Evening star., 1944-06-09
Riches to Rags Is Strange Story of 3 Aged Sisters
Facing Taxes Eviction From 18th Street Home
Youngest, IS, Tells
Of Life of Poverty
In Old Mansion

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In Old Mansion
Sprawling over half Sixteenth
street block are two red bricl
houses, half covered by vines. They
were there when the present site ol
the Carlton Hotel was hill with g
pump atop it and horsedrawn cars
clattered nearby past Lafayette
Square.
Yesterday reporter twisted 9
bell beneath q 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
don't know"
Voice Falters.
The voice of Mrs. Emma Prall
Knorr faltered and she hung up
Mrs. Knorr, at rs the youngest o.
the three Prall sisters, was to be the
spokesman. She was willing at last
to tell the story that has climaxeo
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 91s
and 920 Sixteenth street for unpaid
taxes and penalty assessment
amounting to $4,000.
Mrs. Knorr led the way into tht
three rooms she occupies in the five-
story mansion. Large, gold-frameo
oil paintings leaned against the
walls. Here and there was a plaster
Istatuette. On the old, unvarnisheo
piano were two pictures-Mrs
Knorr's actress daughter who died ir
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 thirc
sister, Miss Virginia Prall, who lives
in the summer time next door at
800. She moves in with the other
two in the winter because there's no
heat at 900.
Lying back on a couch, Mrs. Knorl
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 a bride
We were born here. There was q
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
sisters and a brother were decided
the two properties at 91S and 92C
Sixteenth street.
Mrs. Knorr sat up and began t.
talk faster.
Shortly after the turn of the
century, my brother died and his
wife brought suit against us for a
fourth, then q half and finally all
the property. We kept losing
all our lawyers, we lost against that
woman"
Litigation Goes On.
For years the litigation went or
while the old houses began to 60 t.
pieces. The sisters couldn't rent then
and they couldn't improve them
They lived without heat. water o.
electricity. They drew water from
one house to another through pipe
The water flowed into a tub. The.
used to break ice on top of the tul
and heat the water in a kettle o,
a stove.
Mrs. Knorr became charter mem
ber of the Arts Club. She sat il
President Theodore Roosevelt's bo,
at concerts. Then she and he
sisters would go back to the dark
unheated house.
| Their brothers wife died in st
Elizabeth's Hospital but the litiga
ton went on and finally one da,
their own lawyer told them the,
would have to leave their hom,
within a week.
when they threw us out, I sait
to my sisters, Our life is ended. w,
will appeal"
Began Renting Rooms.
The sisters fought back and, IL
1925, won-only to face the accumu
lated wrath of the District govern
ment. They began renting room
but they had to fix the furnac,
themselves, had to clean the room
themselves and they couldn't affort
to put up a fire escape. They divided
the house so each would have s
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 coulc
but sometimes. If we paid, W,
wouldn't have anything to live OF
and, of course, we couldn't pay tn,
back taxes"
That's the story behind the rec
brick walls-except that last yea
the tree their mother planted, thu
family tree" blew down in storm
Now it's gone-and I guess wer,