Evening star., 1942-07-05

probably remained on the site until
within As years ago. The writer re-
calls visiting this house when 1t was oc-
cupied by his aunt, Mrs. Mary Proctor)
Logan, whose husband was David Lo-
gan, and who had q large family OF
children. This was about 1876.
Meridian Hill Tract.
Upon the death of Robert Peter,
who built this old home, all his prop
erty. including that part of his large
tract of land which later became known
as Meridian Hill, went to his son, Rob-
ert Peter, jr.
In 1911 Thomas Peter, executor of
Robert Peter, jr., decided the Meridian
Hill tract to Washington Bowie, who,
in 1916, decided 110 acres to Commo-
dore David Porter for $4,000, and on
the brow of the hill the commodore
erected a handsome residence from plans
by George Hadfeld, designer of our
Courthouse and other structures In and
around Washington.
Admiral David D. Porter, in his
Memoir of Commodore David Porter"
says the tract of land purchased by
the commodore consisted of 157 acres,
though ITO acres is probably correct.
However. what the admiral tells us
about this area makes interesting read
ing. He says:
considerable prize money had fallen
to the lot of Rodgers, Decatur and Por-
ter, and they determined to build resi-
dences in the District of Columbia. Capt.
Porter accordingly purchased farm OF
157 acres on the heights about one mile
due north of the Presidents house,
which being directly on the meridian of
Washington, he called Meridian Hill.
Here he erected a large and elegant
mansion overlooking the city of Wash
ington and the broad Potomac. The
chain of hills, on which the house was
built, forms an ampitheater around the
city, and the hills we're, at the time, COW
cred with fine growth of forest, the
whole forming an extensive landscape
which, to this day, has lost little of its
beauty. Here was to be found everything
that money could procure to make the
time pass pleasantly after the life of
toll and warfare through which Capt.
Porter had passed, and here he delight
ed to dispense that hospitality which
made his house a place of reunion for
some of the wisest and greatest in the
land. -
During his residence a Meridian Hill
Capt. Porter became much interested in
farming. His friend, Mr. John Skinner,
was the editor of an agricultural paper
and the various hints in regard to the
proper cultivation of the soil the captain
endeavored to put in practice on his
gravelly land where crops did not seem
to thrive. In truth, though an excellent
sailor, he was no judge of land for
farming purposes. though, If he had
suspected the existence of that deposit
of white sand under his estate, which
since the establishment of the Board of
Public Works has been made manifest,
he might have made the place pay good
dividends. James K. Paudling, an init
mate friend of Capt. Porter, in his
amusing book, John Bull in America,
good naturedly satirizes the nautical
hero's system of farming.
"All sailors imagine themselves COM
petent to manage a farm, and are never
satisfied until they own one. The his
toric Pennsylvania Dutchman may not
have understood the theory of farming,
but in practice he was certainly sue
cessful, for what vegetables he could
not sell he gave to the pigs, and what
the pigs wouldn't eat he ate himself.
The captain, on the other hand. was
30 proud of his farming that he supplied
his acouaintances with the best of vege-
tables for nothing He had kitchen
garden of five acres, and had to buy
vegetables for winter; he had hundred
acres of corn, oats, wheat, etc, and was
obliged to purchase grain for his stock.
He imported English bulls at $1,000
apiece; people would not patronize them
He had the finest piggery In the coun-
try but. alas. it did not pay. Thousands
of carloads of manure were hauled upon
the farm, only to be washed away by
the spring rains: the place was in
beautiful order, highly satisfactory to
the casual observer, but it yielded abso-
lutely nothing
The captain then introduced an Eng
ekh farmer on the premises, established