Evening star., 1944-06-09
Riches to Rags Is Strange Story of 3 Aged Sisters
Facing Taxes Eviction From 10Th Street Home
Youngest, IS, Tells
OF Life Of Poverty
In Old Mansion

| Of Life Of Poverty
| In Old Mansion
| Sprawling over half a Sixteenth
street block are two red brick
houses, half covered by vines. They
were there when the present site OF
the Carlton Hotel was hill with a
pump atop 1t and horsedrawn cars
clattered nearby past Lafayette
Square.
Yesterday reporter twisted g
bell beneath once elaborate gas
lamp. A muslin curtain moved but
no one came to the door. The re-
porter tried telephoning.
Send that photographer away
and I'll talk to you. I'm so tired >.
I don't know"
Voice Falters.
The voice of Mrs. Emma Prall
Knorr faltered and she hung up
Mrs. Knorr, at rs the youngest o1
the three Prall sisters, was to be the
spokesman. She was willing at last
to tell the story that has climaxed
an effort by the District government
to evict the three daughters of the
late and wealthy inventor, William
E. Prall, and sell the property at 918
and 900 Sixteenth street for unpaid
taxes and penalty assessments
amounting to $4,000.
Mrs. Knorr led the way into the
three rooms she occupies in the FIVE
STORY mansion. Large, gold-framed
oil paintings leaned against the
walls. Here and there was a plaster
statuette. On the old, unvarnished
piano were two spictures-Mrs.
Knorr's actress daughter who died in
an automobile crash, and the grand
daughter Jerry" who was raised by
Mrs. Knorr.
Notes Pass Between Sisters.
Under a magnifying glass on a
table was a note from Mrs. Annie
Fahnestock, the second of the three
sisters. Mrs. Fahnestock, widow,
lives on the second floor. Notes also
pass between these two and the third
sister, Miss Virginia Prall, who lives
In the summer time next door at
900. She moves in with the other
two in the winter because there's no
heat at 900.
Lying back on a couch, Mrs. Knorr
began to talk. Then she looked
sharply at the reporter.
"You can't get it right unless you
make notes." she said.
The reporter hastily brought out
pencil and paper and Mrs. Knorr be-
gan.
My mother came here as bride.
We were born here. There was a
beautiful garden-wistaria and peach
trees and white roses"
Father Made Fortunes.
She told how her father, an in
ventor of motors, made one fortune
after another, how he commenced to
build-the Gordon Hotel and two
properties on street. She told about
the death of her mother, of the
stepmother the three girls didn't
like and of the taxes that somehow
went unpaid because her father was
away so much in New York.
brought up by three aunts, the
Assers and brother were decided
the two properties at s18 and 920
Sixteenth street.
Mrs. Knorr sat up and began to
talk faster.
s shortly After the turn Of the
osntutv my brother died and his
wife bruught suit against us for a
fourth. then Il halt and nnally all
the property. We kart apeiiig with
all our lawyers, WI 1ost against that
woman"
Litigation Goes On.
For years the litigation went on
while the old houses began to go to
pieces. The sisters couldn' t rent them
and they couldn't improve them.
They lived without heat, water or
electricity. They drew water from
one house to ner through a pipe.
The water flower into q tub. They
used to break ice on top of the tub
ana heat the water in kettle on
d steve.
Mrs. Knorr became charter men,
ber Of the Arts Club. She sat in
President Theodore Roosevelt's box
at concerts. Then she and her
sisters would 60 back to the dark,
unheated house.
Their brothers wife died in ST.
Elizabeth's Hospital but the litiga-
ton went on and finally one day
their own lawyer told them they
would have to leave their home
within q week.
when they threw us out, I said
to my sisters, Our life is ended. We
will appeal"
Began Renting Rooms.
The sisters fought back and, in
1926, won-only to face the accumu-
lated wrath of the District govern
ment. They began renting rooms
but they had to fix the furnace
themselves, had to clean the rooms
themselves and they couldn't afford
to put up fire escape. They divided
the house SO each would have a
share in the room rentals.
BY that time the taxes had be-
come so enormous, Mrs. Knorr said,
that they couldn't pay them off.
I'VE tried to pay what we could
but sometimes, if we paid, we
wouldn't have anything to live on
and, of course, we couldn't pay the
back taxes"
That's the story behind the red
brick walls-except that last year
the tree their mother planted, the
family tree" blew down in a storm
Now it's gene-and I guess we're