Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-11-25
Passing Of the Old Riggs Market

Willard house always looked gloomy
and forlorn, as though no one was
living there. 1t has long since been
removed.
At Fourteenth and 0 Streets
During the writer's early school days
he attended for brief period school
at the southwest corner of Fourteenth
and @ streets, in what he believes was
then called the Thomson School. 1t
was removed some years later and re-
placed with the Berret School, and
is now School Administration Annex
No. 2. William Muirhead kept a coal
and wood yard adjoining the school,
and the two were separated by high
board fence. There was no recreation
space here and only enough space for
an clubhouse.
An interesting and tragic story is to
be told of an early merchant who kept
a grocery store at 1904 Fourteenth
street. just half block away from the
market. This merchants name was
George Philip Hirth, and he was brutal
ly murdered on January 7, 1880. This
tragedy occurred at the corner of
Eighteenth and P streets, and for
months the dastardly affair held the
interest of the Washington people of
all degrees and colors. The murderers
of Hirth were all colored men, and one
of them, huge black fellow named
Babe HEREFORD, was employed by Mr..
Hirth in the capacity of porter about
his store on Fourteenth street, and he
knew the usual hour for the murdered
man to call upon his betrothed, young
lady connected with prominent fam
lily in the neighborhood. So Bedford,
Queenan, Pinn and Johnson repaired
to the corner of 18th and P streets and
there lay in wait for him, then sud-
denly jumped from behind a treebox
and with stones rolled in handkerchief
cruelty beat him to death.
A Brutal Murder
This attack occurred just after dusk,
and the poor, manned form of Hirth
was found shortly afterward by
white man and colored laborer who were
returning from their work and who
sounded the alarm. The body was con-
veyed to the drug store. then at the
intersection of Nineteenth street and
connecticut avenue, and soon a vast
crowd surrounded the building and the
tensest excitement prevailed, for Hirth
was prominent in business and church
circles and the family of the lady to
whom he was engaged was one of the
best known of that day, SO that the
dastardly murder of Philip Hirth be-
came the leading sensation of the hour.
Every available policeman was placed
at work on the case among this num-
Der being 1t. Josnson, who was noted
for his skill in unraveling mysteries and
his clever ability in pumping informa-
ton from a prisoner. And So as the
police records will show, before the night
was over and although the officer had
only the most meager suspicion to work
from, he had arrested one of the par
Elephants in the murder. and from the
sweating that this prisoner was given
it was only a few hours before 1t.
johnson was able to put every man i'm
plicated in the affair under arrest, and
taken to the police station, then OPP
posite the ball park on Georgia avenue.
But in order to get the necessary in
eliminating evidence from his prisoners
the lieutenant had to bring into play
all the arts along sweating lines known
to the police of those days, and finally,
under the ceaseless inquiry tactics of