Evening star., 1935-04-07
CONTINUED From Third Page.)

No. 2017 G street, which is Building
M of the university, goes down to fame
In the letters of Henry Adams. Here.
on the third floor, this famous mem
ber Of a famous family had bachelor
quarters during the Winter Of 1869-7O,
and from them he went back and
forth in the Washington Of his time.
His wagon hitched to the star OF
reform, he wrote from 2017 G. street
for various magazines and newspapers
divers attacks and defenses upon the
political issues of the day, while
Washingtons practical politicians
laughed and went their way. He knew
many Congressman and newspaper
men. His associates and friends,
through his old New England family
and the powerful friendship and in
terest of Senator Hoar of Massachu-
sets, numbered such giants as Fish.
Jacob D. Cox, Evarts, Sumner, Secre-
tary of the Treasury Boutwell,, Chief
Justice Chase and a score more.
The letters addressed to his English
friend, Charles Milne Gaskell, during
the time when he lived at 2017 G
street, may be read verbatim in Let
ters of Henry Adams" edited by
Worthington Chauncey Ford, pages
169-187. Extracts from two are given.
washington, December 1869.
Sunday night I had Jacob DOL
son Cox, Secretary of the Interior,
to dine with me here and a very small
party at which very important con-
versation took place. We eagles do
soar, we donkeys do bray Gen.
Bade, who was Motley's secretary of
legation last season has returned and
taken up quarters on the floor below
me. We dine here every evening in
state and full dress, including white
cravats. Between us we know every
body and those we don't know know
U.S."
(The former drawing room and
dining room of 2017 G street, now
used as class rooms, are substantially
unchanged and one can readily visu-
alize how they must have appeared at
the time of which Mr.. Adams writes)
No. 158 G street was the old num-
bering of the house and its change to
q new number. 20l7, is commented
upon in this letter:
2017 G street, Washington,
13 January 1870.
(which is not a new address, but
only new number and means that 7
live on G street in the seventeenth
house beyond Twentieth street. There's
arithmetic for you. What thing it is
to live in new country :"
Washington Springtime.
At time when Adams was caus-
tically referring to President Grants
simplicity in foreign affairs being
more disconcerting than the COM
plexity of Talleyrand" and bitterly
assailing many other public figures
in the Nations Capital he was learn
ing the fascination of Washington's
Springtime. The wild beauty Of
Rock Greek and of the Potomac River
made their impression. Character
istically, he writes of "the purified
charm which was lent to the Capt.
tol as one caught sight of its dome
over miles of forest foliage" 1t is
little wonder that years later he
should make Washington his resi-
dence and that when his grief over
the loss of his wife could not be as
fashion and erect in Rock Creek
Cemetery that bronze monument,
"Grief," to which a visiting world
has worn a reverent footpath.
No. 2024 G street, where the home
economics laboratories and class
rooms are located, once served as
Gen. Grants headquarters, prior to
its occupancy as a home by Gen.
Orville E. Babcock, secretary to Gen.
Grant. The mantels in the drawing
rooms and dining room Of this house
are very beautiful and are said to
have been installed here by former
tenant when the White House was
remodeled during President Theodore
RooSevelt's administration. The back
garden blooms again in all its old
time loveliness and a wisteria vine
Of great age which entirely covers the
rear of the house, blossoms each
Spring.
No. 2022 G street, which is next door
10 Babcock House, and designated as
Building D, is the headquarters of the
university's School of Education. 1t
was once the home of DR.. John Fred
erick May, who was graduated from
the George Washington University
(then Columbian) with the degree of
A. B. in 1881 and NJ D. in 1884
DR.. John Frederick May was the
son of DIR. Frederick May, who from
the time he came to Washington in
l795 so well contributed to the lay
ing of enduring foundations for the
civic and professional life of the city.
To- fIa Nr cd
the Medical Society of the District
of Columbia, and in 1926 was ap-
pointed to the medical faculty Of the
George Washington University. He
was the builder and one of the own
ers of the Columbian Building at the
corner of Tenth and E streets, then
the headquarters for the university'S
Medical School, where he and others
lectured to the medical students.
Famous Surgeon Here.
The younger DR.. May became Wash
fngton's most famous surgeon before
the Civil War and, like his father, was
noted for his civic benefactions. After
studying abroad in the hospitals of
London and Paris he became profess
sor Of anatomy and surgery in his
alma mater. It was DR.. John Fred
erick May who identified the body of
John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Presi-
dent Lincoln, by means Of a scar on
Booths neck, left by an operation for
the removal of tumor which DR..
May had performed upon him some
time previously. Booths vanity would
not permit him to forego a famous
scene with Charlotte Cushman, with
the result that he returned to the
stage too soon and seriously reopened
the wound during the course of an
embrace incident to their act, with
the resulting tell-tale scar which was
later to be a factor in DR.. Mays
identification of him after the murder
OF President Lincoln.
DR.. May. according to those who
remember him, was fine, upstand-
ing figure Of man, veritable giant
for height, as were his sons. The
May daughters were tall and extremely
oraref,Jl and were famed for their