Evening star., 1936-03-15
LIFE IN EARLY GEORGETOWN
FRIGHTENED BY SEMINARY
Miss EngIish's School Scene
of Many Proud Feminine
Beginnings.
Position of Structure Sur.
wives in the Colonial
Apartments.
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Vt and day pupils, more famil-
a = iarly known to the George
town Of It's day as "the Seminary"
was one of the most famous private
schools In the United States. Occupy
ing long red building at Washington
and Gay streets, according to George
towns early designation of its thor
oughfares, o portion of its old struc-
ture still survives in the Colonial
Apartments on the east side Of what
Is now Thirtieth street between N and
Dumbarton avenue. 1t is believed
these apartments are the oldest in the
city. Many former Georgetown belle
remembers when she attended Prof.
Mueller's dancing school class held in
one of the ground floor rooms Of the
old school in that period following the
Civil War before the building itself
had come to its present use. Indeed,
one told me just the other afternoon
of vividly recollecting the old professor
playing his violin. swaying to the music
Of favorite waltz and stopping sud-
denly to tap with his bow, the toes Of
some little pupil who was not in step.
The Edes Home at 2029 N street,
which is the gift of Miss Margaret
EdeS to Georgetown's widows, is built
on the remainder of 'the Seminary's"
site. Many old residents Of George
town still believe that Miss Edes' intent
was to endow home for Georgetown
women regardless of their marital
status, the word widows instead of
women being written into the will by
mistake.
When she herself was but a little
over 16. Miss Lydia English. possessed
of independent means of her own, with
the advice and counsel of Lawyer James
Cassin. himself of Georgetown and the
neighbor and friend of the English
family, organized the school which
bore her name for so many years.
Little Jane Whann and Eliza Hen
derson we're among the first pupils to
be enrolled in Miss Lydia English's
Female Seminary"
Important Institution.
From the 20s and 30s in George
town until the time of the Civil War,
Miss English's Seminary became the
finishing school of its era in this vicin-
ity and throughout the Southern and
and Southwestern parts of our Nation.
Serving with Miss English upon the
schools faculty in 1840, according to
an old catalogue in the Peabody room
of the Georgetown branch of the
Public Library. were Miss Anne Wright
as vice principal, Nathaniel Carusi as
professor of music, Richard Gibson
and Mary Ann Thomas as instructors
of drawing and the following general
associates: Caroline Tenney. Elizabeth
B. Whiting, Ellen r. Riley, Eleanor M.
Forrest, Georgiana Monroe and Susan
T. Houghton.
To profit by their precept and ex-
ample. there flocked to ''the Seminary"
the daughters Of the socially and polit-
ically great, who were given that polish
ing and Furnishing which it was felt
could alone be impaired by Miss Eng
lish and her corps Of assistants.
The prominent families of George
town were numbered among the day
pupils. The boarders came from al
most every State in the Union and
from even beyond its borders. At the
heyday of its existence the seminary"
numbered $50 boarding pupils. The
list of those enrolled reads like the
who's Who" and the Social Register"
of its time.
When Andrew johnson was a Sem
ator from Tennessee his daughter at
tended Miss English's. The niece OF
Everett, Mary B. Rhett,
daughter Of the Senator from Charles
ton, S. c., and the niece of Daniel
Webster. were also pupils, as was the
lovely Harriet Williams, whose mar
riage to the Baron de Bodisco, RuSsia's S
diplomatic representative to the
United States, is among George
towns famous romances.
Jessie Benton, daughter Of Senator
Benton of Missouri. whose mighty
political power and great physical
girth are alike memoralized in Stat
uary Hall at the Capitol, was another
pupil. Her visits to the White House
with her father, President Jackson's
devotion to her and her own extraor-
dinary tact and sympathy in recogniz-
ing his loneliness, young as she was,
are a delightful chapter in them
selves in the annals of this famous
Did Georgetown School.
Discipline Impartial.
That discipline prevailed, no mat
ter what ones station in life or ones
entree at the White House, Is evi-
denced by the punishment meted out
% this same pupil. Just as the girls