Evening star., 1935-10-06

sylvanis avenue, with a well Of ex-
cellent water in the yard. brick stable
and carriage house adjoining the
alley; flower and fruit garden taste
fully laid out and highly cultivated"
was advertised for sale in the Globe
until March %, 1887, about which
time it was purchased by the editor
of that paper. Francis Preston Blair,
for $500.
For few years preceding the Civil
War, when the senior Mr.. Blair was
residing on his Silver Spring estate,
he rented his avenue property and the
celebrated historian, Bancroft, lived
there while he was Secretary of the
Navy. John Y. Mason, also Secre-
tary of the Navy, and who succeeded
Bancroft in Office, was the next occu-
pant of the house, and then came
Thomas Ewing, whose daughter mar
ried there William T. Sherman, noted
Civil War general. It was in this
house, then the home of Montgomery
Blair, Lincolns Postmaster General,
that Gen. Robert E. Lee, through
Francis Preston Blair, was Of
fered the command of the Union
Army in the field, at the beginning of
the Civil War. But, then, the Blair
House is so replete with history that
volume might well be written of it
alone.
Just now attention is being centered
on this old mansion, and another one
block away to the north, for theiI
association with his life Of George
Bancroft, who founded the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
Nd, while he was Secretary of the
Navy, from March 10, 1845, to Sep
tember, 1846, during the administra-
ton of President James K. Polk.
Others had seen the necessity for such
move, but had failed in their efforts,
and the same antiquated system of in
structing the cadets at a dozen sep
arate schools. These lacked organiza-
ton, Capitalization and adequate sal-
pervision, and were conducted as ap-
pendages to navy yards and seagoing
men-of-war and still were being oper-
ated when Secretary Bancroft as
Sumed Office.
Apparently, Bancroft did not seek
the Office to which he had been ap-
pointed. Rather he cherished the idea
of being sent abroad as envoy to ia
pan, or in some other diplomatic posi-
tion and possibly was as much sur
prised as any one else when the Presi-
dents cabinet appointments were sent
to the Senate for confirmation The
home of the noted editor of the Globe,
F. P. Blair, previously mentioned, was
still the headquarters for making and
breaking politicians, and on March 6,
1845, when the nomination for the Of
flee of the Secretary of the Navy was
being temporarily held up in the Sen
ate, we find Mr.. Bancroft writing to
his wife:
Having dined yesterday at Blair's
and seen wedding at Col. Eenton's,
and watched fire as it burned down
theater and row Of houses, might
have much to say But the time Is
short, and write merely to explain
to you the cause of the Senate's not
acting today upon my affair. 1t springs
from no hostility. but a rule of the
Senate made a delay till Monday
proper. So you win have to address
me as a private citizen till Monday
next, after which the Secretary of the
Navy will lay his laurels, no not that,
his trident at your feet" 80
The burning of the theater to which
Bancroft referred was the destruction
Of the National Theater, which oc-
CURED on March 5, l845.
FORTUNATELY, the opposition to
Bancroft's appointment was too
feeble to prevent his selection for the
Navy portfolio, and he soon entered
actively upon the work, and by Octo-
ber 10 of that year Congress had
enacted the law establishing the Nava;
Academy. Today the biggest structure
in the academy grounds at Annapolis
is named Bancroft Hall In his honor.
1t is the dormitory of the midshipmer
in training and contains nearly 8 miles
Of corridors. It is larger than the
Capitol in Washington by considerably
more than 10000 square feet More
than $15,000,000 have been expended
on the Naval Academy buildings to
date, and Bancroft, who survived for
nearly half q century after haung es-