoran, the friend of Wash
ington City. Uriah Forrest, Linthicum
and George Peabody began their busi-
ness here, and Dr. Thornton, the IA
ther of Washington architecture, re-
sided here for some years. Within the
sight Of the handsome Key Bridge, now
taking the place Of the old Virginia