Evening star., 1937-10-03
By John Claggen Proctor.

ground III some OF JNe outlying
i subdivisions of Washington for as
low es 10 cents a square foot, even if
you did not grasp the opportunity to
invest. And this brings to the writer's
mind just such an occasion in the 80s
when he saw lots auctioned of in Co.
lumbia Heights which brought just
that amount of money. OF course, it
was so or more years ago, when this
subdivision was new and had only re-
Gently been converted from farmland
into building lots. and besides, it was
a forced sale. But even then, when
we consider that A. L. Barber & Co.,
who put this property on tht market
IN 1881, paid less than half that
amount for it per foot, for the 100
acres the tract contained, apparently
a good profit was realized even at this
price.
But A. L. Barber g. Co. was an en-
terprising and successful firm, and
by 1883 it advertised that it had sold
lots to the following prominent persons:
Gen Nelson A. Miles, U. S. Army Sem
ator j. Don Cameron, United States
Senate; Col H. c. Corbin, U. S. Army;
Gen. Judson Fitzpatrick, United States
Minister; Col. c. NJ Baker, U. S.
Army; Lieut.. Ascher c. Baker, U. S.
Navy; Thomas J. Murphy, esq.,; Hiram
Michaels, ESQ.,: DR.. C. NJ Ford, H. G..
Underwood, esq.,. David Kellett, ESQ.,;
Mrs. Ann North, L. w. Funk, esq.,;
John Orme Cole, esq.,; William Lam
born. esq.,; Charles Darlington, esq.,,
and George N. Lamphere. esq.
In no part of Washington is the
writer more familiar than he is with
Columbia Heights, and even when this
part of Washington was the country
estate of Mrs. Elizabeth j. Stone, relict
of William j. Stone, an early local line
engraver, who was commissioned by
John Quincy Adams, when Secretary
of State, to engrave copper facsimile
of the original Declaration of Inde-
pendence for the Department of State.
The property, now known as Colum-
bia Heights, was bought by Mr.. Stone
about l840. when he retired from the
engraving business, and built the old
mansion there about eight years later.
He died in 1865, and Mrs. Stone died
August 8, 1892.
WHEN this subdivision was first di-
vided, it was advertised as Co
lumbar" Heights and its boundary
lines were given as from Florida ave-
nue. to Holmead road (now Park
road, and from Fourteenth street
to Sherman avenue. However, the
Florida avenue frontage, between
Eleventh street and Sherman avenue,
where is now the Garfield Memorial
Hospital, was not part of the Stone
property, as it belonged to other in
terests.
In 1871 the writer's parents bought
q home at the southwest corner Of
Florida avenue and w street, when
the Stone estate was a large wood,
and here as boy he roamed the near
by woods and open spaces the hills
and valleys, to his youthful hearts
content
Here he gathered persimmons and
hickory nuts, where now stands the
Central High School, then a densely
wooded area, and long before Eleventh
and Thirteenth streets, with Florida
avenue, were opened, and still recalls
with keen pleasure coasting down
Ruppert's Hill, now Sherman avenue,
alongside the Garfield Hospital prop
erty. when snow was on the ground.
Indeed, he can see in his minds eye
o1d R-ot, ,oI,
along the east side of Sherman ave-
nue. and crossed over to Eighth street
little south of Irving street, con-
tinuing southwark in almost straight
line to the city
Nor has he forgotten the geese in
Cowtown, which would stretch out
their necks and make frightful noises
at strange little boys, and Ruppert's
bloodhounds and other fierce-looking
dogs educated to resent the intrusions
of outsiders and strangers in the
neighborhood, and the large, old-fash-
ioned pump that stood at the top of
Ruppert's Hill to supply the early
settlers living nearby with drinking
water. The writer never knew of a
stream flowing into or entering Reedy
Branch from the east or west after
it entered Sherman avenue, nor any
other stream that flowed south and
crossed Florida avenue between Sher-
man avenue and Fourteenth street.
SEVERAL years ago the writer de-
scribed this neighborhood as it
appeared when he was boy, and told
OF the slaughter houses which then
lined Reedy Branch on upper Eighth
street; spoke of the hand bridge that
crossed this stream at Eighth street
and Florida avenue and the beautiful
stones he would find in the water be-
low, some years before the great
boundary sewer was constructed under
the supervision of the late Gen. Hoxie,
when the branch from this point on
became q sewer
Not only has the writer played over
the Stone property, but he recalls when
Gen. Logan bought the property about
1885 and named it Calumet Place, and
well remembers seeing the Senator
riding around Florida avenue on his
way home in an unusually high car
riage, and his death in the old mansion
the following year.
The old residence was a substantial
looking building of brick and the story
told is that the granite pillars came
from Scotland. Surrounding the
house were some fine lockwood trees
and at an early date an artificial pond
or lake between the mansion and Flor
ida avenue was among its attractions.
A WARTIME description of the
property. written by Theodore
Winthrop and quoted on a former oc-
casion, is here repeated in part:
Eve occupied the villa and farm of
Dr. Stone, two miles due north OF
Wizards Hotel " n The house stands
upon the pretty terrace commanding
the plain of Washington. From the
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