Evening star., 1936-05-31
Bv John CIagett Proctor.

will ever supplant Pennsylvania ave-
nue. in the estimation of the Ameri-
can people, not merely because it is
an old and well-known street, but
because of its important local and
national history, such as no other
city in the United States can lay
claim to.
Though one of the least desirable
places in the Nations Capital for a
street, at the time the city was first
laid out-being low and marshy and
at times covered with water-yet 1t
was from the beginning intended to
be the citys main thoroughfare, with
the Capitol at one of its most ele-
waited points and the White House
and public buildings little over a
mile away to the west.
Christian Hines, who travelled over
this territory as a lad, gives us an
idea of how it looked in its original
state and when the Government
moved here in 1900. He says:
In passing down the Avenue,
from Georgetown to the Presidents
house, recollect having seen but one
house on Pennsylvania avenue lex
cept the Six and Seven Buildings)
and that was an old frame house
which stood on H between Eighteenth
and Nineteenth streets west, near
where DR.. Hagner now lives, and
which was surrounded by grove of
beautiful forest trees. After pass
ing the Presidents house our road lay
along F street until we arrived at
Eleventh street west. We then passed
in a southeasterly direction to a small
creek that crossed E street north near.
where DR.. Borrows now lives.
I'VE then continued along this
stream, in the same direction, until
it crossed Pennsylvania avenue where
the Center Market house now stands,
and then we crossed the bridge. At
that time there was not single house
on the Avenue from the Presidents
house to the Capitol. On the east
side of the road there were, suppose,
several acres of elegant forest trees.
On the west side there were not so
many, there being only a narrow
strip. I think part, or perhaps all. Of
them were on the public mall.
The bridge, as we'll as I can re-
member. was constructed in this man
ner: There was a causeWay, or rather
two small Wharves constructed of logs
and filled in with earth, on each side
of the creek. They were built so close
to one another that large scow
could scarcely pass between them. On
these wharves, or causeways, the
bridge was erected. The bridge was
very low and not wide enough for
two carriages to pass over side by side.
Close by the end of the bridge. on the
left-hand side in the marsh, grew
some beautiful red berries, something
like cranberries. have often stopped
there with my bundle or basket, and
have plucked and eaten them and
thought them delicious. I have never
seen any since, to my recollec-
tion.
The commons, where now the Ave-
nue. is, from the foot of Capitol Hill
westward, was almost impossible for
vehicles of any kind: indeed, it was
difficult for a person to walk, in some
places, on account of the mud, bushes,
thorns, briars, etc. and more partic-
ularly on the south side, where the
clumps of thorn bushes in some places
were so thick that, believe, they
were cut down with scythes so as to
enable the workmen to make a foot
way to Fifteenth street. This they
did by carting earth, gravel, chips of
freestone. etc, on both sides of the
avenue, to the full extent. until a toll
erably good footway was made all the
way along. On the north side of the
street it was not quite so bad, because
the road from Georgetown to the Cap
itol ran pretty much on high ground
easterly direction, passing along the
foot Of the hill below Blodgett's Hotel"
THE first improvements to the Ave-
nue., according to the records Of
the Commissioners, were authorized
in 1892, though direct steps to open
the Avenue we're not taken until four
years later, when David Burnes was
informed that work would not be COM
menced while his crops were on the
ground; which refers to ground under
cultivation in the vicinity of the Will
lard Hotel at that time.
John Cotton Smith, Representative
In Congress from Connecticut, cor
roborates Mr.. Hines, and says that
when he came to Washington in the
Autumn Of 1900. to attend the Sixth
Congress, gangs of laborers were then
making the first Improvements since
the clearing away of the forest trees.
Another early arrival to the city, DR..
William Gunton, who came here from
Norfolk, England, with his father, late
In 1907, tells us that near the corner
Of Seventh street and the Avenue were
one or two buildings, one, where the
National Intelligencer was printed by
Samuel Harrison Smith, and the other,
a little building called the Marsh
Market" the site of the National
Archives Building. Many parts of
Pennsylvania avenue" he says. touch
the waters edge, and the road was
Corduroy Logs were piled to fill up
the mud holes and miry places along
the route. Once crossing the Avenue
at Seventh street, our young druggist
lost a shoe. which sank into the ooZe
and was with some difficulty recov-
cred"
According to the late DR.. Tindall the
Avenue was macadamized in 1882,
from First to Fifteenth street and re-
manned in this condition until replaced
by wooden blocks Elsewhere it Is re-
liably stated that the Avenue was
paved with cobble stones in 1847, but
this probably refers to carriageways
and street crossings. But even with
these improvements the dust at times
was simply sitting, and little relief
came until completion of the wooden
block pavement early in 1871, when
the event was celebrated with Wash
ington's most elaborate carnival of
all time, held on February 20 and 81
Of that year. The Star printed seI-
eral columns at the time regarding