Evening star., 1936-01-05
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.


What Is in o name? Had you been
member of the District of Column
bias School Board in the 80s
you could have dissertated feelingly
upon this query. To escape the hor-
nets nest of Indignation that was be-
ing heaped upon you because you had
been unsuspectingly responsible for
calling the new public school on g
street, between Twenty-first and
Twenty-second - streets northwest.
"Analostan," instead of Grant" you
might even have welcomed the tenn
porary change of your own.
Fifty-five years ago, when this con-
troversy was at its height, this school
building was the only white one south
of X street and west of the White
House to Rock Greek, wherein classes
from the first to the eighth grade could
be simultaneously taught. Situated in
that famous portion of the District Of
Columbia originally termed Ham
burg" where Thomas Jefferson would
have located the Capitol Building, had
the choice Of site been his. it was
part Of that community later known
as the FIRST ward" For local admins
trative purposes, Washington under
its early system of Government by
mayors, was zoned into wards. In the
COS, the late Albion K. Paris tells us
that the first ward" comprised that
area bounded by Fifteenth street,
Boundary street (now called Florida
avenue) so designated because it was
at one time the end of the city proper,
Rock Greek and the Potomac. Within
the confines of the "first ward" were
located the White House. the old State
Department at Fifteenth and Penn
sylvania avenue, and the War and
Navy Departments at Pennsylvania
avenue extending down Seventeenth
street. The main front of these
buildings sat down in hollow. well
away from Pennsylvania avenue,
To enter them. it was necessary to
descend steps and walk through a
line of fine trees.
BY the time of the Civil War the
first ward area to the west Of the
White House comprised one OF the
most distinguished residential districts
in the Nations Capital. Here were
gathered not only the. wealth and
fashion of the time. but the families
of men whose decisions controlled our
statecraft and the destiny of our
forces by land and sea. To quote our
chronicler. Mr.. Paris again, the
first ward saw a great sight on May
% and "a, 1865, fo- 1t was then that
a part Of Grants victorious forces Of
100000 men returning from the bat
tlefields of the Civil War passed down
Pennsylvania avenue in a grand pa
rade and broke ranks at Washington
Circle just beyond US, Phil Sheridan
and every one of his cavalrymen
wearing a flaming red bowtie."
School Built in 1880.
About 1880 the people in this old
first ward community became clam
orous for a school to serve the needs
of their children. The appropriation
for the purpose was Forthcoming from
Congress and the present red brick
building Of IL rooms was erected at
cost of about s50,000. Nearby was
Analostan Island in the Potomac, once
the annual ceremonial ground of a
famous tribe of local Indians. who
had held partial sway over this Sec
ton of the city. Some historically
minded board member made the sug-
gestion that the new school be called
the Analostan. His fellow members
agreed and the name Analostan was
set up in raised letters across the
new school buildings surface.
The hullabaloo which resulted in the
neighborhood was a civil war of its
own all over again. Analostan, in
deed, was the general hue and cry.
Why this whole vicinity so associated
Gen. Grant with its background that
it was incredible that any other name
than that of the victor of Appomatox
should even be entertained as the
name OF a school in its midst. Gen.
Grant had once used 1924 G street
as his temporary headquarters during
the Civil War. Later this same
property was the residence of Gen.