Evening star., 1937-04-18

ANCIENT MANSIONS DISAPPEAR
Parking Lots Absorb Show Places of Past Era-En Home to
to Be Raced Soon-FighGghts of Street in Period
of Elegance Are Skeched.

bassy under Ambassador Bakmetie1,
until 1918. The following year the
present owner, the Washington Club,
took possession.
NO. l7oa K street, the center house
of Shepherd row, was probably
bought by Adolf Cluss as an invest
ment and the first tenant Is said to
have been Alexander Bruen, q promi-
nent New Yorker whose grandfather
made considerable wealth by q cor
ner In the salt market during the
American Revolution. Bruen Is said
to have lived there for more than rs
years, but his name does not appear
in the city directory for 1878, 1879,
1880, 1883, 1884 or 1885, though there
was DR.. A. M. Bruen residing at 720
Fifteenth street In 1880. However, it
Is quite likely that Alexander Bruen
was the owner Of the property.
William L. Scott Of Pennsylvania,
who served in Congress from 1885 to
1889, occupied this residence during
these years. He was native of Wash
ington, D. c., and was born here July
2. 1928 He was the grandson Of Gus
tavus Scott, a delegate in the Con-
tinental Congress who, on August 23,
1894. was appointed one of the Com
missioners Of the District of Colum-
bia by President Washington. Soon
after assuming his duties here he
bought a house on a 40-acre farm
known as Rock Hill from Anthony
Holmead This tract later became
known as Kalorama and extended
considerably over a section of WASH
ington now known as Washington
Heights.
Mrs. Cora Bacon-Foster, in writing
Of Gustavus Scott, says:
In 1894 the house with about 40
acres was bought and occupied BY
Gustavus Scott from Dorchester
County, Md. He had been a promi.
nent lawyer there and a politician,
He was one Of the original promoters
OF the Potomac Co. scheme for i'm.
provement of the river navigation-
held ii shares Of the stock; he Sc
cured the passage of a bill in the |
Maryland Legislature for monopoly in |
steam navigation in the State to |
James Rumsey; he was a heavy in
vestor in Federal City lots; he was
appointed one Of the early Commits
sloners of the District and was made |
Of public works; when |
Maryland made her third loan to the |
National Government his |
was one OF the three personal indorse-
ments required upon the bonds. |
President Washington wrote to Tobias
Lear from Philadelphia August %.
1894: - Mr.. Scott { at present
Of Baltimore) gentleman eminent
IN the profession Of law, q man of
character and fortune and one who
mas the welfare Of the new city much
at heart, has been applied to and ac-
cepted the appointed trust (as Com.
1t was doubtless in COM
pliance with the Presidents request
that he should reside in the District
that he secured the Rock Hill resi-
dence.
He seems to have inherited some
OF Is ancestral Scotch thrift, as he !
used the rejected keystone Of the new
K street bridge for kitchen door step
on which for many years his name was
perpetuated in an inscription-grad-
ually vanishing under the tread of
many feet.
IN THE Scott home hospitality held
full sway-it was one Of the fine
country places frequented by the
George Town gentry.
"Gustavus Scott was the grandfather
OF Admiral Gustavus Hall Scott, long
a resident Of Washington and a rela-
tive Of Mrs. Richard Townsend.
His patriotic investments were evi-
dently unfortunate ones for him, as we
learn from letter addressed to Joel
Barlow in Paris by President Jefferson,
dated May 3, 1902, in which Barlow
Is urged to return to America
There is a most lovely seat adjoining
this city-on high hill, commanding
a most extensive view Of the Potomac
now for sale. A superb house, gar
dens, etc, with 80. or 40 acres of
ground. It will be sold under circum-
stances Of distress and will probably
go for the halt of what it has cost. It
was built by Gustavus Scott who Is
dead-a bankrupt
1T was, however, then bought by
William Augustine Washington, who