Evening star., 1934-09-08
GRIM OLD HOUSE
RECALLS WHITMAN
v Street Structure Once
Meeting Place of Famous
Literary Workers.
Architectural Feature Recent Home Purchases

Dilapidated and long forgotten,
there stands today at 1882 v street a
house that once was occupied by the
poet, Walt Whitman, and was the
meeting place of some Of the coun-
try's greatest literary people back in
the 70's.
The house was dubbed the House
That Jack Built" and within its
brick walls Whitman, then an odd
character who moved from attic to
attic as his finances permitted, got
his start by writing questionable
verses for the papers when he might
have been carrying on his duties as a
clerk in the Controller Generals
Office.
The structure was built in 1853 by
John Burroughs, then Treasury
clerk, whose wife often served free
breakfasts to Whitman The Bur-
roughses shared half the house with
William D. O'Connor, an assistant
chief of the Bureau of Lighthouses,
and Mrs. O'Connor. Burroughs, who
also wrote for the papers, had hen
house in the back yard, a flower gar
den and a small vegetable patch.
Often Seen Together.
When Burroughs first came to
Washington after having admired
Whitman's verse and being inclined
toward literary effort, he met the poet
on December IA, 1865. He was often
seen in company with the poet, al
though he was 26 and Whitman was
18 years his senior.
When Whitman first became init
mate with the Burroughs house he
was living Gin small brick house on
Capitol Hill near the present site of
the Senate Office building" There is
no record more definite. Burroughs,
who had just brought his young wife
to Washington, was attracted to the
poet-naturalist and there the first
Whitman circle" was formed. Whit
man liked the enthusiastic companion
ship of the younger man and well
coined the numerous invitations to
griddle cakes and maple sirup from
the Adirondacks prepared by Mrs.
Burroughs. When he borrowed part
of Burroughs $50 monthly salary, he
AoAS E1SAA ~ VAIN. 14C CfClA OIOuSUL
his tattered shirts and jeans to be
mended by the young housewife, who
later shared the honor with Mrs.
OConnor. And when Whitman
quarreled over his debt to O'Connor.
then struggling novelist, he used to
wait outside the house until the hus-
band left, then walk in with his pock-
cts bulging with worn-out socks to be
mended.
Work on Capitol Hill.
At the small brick house on
Capitol Hill" Whitman composed a
great deal of the elegy of Lincoln,
which is now his most celebrated
work, and which is considered the
supreme contribution of America to
world literature during the nineteenth
century. The inspiration for this
masterpiece of the lilacs, the thrush
and the evening star came from the
garden Of that house on v street.
Whitman spent only 10 years of his
life In Washington. but those years
were the most prolific of his coiorful
career Of wandering from place to
place trying to make both ends meet
Burroughs, O'Connor and Whit
man all achieved literary attainments
in the brick house that now is in an
utter state Of ruin. OF all the his
toric mansions that should be pre-
served, the one at 1882 v street
should be the first, because it was
here that notables from all over the
world came to visit with the Good
Grey Poet" Emerson called on
Whitman in the Burroughs house in
1871. James A Garfield, Edmund c.
Stedman and Peter Doyle, Whitman's
greatest friend, called on him there.
But Peter Doyle was devout
churchman and often criticized
Whitman on his questionable verse.
Loses First Federal Job.
Whitman was discharged from his
first Government job and accepted
another through his friend, william
O'Connor. whose book. 1.-THE Car
penter," closely approached the
genius Of his two friends. Burroughs
and Whitman.
Before Whitman left Washington,
after turning out the light in his
Office in the Treasury Building, bid
ding good night to the watchman
and going to recuperate from Ill
health at the home of his mother in
Camden, N. j., the 10-room house on
V street saw many a famous face
1t stood out in the country" as one
OF the most popular meeting places of
the nineteenth century in American
history.
In the Spring of 1872 a man who
became tired of eating Government
dirt" quit his job in the Treasury De-
partment and moved to New York
advertising the house with an acre OF
ground around it." Shortly after
OConnor died his wife returned to
Washington and remarked Charles
Sumner died. Garfield was assassi-
mated. And the Augustan age of lit
erature of Washington came to a sad
end
Those who visited the historic house
on v street, now occupied by colored
folk, were among the greatest artists
writers and statesmen of the age
John T. Trowbridge was there. He was
another unknown scribbler then.
House in Other Hands.
With the death of O'Connor anc
the stroke of paralysis from which
Whitman never fully recovered, the
famous house swiftly passed into hand.
OF different people, and Rev. j. Miltor
Waldron once complained to the police
about the character of various of it,
occupants.
With the passage of time and present
day history crowding out the old mas.
ters and statesmen, the house on '
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