Evening star., 1946-01-20

purchased by the Corporation of Wash
ington in 1909.
The burial ground attached to the
institution was on the line of N street,
and the one for the interment of the
cholera patients was on the Sixth street
side of the square. In 1845 the poor
house was removed to the neighborhood
Of the old Washington Jail, near the
Eastern Branch, and only remnant of
the poorhouse buildings remain. Dur
ing subsequent building operations, the
remains of many buried in this locality
were distinterred, several Of whom had
around them what was supposed to be
the remains of leather belts, conveying
the impression that they had been
laboring men. 4 i L.
The southeast corner of Massachus-
etts avenue and Seventh street was
vacant ground prior to 1860, and the
Post Office Department having ceased to
use the space at F street between Sixth
and Seventh streets to burn the un-
claimed dead letters and refuse paper,
this material was hauled to the Massa-
chusetts avenue site and there destroyed.
This was prior to the coming to this
corner of Burr's wood and coal yard. be-
fore mentioned.
Seventh Street Bridge
Speaking of the period around 1910,
an early resident tells us in an early
issue Of The Star that "the west end of
the two angular squares fronting
Seventh street, and between Massachus-
etts and New York avenues, was not i'm
proved until after the '40s and was not
susceptible of improvement because of
a stream which had its head in the
commons north Of this area, and which
crossed Seventh street eastwardly near
the center Of K street, and continued on
its way in a gulley down Sixth street
and thence to Judiciary Square, joining
there the water from Willow Tree
Spring, located at New York avenue be-
tween Fourth and Fifth streets. A
small arch spanned the former stream
at Seventh street, and there was q mar
row bridge at the roadway on New
York avenue. Not far east of the square
there had been brickyard. At what
was later known as Spignuls corner, at
Seventh and K streets was then vacant,
but the owner of the land, w. T. Griffith,
had erected two brick dwellings short
distance away on what was known as
Northern Market space, and lived in one
for number of years afterward.
Gp;4 %oi1 - A~.>
Matlock & Griffith.
We who today enjoy the fine paved
streets and avenues of Washington can
hardly realize the fact that the first i'm
provement noted to the carriageway
along Seventh street was made just 100
years ago, when it was graveled from
Virginia avenue, southwest to H street
north. And at this time there were no
public conveyances travelling along this
thoroughfare, and little if any need for
them. But by 1860 buses found it
profitable to run as far north as L street.
An Early Railroad
However, on May II, 1862, a charter
was granted by Congress to the Wash
ington g. Georgetown Railroad Co.,
now included in the Capital Transit
Co., with authority to construct line
from the Navy Yard to Georgetown,
with cross lines on Seventh street,
from Florida avenue to the water front
and on Fourteenth street from Florida
avenue to a connection with the main
line at Fifteenth street and New York
avenue. This line was completed by
the close Of 1852, and the operation OF
the Seventh street line soon followed,
with its carbarn In the fiatiron block
bounded by T street, Florida avenue
and Seventh street. This carbarn, a
one-story, entirely frame structure,
covered the entire block, and here were
housed the horses, cars, sweepers and
all necessary equipment for the opera
ton Of the road.
Looking backward to railroading
when the writer was boy, he recalls