Preservation Month is coming up in May. One of the lesser-known and long-forgotten acts of preservation in the Washington region is the crucial role St. Alban’s Church played in the late 1890s. A developer wanted to build a private home where the National Cathedral stands today.
The National Cathedral’s website has an excellent timeline for the history of its majestic building and what they call “the Close,” the surrounding grounds.
It skips, however, from 1791 to 1893. In some ways that is understandable. Nevertheless, the timeline leaves out that crucial role St. Alban's Church and the Nourse (pronounced "nurse") family members played in helping the National Cathedral Committee to acquire the land for what would become an iconic landmark in Washington and "a spiritual home" for the nation. There were alternative sites, but the committee dearly wanted the spot next to St. Alban's Church.
One always wants to be careful when writing about their subjects, the concern about the reduction of objectivity. For me, I fell in love with the history of the Nourse family.
Nevertheless, a clear-headed observation gives them due credit for their roles in this story. In fact, in her history of St. Albans's Church ("Church at the Crossroads"), Dr. Ruth Cline titles Part 1 -- "The Nourse Years." With a fine tooth comb, she tells us how members of the family helped the church from the beginning and nurtured it along each step of the way during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Who were these members of the Nourse family?
Their grandfather was Joseph Nourse. As the Register of the Treasury serving the first six Presidents, Nourse has been called "America's First Public Servant."
The Nourse family story starts in pastoral England, moves to London, takes the weeks-long voyage to the New World, journeys northward across the colony of Virginia, and begins to unfold during the American Revolution. Joseph (1754-1841) and his wife Maria carry it forward through the early years of the nation, and through Washington's first four decades as the new Federal capital. Their story takes us to Georgetown, then further up the hill to a patch of land Joseph named Mount Alban (where the National Cathedral would be built). Joseph walked even further up the road we call Wisconsin Avenue and acquired another tract overlooking the city of Washington and Georgetown.
We then go back to Virginia during the Civil War, before returning to the stories of the grandchildren of Joseph and Maria. They can tell us something important not only about the early years of St. Alban's Church, but also about "The Highlands," the place they called home and now lovingly cared for by the Sidwell Friends School.
St. Alban's Church and the National Cathedral are two separate entities, but early on they formed a cohesive bond and have kept it strong all these years. A visitor walking the grounds of the National Cathedral could easily not realize these are two separate places (hopefully you like neo-gothic architecture).
The recent damage to the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris has us all reflecting on the importance of having such places to see, to gather, to admire, to touch, to be humbled by, and reflect on our immortality.
In the nation's capital, such feelings are evoked by the National Cathedral. All around is the rat race, impatient drivers honking horns and clogged roads. At this oasis, one feels something special, a quiet public place that invites you to stroll through the Bishop's Garden and the Olmsted Woods and wander over to St. Alban's church and grounds.
In a word cloud for the National Cathedral, Charles C. Glover and Right Reverend Henry Yates Satterlee have their rightful place. They and others deserve all the credit we can give them in creating one of our nation’s most cherished landmarks. To borrow a lyric from Neil Peart, they “dragged the dream into existence.”
The story of National Cathedral, however, cannot be fully told without telling the story of Nourse family.
Let’s take a look. We’ll do this in five parts.
Note: A big thank you to Scott Scholz, Curator and Richard Ross, a distinguished and learned docent at the Dumbarton House; Dr. Ruth Cline at St. Albans Church; Marc Fetterman; Loren Hardenbergh, archivist at Sidwell Friends School; Betsy Anderson with the Warrenton Antiquarian Society at Weston, and Dr. Ruth Trocolli, District Archaeologist, DC Historic Preservation Office. All photos are by the author except where noted.
Part One: 1750s-1810s, From London to Georgetown
Like many other stories in the colonial days in Virginia, this one began with a tough decision. Stay put or pull up roots and take the long passage from the Old World to the new one. 250 years ago, James Nourse and his wife made that bold decision in London.
There’s not a lot of information on the early life of the Nourse family, but “James Nourse and His Descendants” sheds some light. In 1753, James Nourse (1731-1784) married Sarah Fouace (1735-1784), both born in Herefordshire, England. Fouace was of Huguenot descent.
Note: This portrait hangs in the Dumbarton House. The docent told me they believe it was painted in London, and transported by the family to the colony of Virginia.
The newlyweds moved to London, traveling from a pastoral homeland that would become famous for its beef cattle. The Continental Navy website tells us they lived on Bedford Street in Covent Garden. As a draper, James sold wool and cloth for fifteen years. Most of their children were born in the teeming capital city. Joseph was born first, in July 1754.
In the telling of history, it's difficult to know the why. In the case of the English colonists, some people were motivated to emigrate for the want of greener pastures. Some wanted to get away from their present position. Perhaps some felt they had no choice. All faced the perils of getting there.
With James and Sarah, it seems likely they hoped for a more prosperous life for their children. Whatever the reason or reasons, they took their family on a weeks-long voyage across the ocean in 1769. One can only imagine their thoughts and feelings as they endured the tossing about on the high seas, and then finally seeing their first glimpse of the New World land.
A century and a half earlier, Christopher Newport had led the first wave of colonists from England to the place they would call Virginia. The native Americans surely watched those tall ships entering a river the Englishmen would name James. Its large mouth is formed in part by the city of Hampton where the Nourse family lived for their first year.
The journey for the family was still not complete. The following year, when patriotic anger burned hot in Boston, James and his family piled into a series of coaches that took them to the mountains of Virginia (now West Virginia). The family settled near Charles Town, where they built "Piedmont" and raised cattle on a farm in Berkeley County.
Living near Charles Town put the family in contact with George Washington, whose brothers Charles and Samuel lived at Happy Retreat and Harewood respectively. Piedmont was located about two miles east of Harewood.
Washington’s diary entry of March 9, 1771, tells us he dined with James and his eldest son Joseph. Samuel had built Harewood in 1770. James Madison and Dolly Payne Todd were married there in 1794.
As a leader, Washington was always looking for someone possessing solid character. It seems likely James displayed those qualities when he represented Berkeley County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1778, and at other times during stays in Annapolis.
Perhaps Washington also saw those same trustworthy qualities in Joseph. He became active with the Continental Congress in roles such as assistant auditor general, paymaster and Register of the Continental Board of Treasury. It was his signature on the currency.
In 1789, President Washington kept Nourse in office as register of the newly established Treasury Department. He worked under Alexander Hamilton. Along with his wife Maria Bull (1765-1850) of Pennsylvania, Nourse followed the seat of government from New York to Philadelphia to Washington.
Image: Dumbarton House, public viewing display.
At the “Papers of the War Department” website, one can view some of Nourse’s work as one of our countries first bureaucrats, including one where he “estimates for Hamilton the monies due to the War Department for the year 1791.”
We doubt “career employee” was a term used back then, but institutional knowledge was important in the early days of the republic. Nourse made contributions this way, holding the register position through the first six Presidents. He has been called “America’s First Civil Servant.” His total service spanned 52 years.
On December 14, 1799, George Washington drew his last breath at Mount Vernon. It would be quite a long time before the new Federal district blossomed into an attractive place worthy of being called a world capital, but Washington had helped plant the first seeds.
Now it was time for President Adams to lead the country. As Tom Lewis tells us in “Washington, A History of Our National City,” in June 1800, when Adams’s coach rambled up to the still unfinished “President’s House,” he would have seen a “raw landscape, with stark lots without buildings, and rude paths in the place of streets.”
But, ah, close by stood Georgetown. Like Alexandria, the cosmopolitan port had a half century under its belt. Joseph and Maria first lived there at 3101 P Street (Note: I was not able to find out which corner this was.)
A map of 1796 shows us P Street was then called West Street and 31st as Congress. A short downhill walk put them at Georgetown’s shops and waterfront. Some of the government's records sent from Philadelphia were unloaded at Lear's Wharf. In his book, "Robert Mills: America's First Architect," John M. Bryan tells us "many of the trunks were marked, Joseph Nourse, Registrar." Bryan also notes that Mills boarded with the Nourse family for a period of time.
Built around 1800, a mansion-sized home (Dumbarton) stood a short walk up the hill from the Nourse family home (Wisconsin was High Street). Samuel Davidson’s uncompleted "Evermay" sat nearby with stunning views of Rock Creek. Tudor Place, the equally impressive dwelling high on the hill with connections to George Washington was yet to be built.
An eagle soaring above the Potomac River around this time would have seen the impressive plantation homes built during the colonial years on the Virginia side — Gunston Hall, Mount Vernon and Abingdon — as well as the Addison’s manor on Oxon Hill on the Maryland side.
Image: Gunston Hall
But as Kim Protho Williams points out in her book, “Lost Farms and Estates of Washington, DC,” these dwellings represented the old money of tobacco planters.
Virginia and Maryland now had a new Federal neighbor. In the years to come, country homes would dot the land higher up on the hills north of Georgetown and west of Rock Creek Park. In looking back, we can say these seats marked the beginnings of Northwest Washington, a distinct part that retains a certain cachet as the city's "favored quarter."
From their perches the owners of these homes could feel like kings and breath air cleaner and fresher than what stifled below in the city of Washington. Some of these gentlemen builders made money from agriculture, but some like Nourse received steady paychecks from the new Federal government.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Washington. In the years before the passage of the Organic Act in 1871, the patchwork of the new diamond-shaped Federal territory consisted of the city of Washington, Washington County, Alexandria, Alexandria County, and Georgetown. As Lewis points out in his book, there were continued second guessing and calls in the first few decades for the capital to be moved out of Washington.
In 1792, in the rural land above Georgetown, Uriah Forest (1756-1805) and Benjamin Stoddert had acquired a large tract of hilly land they named “Pretty Prospect.” Roughly speaking, the modern day boundaries are Georgetown and Cleveland Park.
Forest and Stoddert were products of Maryland. Born in Charles County, Stoddert, who became the First Secretary of the Navy, had worked with George Washington to acquire land for the new capital. Forrest, born in St. Mary’s County and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, also worked closely with Washington on the land purchases.
In 1793, Forest built Rosedale, believed to be one of the oldest surviving houses in the District beyond Georgetown. Nearby, Philip Barton Key, uncle of Francis Scott Key, built Woodley in 1801.
Image: Rosedale
Forest and Key were not the only ones looking higher up the hills around this time. In 1804, Joseph and Maria moved a block higher up in Georgetown to a place we know today as the Dumbarton House.
In 1798, Samuel Jackson, a wealthy merchant from Philadelphia, purchased this plateau of land about eight blocks above the river. Colonel Ninan Beall had purchased the larger tract of land when it was still in the Maryland colony. He named his acquisition, “The Rock of Dumbarton” to honor where he was born in Scotland near Glasgow.
The Dumbarton House website tells us Jackson, probably around 1800, built a “large two-story brick house with a passage through the center, four rooms on a floor.”
Image: Dumbarton House
Impressive manor homes were nothing new in Virginia or Maryland, but being so close to the new Federal capital upped the game of cachet.
Architecturally, Nourse had good timing. W. Elder (Dumbarton House) put his fingers on it —
The years 1798 and 1799 seem to be magical dates for the beginnings of many Maryland and Virginia houses. They mark the break from the older Georgian building traditions of the Chesapeake and the birth of an Adamesque Federal style.
Image: Dumbarton House, public viewing display.
Examples include The Octagon and Woodley in Washington, Woodlawn — Washington’s gift to Eleanor in view of Mount Vernon, and Oatlands near Leesburg. Dumbarton is also in this distinct group.
"Streets of Washington" has a terrific look at the Dumbarton House and touches on its architecture.
The house Jackson built is one of the best examples of the emerging Federal style in architecture in the District. This is one of a much smaller number of Federal great-houses, laid out in careful Palladian symmetry with wings on each side of a stately central block. When you enter Dumbarton House you are welcomed with bright light from a large Palladian window gracing the stairway landing at the rear of the central passage.
Nourse bought the Dumbarton property in 1804, then called “Cedar Hill.” According to the nomination form (National Register for Historic Places), he completed the construction of the house. Scott Scholz, the curator, told us their subsequent research found the house was already completed. Nourse did add some acres of land and made improvements inside and out. Several of its items seen today by visitors are donations, including this walnut clock made in London, c. 1690-1700.
Image: Clock, Dumbarton House.
Nourse served under Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Adams. It’s hard to know which ones were his favorites, but The Dumbarton website tells us Joseph and Maria were close friends with Dolly Madison.
Joseph and Maria had six children. Ever so sadly, four did not live past two years of age and Anna Maria Josepha died at age 20. Their son Charles (1786-1851) served in the Army during the War of 1812. When British troops got closer to Washington, Maria stayed with her sister in Winchester.
In 1813, Nourse sold his Georgetown house to Charles Carroll, a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He renamed the house Bellevue. It wasn’t until much later that the Society of Colonial Dames named it the Dumbarton House. They have been great stewards ever since. Their publication of "In Search of Joseph Nourse, 1754-1841," greatly aids the seeker of information.
Image: Dumbarton House, public viewing display.
After spending a year in Kalorama, with Benjamin Latrobe as his neighbor, Joseph Nourse and Maria looked higher up the hills for his next home. We cover that aspect in Part Two, as well as their grandchildren.
Part Two: 1817-1850, Mount Alban, St. Alban's Church, and The Highlands
The country rises into a beautiful line of hills behind Washington which forms a sort of undulating terrace on to Georgetown: this terrace is almost entirely occupied by a succession of gentleman’s seats. — Frances Milton Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, 1832.
March 1817. Into the White House walked President James Monroe, who like Washington, Jefferson and Madison before him, was born and raised in Virginia.
A few miles to the north and west, Joseph Nourse made a move, too. After spending a year (1816) in Kalorama, Nourse looked further up the hills where he acquired two separate tracts of land.
The first was 30 acres standing 400 feet above sea level. Not a big deal if you lived in the mountains, but this one stood on one of the highest spots on the ring of hills around the Federal district. No one knew it at the time, but a century later a massive cathedral would rise up there.
Nourse named his purchase of land "Mount Alban" (later re-named "Mount Saint Alban"). According to tradition, Alban was a Roman soldier who became England’s first martyr after he protected a British priest. Included on the land Nourse purchased was a country farmhouse where he and Maria lived.
Image: Contemporary Photograph of Mount Alban Farmhouse Enlarged with Seated Female in Foreground, Late 19th Century, St. Albans Church Archives. Used with Permission. Copyright.
Note: There is scant information on this house. At least one source, Glover Park History, says Richard Harrison of Alexandria built it. A Washington Post writer tells us the front door of the house originally stood close to the National Cathedral’s west entrance. When it was built and when it went down is not known.
We are most fortunate that Dr. Cline and Marc Fetterman shared this copy and gave permission to use it. Annotations come from the St. Alban's Episcopal Church Archives and a brochure that accompanied the 2006 exhibit in The Washington Cathedral Rare Book Wing, "The Flowering of Mount Alban; Nourse Founders." Nancy Work curated the exhibit. It tells us Maria continued to live in the Mt Alban farmhouse after Joseph passed away in 1835. 1843 Caroline and her husband Bladen Dulany joined Maria to live there.
Behind Nourse’s house ran a road that had various names throughout the years (Road to Rockville, Tennleytown Road, Rockville Turnpike) before earning its final one -- Wisconsin Avenue -- around 1890. This road likely began as a trail carved out by the native Americans.
During colonial times, hogsheads of tobacco were rolled down the road to Georgetown. In 1755, after setting up his military headquarters at John Carlyle's house in Alexandria, British General Edward Braddock marched to Fort Duquesne on his campaign during the French and Indian War. A stone and marker on the grounds of the National Cathedral makes note:
This memorial was erected in 1907 by the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia to mark the road over which on April 4, 1755, a division of the British Army under General Braddock marched on its way to Fort Duquesne.
Note: Norman L. Baker covers this briefly in his book, "Braddock's Road." On April 12, Colonel Thomas Dunbar's 48th Regiment took a separate route from General Braddock. After leaving Alexandria, they skirted the Potomac and ferried across to Georgetown. They stayed overnight at Lawrence Owen's Ordinary and then marched up what is now Wisconsin Avenue on their way to Frederick, and eventually rejoined Braddock.
Image: Looking northwest towards the Cathedral. Empty space is likely the site of the Mount Alban farmhouse.
In the colonial era and beyond, stage coaches fought muddy, rutty and steep conditions on this road to get to points northward. About a mile north of Nourse’s house stood John Tennally’s tavern. A turnpike built around 1827 improved travel times.
Nourse’s home has been described as modest, and certainly did not drop jaws like the brick mansion he had owned in Georgetown. Nevertheless, the views it held were some of the best around. The Nourse’s entertained frequently. Perhaps for some of the guests, their visit marked the first time they took in the sweeping views of the city, with Maryland and Virginia hugging the mighty Potomac River.
With the passing of Anna Maria at age 20, Charles was the only surviving child of Joseph and Maria. In 1816, Charles met Rebecca Morris in Philadelphia and married her there. Her father was Anthony Morris, who served as speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate. Near Philadelphia, Morris built a large dwelling he named "The Highlands."
Families were large in number in the colonial days and beyond. Charles and Rebecca reflect that, as they had eleven children. Sadly, John lived only one year, but among the ten others, they lived to an average age of 62. Mary, James B., Rosa and Charles all lived to 80 and Mary to 91.
Image: Dumbarton House, public viewing display.
With Joseph and Maria living at Mount Alban, they looked further up the hill and acquired a second tract of land of 130 acres. Like Mount Alban, this one held great views of the valley below.
Image: The Highlands/Administration Building, Sidley Friends School.
Their purchase was likely a wedding present for Charles and Rebecca. From 1817 to about 1827, this home was built for his family. At that time their first four children were Mary, Caroline, Louisa and Rosa. They named their new home, "The Highlands," after the Morris family home in Philadelphia. We know it today as the administration building for Sidwell Friends School. Likely born there were Charles, Phoebe, James, Elizabeth, and Henrietta (Israel was born in Fauquier County).
Some sources say Joseph built the dwelling, while others say Charles. Whoever built it, the home’s tall porch columns seemed to pay homage to Mount Vernon. Gray and yellow rubblestone from a nearby quarry gave it a different look from those made of of brick and wood. The Highlands including a farm, worked by enslaved humans.
The Highlands, listed on the National Register for Historic Places, is one of Washington’s few extant late Georgian country homes. Sidwell's surrounding buildings give The Highland breathing room and keep its honor as an historic place.
A history of Sidwell Friends School ("The Long Conversation," by James Zug) tells us the Nourses grew peaches, wheat, hay, peas, turnips, radishes and cabbages. Four enslaved humans were property of Charles.
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Adams. Nourse worked for them all, a remarkable run of service. It ended with the election of Andrew Jackson in 1824 and a different direction for the country.
Image: Dumbarton House, public viewing display.
The Jackson administration charged Joseph Nourse for “billing the Treasury for a variety of expenditures.” Nourse sued the government in 1831 and won his case. In fact, the Supreme Court upheld his case and the government owed him $23,000.
Having lived a full life, Joseph Nourse passed away in 1841. He was laid to rest in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington.
The Alexandria Gazette’s obit noted: September 1, 1841
The name of Joseph Nourse is familiar to us all, and has been justly associated with that of Charles Thompson in the minds and memories of those who lived and served during the trying period of the Revolution. It went to say he “afforded great assistance to Secretary Hamilton in arranging the details of his system of revenue and finance… Believing firmly from his youth in the truth of the Christian religion, he fulfilled through a long series of years, in a most exemplary manner. In this office, Mr. Nourse was continued, giving his faithful and laborious services the most entire satisfaction to every administration of the Government until 1829.
In his paper, "A Tale of Two Bureaucrats," Richard D. White wrote Nourse was one of the men who:
set an admirable standard, and most of them were able to survive a spoils system by demonstrating competency, tireless years of hard work, an aversion to the public limelight, an avoidance of corrupting influences and an aloofness to political entanglements and party intrigues. Their contributions to sound public management remains untouched by time.
After taking her last breath in 1850, Maria joined her husband at Rock Creek Cemetery. Charles passed away the following year. Like his father, Charles had served his country at the Federal level and lived a full life. In 1808, President Madison entrusted him to deliver packets to England. First serving as a Lieutenant during the War of 1812, he later served (Major) as acting Adjutant General of the US Army. He then became chief clerk for the Department of War.
St. Albans's Church
The National Cathedral was not the first church built at the southeast intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Woodley Road.
Image: Inside St. Alban's Church.
In the 1850s, a wooden Gothic Revival chapel rose up steps from the country home Joseph and Maria had built and lived in.
The story of St. Alban's church is fully and definitively told by Dr. Cline in her book, "St. Alban's Church, Church at the Crossroads." The beginning years owe much to Reverend Mr. Lance Ten Broeck and Phoebe Nourse. Before she died, Phoebe left hard earned money in hopes a chapel would be built for the people in and around Georgetown. St. Alban's became the first “free” Episcopal church in Washington.
Although he lacked the official recognition of the Maryland Diocese and was seen as a rival to other rectors, Rev. Ten Broeck, as Dr. Cline points out, "raised funds for the church, obtained the deed for the half acre on land on Mount Alban, and made plans for a wooden Gothic Revival Chapel."
Also playing critical roles early on and throughout the following decades were six of Charles and Rebecca’s eleven children -- Mary, Caroline, Rosa, Phoebe, James and Pemberton. Rebecca gave time and talents, too.
Image: (Wooden chapel encased here).
Phoebe taught Sunday School and donated a hard-earned $40 to Rev Ten Broeck. Cline describes her as, "a young woman of quiet determination and purpose." Sadly, Phoebe died of tuberculosis at age 24 in 1850.
Reflective of the family's talent for art, Rebecca painted and sold watercolors helped raise money. Charles and James served on the vestry. Caroline was a communicant. As a school boy, Pemberton helped break ground on the church's construction. Elizabeth married Lt. Col. Simms. Their son, General Richard Simms, served on the vestry. Caspar Wistar Haines, a cousin who the State Department recognized for his consular service in Mexico, served as bursar and gave funds for an endowment.
As Dr. Cline points out, the Nourse family nurtured St. Alban's Church. The congregation continued to grow in numbers. In 1857, Rosa, fifth born, built a small parochial school across Tenleytown Road. Reflective of the spirit of community service by the Nourse family, she taught neighborhood children for nearly 30 years.
Image: Inside church.
In 1854, Commodore Bladen Taker Dulany (1793-1856), the husband of Caroline (1819-1893) purchased Mount Alban. After he died two years later, Caroline inherited the house and 29 acres. Caroline lived there until her passing in 1893. G.M. Hopkins map of 1878 shows a home labeled “Caroline Dulaney.” Rosa Nourse’s home was across “Rockville Road” (Wisconsin Avenue).
As Lewis writes in his book, Washington seemed more than ever a bifurcated city in the 1840s, one divided between northern abolitionists and southern slaveholders. The Compromise of 1850 prohibited slave trading in the District, but across the river in Alexandria, the horrific practice there continued to ship hundreds of black souls southward each year.
The two immovable forces were on a collision course. When the war winds blew in 1861, the Nourse family paid a terrible price.
We pick up that story in the next part.
Part Three, 1861-1885, Civil War, Weston, St. Alban's Church and The Highlands
In 1848, Alexandria retroceded from the District of Columbia, a crack in the fragile collection of 30 states that portended in some ways the nation-splitting fracture that came about a dozen years later.
James Nourse and Joseph Nourse had owned enslaved humans, as did Charles, and so many other land owners during the Colonial and Antebellum eras. With the country expanding further westward, Congress continued to debate whether or not slavery would move with it.
Alexandria, a Whig citadel leading up to the war, and a prosperous city, did not want to secede. When push came to shove, however, it joined the rest of the Southern states in their act of disunion.
On the morning of May 23, 1861, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, a friend of President Lincoln, led Union troops across the river and marching into the southern seaport. They took Alexandria without gunfire, except for the "The Marshall House Incident." Ellsworth and a handful of his New York Zouaves had just taken down the Confederate flag that had flown atop of the landmark hotel at the corner of King and S. Royal. James W. Jackson, the proprietor, shot and killed Colonel Ellsworth. A few seconds later, one of the Zouaves shot and killed Jackson. The blood on the staircase gave an inkling of what was to come in the next four years.
Dr. Cline tells us about the Civil War and its effects on the Nourse family. “Divided in loyalties, but united in suffering,” she writes.
With the Nourse family living north of Georgetown, they were mostly out of harm’s way during the war. They certainly were situated away from the battlefields, but Pemberton Nourse, the youngest, and one of the school boys who helped lay the cornerstone for St. Albans Church, was killed in the First Battle of Manassas in 1861.
Before the war, "Pem" had gone to Weston, Charles Jr.'s farm in Casanova near Warrenton. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and kept with love and care by the Warrenton Antiquarian Society as a farm museum, Weston was built on fertile land once owned by the Fitzhugh family.
In April 1862, Charles (sixth born of Joseph's grand children), Margaret (Tilloston Kemble) and their son Charley traveled to Weston from The Highlands. Tending the crops and sheep, they stayed there from April to September.
Image: Original log cabin is part of the structure on the right hand side.
Margaret was born into wealth and high society in New York in 1830. Charles and Margaret moved to the Highlands in 1851 after Charles's father, Major Charles Nourse, passed away that year. At the family home, they helped take care of his widowed mother. Charles became active in the vestry of St. Albans and it seems likely he managed or helped manage the Highlands farm.
In 1859, Charles Jr. purchased land and a two-story log cabin south of Warrenton and named it Weston, after the Nourse ancestral home in Herefordshire. Charles sent Israel Pemberton, the youngest of the 11 siblings, to manage the Weston farm. Two years later, Pemberton, age 25, joined the Confederate Army. A bullet at the Battle of First Manassas took away his life.
Margaret kept a diary at Weston. Edward D.C. Campbell Jr. ("Strangers and Pilgrims") writes about it in "Strangers and Pilgrims," words Margaret used to describe their plight.
Of their passage from The Highlands to Weston, which required showing their pass, Margaret wrote:
Passed through Germantown, half burnt, half torn down, not a living creature to be seen. (Note: Germantown was just west of Fairfax Court House).
At Weston, the family of three heard the rumbles of cannon fire coming from the battlefield at Bull Run and had to deal with soldiers pilfering their livestock and farm products.
Image: Blacksmith shop.
Margaret's thoughts and feelings pour out in her diary. One feels the mental strains that surely sapped her spirit and tested her psyche. Margaret wrote of wanting a quick end to the war, a result that did not come.
On the Fourth of July, she wrote:
"Carried my flag up stairs. I have often shed tears of joy upon it."
And yet, as Campbell writes:
"despite her patriotism, she was divided in her loyalties by her southern connections and her sympathy for her neighbors."
Anne Van Ryzin researched ("News from Weston," Summer 2016) the Nourse family's time at Weston ("To Weston and Back Again: 1862-1883"). She tells us disease weakened neighbors, food became scarce, basic necessities were expensive, and letters never arrived.
During the war, some Northern Virginia residents had to learn how to sing both "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Charles, Ryzin tells us, "was opposed to the concept of war, but also befriended and protected his Confederate military neighbors and relatives."
The nomination form for Weston tells us Charles enlarged the “rambling frame and log building” in 1860, 1870, and 1893. The style is Carpenter Gothic and ten outbuildings, including a blacksmith shop, barns, and enslaved cabin have survived. The Warrenton Antiquarian Society lovingly keeps and interprets this precious piece of history.
Image: Slave cabin. Windows not common.
Rebecca returned to Weston in 1883 and died there. She was buried in the Nourse plot in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington. Charles remarried in 1885.
In the next part, we return to The Highlands and pick up the story there after the Civil War.
Part Four: A National Cathedral Rises on Mount Alban and The Passing of Mary, Caroline, Rosa, Charles, James, and Elizabeth
After the Civil War was over, Washington slowly recovered. Lewis writes by the election of 1876, the city had finally become an attractive place to live.
During this time, people of wealth continued to look to the northwestern part of the District of Columbia to build their mansion homes. The "Gilded Age," with its robust economic growth and denial of civil rights for African-Americans, was at hand. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 sent steady paychecks to Federal workers and good signals to real estate developers.
Reflective of what was happening around Washington in the 1890s, the area around St Alban’s Church was beginning to change, too. The once rural land was being developed as suburbs. In 1890, The Washington Post made note that "Tennallytown Road" had been changed to Wisconsin Avenue. The paper also touted new subdivisions such as Tunlaw Heights, almost within shouting distance of St. Alban's Church. Echoing the sentiments of others before, the reporter glowingly wrote, "Four hundred feet above tidewater, and overlooking a panorama which is not excelled anywhere... tourists from all parts of the world have stood entranced on this hill-top surveying the magnificent scenery."
Signaling an end to the horse and coach era, the first automobile in Washington rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue. Some of the new communities beyond L'Enfant's original layout were built around the transit services of electric railcars. In 1890, President Harrison inked a bill that authorized the creation of Rock Creek Park, one of the earliest such land-saving measures in the nation.
At St. Alban’s Church, things were changing, too. Of the eleven grandchildren of Joseph Nourse, only five were still alive at the turn of the century. In 1900, Mary was 83, Rosa 78, Charles 75, James 72 and Elizabeth 69. Like Phoebe, who had helped the church in its infant days, these siblings had dedicated their lives to it. James served as warden for many years and Charles was a member of the vestry. Mary and Rosa did plenty, too.
Readers of the papers, including The Evening Star and The Washington Times, began to see coverage about a Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. In 1895, President Harrison signed a congressional charter creating the body. Dr. Cline tells us the vestry held a meeting around the same time. James made a motion the church meet with the new Cathedral Foundation. Cline writes:
"This liaison was the first step in the long association between St. Alban's and the National Cathedral."
A report in The Evening Star (October 19, 1898) tells us the committee initially looked at a number of sites in the vicinity of the city. After deciding on a site near the intersection of Connecticut and Woodley ("adjoining on the east the country place of the late Gardiner G. Hubbard"), they chose the Mount Alban site. The article pointed out Nourse (Joseph) had owned the land and was a "devout Christian man, and his grandchildren recall it was a constant practice of his to retire among the trees, where St. Alban's Church now stands, for prayer and meditation."
James and the vestry played important roles in 1896 when developer and “asphalt king,” Amzi Barber (1843-1909) came calling at Mount Alban. He had developed LeDroit Park in the 1870s and wanted to build a large private home on the land adjacent to St. Alban's Church at the northeast corner of Wisconsin and Woodley Drive.
The vestry worked with Bishop Henry Yates Satterlee (1843-1908), a graduate of Columbia University, and someone known for taking great care to minister to African Americans.
Dr. Chase covers this story with expertise. Satterlee and the St. Alban’s vestry teamed up to save the hilltop land. Their close relationship not only helped save the site, but also made for perfect dovetailing with the National Cathedral and its “Close,” the surrounding grounds. The two are separate entities, but a visitor could easily see them as one.
Image: Bishop's Garden
As the new Cathedral slowly rose just steps from where their grandfather's frame house had stood, Rosa, Mary and Joseph lived out their final years at The Highlands. After Rosa (1903) and Mary (1908) passed away, James spent his final nine years at Weston. The Washington Times reported that Rosa had been one of the oldest residents near Tenleytown. Like Rosa, Mary's life was recalled at her services at St. Alban's Church. She left half her estate to further fund the Nourse Memorial Guild Hall.
With the house Joseph Nourse had built on Mount Alban gone, it would be The Highlands and the National Cathedral that would serve as the primary occasional reminder of the family. We discuss this in our fifth and final part.
Part Five, Sidwell Friends School Acquires The Highlands, The Nourses at Weston and in Public Memory
It doesn't take long for a new resident in Washington to hear about Sidwell Friends School. Thomas Watson Sidwell started it all in 1883 in a location near the White House. Notable alumni include RFK Jr, Charles Lindbergh, Gore Vidal, Nancy Reagan, Malia Obama, Chelsea Clinton and Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
Students at the school learn Quakers values, as well as the value of learning history. As told by the school's website, archivist Lori Hardenbergh asks third graders every year to think about the history of "The Highlands," which holds the school's Administration Building. She shows them photographs, books, documents, and even an old door knob touched by the Nourse family many times.
Hardenbergh showed me these things, too, when I visited recently. As we went through the vertical file, I held dearly to the hope of seeing some old photograph of one or more of the grandchildren, something I had not been able to find on the web. It didn't take long before my heart beat faster when we came to a sepia-toned image. On the back is penciled, "Highlands, August 10, 1885, Mr. James Nourse, Miss Mary Nourse."
"Photo Courtesy of Sidwell Friends School Archives.” Copyright.
They say "a picture is worth a thousand words." How true. In this case, to me, Mary and James represent all the hard work the family had done through the years. James had been one of the first vestry members for St. Albans, and also served as warden, registrar, treasurer and licensed lay reader. Cline tells us under his leadership, the vestry was "united by ties of friendship and kinship."
Due to discrimination against women, Mary did not serve in the higher roles, but nevertheless, she was part of the glue that held the church members together.
In 1917, James, the last living of Joseph's eleven grandchildren passed away. 100 years earlier, Mary had been the first born. Like the vines of wisteria that once graced the backyard, the memory of the family would fade away. Only occasional stories in the newspapers would recall their names.
In the 1920s, work continued on building the National Cathedral. In 1925, the Alban Towers (apartments) rose up diagonally across from the cathedral construction site. As told by the nomination form that put the Alban Towers property on the National Register for Historic Places, Bishop C.F. Bratenahl of the National Cathedral and other residents of Washington had testified against the project. David A. Baer, the developer of Alban Towers, promised the apartment building would be a "stylistic complement" to the Cathedral. Baer was granted permission to name his building after Mount St. Albans, the hill on which the Cathedral stands. Long forgotten was the fact that Joseph Nourse had given the hill the name of Mount Alban.
In 1920, Admiral Cary T. Grayson (1878-1938), favorite son of Culpepper, personal physician and close friend of President Wilson, and leader of the Red Cross, acquired The Highlands. He modernized the dwelling, which was showing its age.
The Highlands property also included a stone cottage. It is now a Rec Center adjacent to the Phoebe Hearst School at 3600 Tilden Street. According to a Building-Structure Inventory Form prepared by the DC Office of Development and Planning (July 1984), Grayson converted the cottage to his private clubhouse and lodge in 1930. The building dates to some time around the 1870s.
Image: Rec Center.
The Washington newspaper reporters were getting to know the hilltop area around the Highlands quite well during the 1920s. Big money continued to land in this part of the District. Across the street stood "Friendship," the mansion home of the McLean family. Its high-profile story began in 1898 when newspaper tycoon John R. McLean acquired a manor home there and the surrounding acres.
The union of John Roll Mclean and Emily Beale produced one child, a son they named Edward. He married Evalyn Walsh, who inherited her father’s gold mine money. Their parties at Friendship were legendary, the guest lists including captains of industries, military brass and enough elected officials to keep even a seasoned protocol expert on their toes.
Image: Historic Call Box with art on Wisconsin Avenue.
A historical marker and image of Evalyn wearing the Hope Diamond stands within sight of The Highlands on the west side of Wisconsin Avenue. Steps away sits the McLean Gardens, which spreads across the site of Friendship. In his book, "Capital Losses," James Goode not only devotes two pages to the Georgian Revival house (demolished 1942), but also a separate entry for the wrought iron gates that were taken away for war use.
During the World War II years, the Nourse story at their Weston farm came back into focus. Charles Jr. remarried (Margaret passed away in 1883) in 1885 to Annie Carroll Simpson. They had four children -- Constance (1886-1959), Mary (1892-1916), Walter, and Charlotte (1894-1959).
Charles Jr passed away in 1905. His widow and children kept things going. Walter served his country during World War I, surviving a chemical gas attack. Charlotte and Constance fed hundreds of soldiers stationed at nearby Vint Hill Farms Station. Constance was a talented artist and writer who kept the historical papers for Weston. Annie maintained the farm and ran a school and summer camp for girls in the early 1920s.
Walter and his wife Jessie had Joan, their only child. In her research paper, Mildred Gulick Riddell ("Growing Up with Joan Nourse --Excerpt from "Recollections of Life in Casanova") sheds light on Joan.
Image Reprinted with Permission, Warrenton Antiquarian Society.
"From age eight to my early teens, Riddell writes, "Joan was my wavy headed, chubby-cheeked, bossy best friend." After graduating from Sidwell Friends School and William and Mary, Joan Nourse joined the Women's Army Corp. A life destined for leadership was cut short by cancer when Joan died at age 23.
Sadness had also gripped the family in 1916 when Mary Pemberton Nourse (1891-1916) died of heart failure at age 25. In Vassar Quarterly, Elizabeth Forrest Johnson tells us Mary "had been a most efficient editor-in-chief of the Miscellany, largely responsible for the establishment of the Weekly, won the Borden Fellowship and the Sutro Scholarship."
In 1959, Charlotte donated the 10 acres of the Weston property to the Warrenton Antiquarian Society. Their faithful members accomplished the long hard task of getting the property listed on the National Register for Historic Places, as well as preparing it as a place the public could visit and learn more about farm life. Sixty years since Charlotte put Weston in their hands, the home and property remains a success story set in a quiet landscape. Like the old church at St. Alban's and The Highlands, Weston is a place where, with a little imagination, one can see the Nourse family.
Charlotte served as Master of the Hounds. The Casanova Hunt website notes she was the first woman to serve in that position. The Washington Post writer Alison Howard ("Steeplechase Brings Spring to Piedmont," Feb 15, 1990) wrote, "Back when, Casanova was said to derive much of its character from its gallant, gray-haired master of foxhounds, Miss Charlotte Nourse."
Image: Kennel for Hounds adjacent to Weston.
Back over at The Highlands, the widowed Mrs. Grayson, who remarried, leased the home to Count Andre de Limur, a French embassy attache. In 1955 she sold the dwelling to Sidwell Friends School. Forgetting the stories of the Nourse family, the report by The Washington Post called it the “historic old Grayson estate.” The year before, Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, had been living there.
Sidwell's purchase was financed through the sale of the school’s athletic fields and tennis courts on the other side of Wisconsin Avenue. On its site sits a large empty building that served as the headquarters building for Fannie Mae, The Federal National Mortgage Association. The Georgian Revival/Colonial Revival hulk is now being redeveloped into "City Ridge." The "urban village" will include adaptive reuse.
Throughout the 20th-century, National Cathedral hosted a series of milestone events. In 1957 President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the War Memorial Chapel. In 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last sermon. In 1990, the completion of the west towers marked the end of the construction. All throughout its storied history, the cathedral has been the rare place in Washington were partisan politics is put aside when the nation mourns the loss of an elected official or distinguished citizen.
Image: National Cathedral.
Throughout this time, the stories of the Nourse family continued to fade. Starting in the 1990s, however, a series of events turned the lights back on and would provide researchers with updated information on the history of the family.
From October 1994 through May 1995, the Dumbarton House featured an exhibit titled, “In Search of Joseph Nourse, 1754-1841, America’s First Civil Servant.” Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Curator, wrote the terrific accompanying pamphlet.
Image: Cover of book.
In 2009, Dr. Cline’s history of St. Alban’s Church was published. Fully foot-noted, it is easily the definitive history of the Nourse family's contributions to St. Alban's, and their roles in helping the National Cathedral Committee land the site they so much wanted.
In her book, Cline tells us about "Jubilee 150," a momentous occasion on Mount Alban. Three arcs crossed paths in 2004 — the 250th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Nourse, the 200th anniversary of the Dumbarton House and the 150th anniversary of St. Alban’s Church.
That summer, members of the Nourse family attended a special ceremony at St. Alban’s. Douglas Stenhouse, a descendent of Joseph Nourse, performed a composition. An exhibit of the Nourse family watercolors was put on display. A procession was made to the graves of Phoebe and her family at the Rock Creek Cemetery. Dr. Cline presented three forums and wrote article about the Nourse family.
In November 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu took part in the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Peace Cross on the grounds of the National Cathedral.
Rewind to that sunny afternoon of October 23, 1898. What a glorious moment it must have been. As Cline points out, the event also dedicated the cathedral site. Bishop Satterlee told the audience the service was the first for the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul.
The major newspapers covered the event, with some splashing ink on the front page and three or four columns worth of reporting.
Washington Evening Times
Yesterday's ceremonies at the cathedral site in commemoration of the triennial Episcopal convention and in promise of the great cathedral building of the future, were impressive.
New York Times
A Peace Cross was unveiled in commemoration of the successful issue of the late war with Spain, the return of peace, the visit to Washington by the General Convention of the Church and the foundation of the Cathedral of St. Paul and St. Peter, which is expected to be the finest cathedral in the US.
The Washington Evening Star reporter described the "picturesque scene."
From the summit of Mount St. Albans, where these thousands stood, the glance passed down a gentle slope through trees, touched into marvelous color by the wand of autumn, and on to the city, in the distance, its capitol and library and monument looking dim but grand in bluish haze. Beyond, the Eastern Branch and the Potomac, white and gleaming, met like a ribbon of white satin at the foot of the hills of Maryland and Virginia, which rose like low mountains against the southern and eastern limit of the horizon.... Those who were participants in the impressive ceremony and those who witnessed it will never efface from their minds the details of the scene, and the history of the Episcopal Church will mark it a cross planting more deeply significant and more truly important in its promise than the landing of the Jamestown pilgrims.
James Nourse, Senior Warden at St. Alban's Church, stood beside the Peace Cross. He was surrounded by a sea of guests, dignitaries, bishops, rectors, clergymen, laymen, uniformed military personnel, and members of choirs. Dressed in his Prince Albert coat and silk hat, President McKinley spoke the words of blessing. Bishop Satterlee delivered the Address of Welcome.
When the time came, James gently took away the red, white and blue draperies covering the cross. We have no doubt some in attendance wondered who was this man.
The answer was a long story, one that stretched back many years, involved multiple generations of the Nourse family, told us a little something about the character and paradoxes of our nation, and the role people and institutions can play to preserve land for public use.
Image: Peace Cross.
Notes:
The thought occurred to me of trying to reach out to descendants of James Nourse, but I was not able to go that far. I did read about Mrs. Hattie Nourse Brockett in The American Monthly Magazine. The Brocketts ring a bell for Alexandrians. They once lived along Brockett's Row on North Washington Street.
According to the book, Hattie lived in Alexandria. She was elected to Registrar General in Charge of Organization of Chapters. Miss Brockett (widow of Albert Brockett) passed away at her home in 1941.
Her father was Rev. James Michael Nourse, a retired Presbyterian minister, who passed away in 1922. He lived with his daughter in Alexandria. According to his obituary, Rev. Nourse's father was the late James Nourse of Washington, D.C. Seems likely this James was one of the Joseph's grandchildren.
Historical Markers
There are a handful of historical markers on the Nourses.
Wisconsin and Woodley
An attractive historical marker at the corner of Wisconsin and Woodley, situated within a callbox. One side displays a partial image of the frame house Joseph built in 1817. It notes the artist was Caroline.
The text:
The Washington National Cathedral, standing majestically on the commanding heights of the city, was not the first religious institution on Mount Alban. Joseph Nourse, a Revolutionary War veteran who moved his family to the site in 1813, dreamed of establishing a church there. Nourse (pronounced Nurse) was named register of the United States Treasury by President George Washington. He served seven presidents, until Andrew Jackson fired him and several of his relatives in 1829 to "clean out the Noursery." Upon Nourse's death in 1841, his home became a school with a chapel. Worshippers' contributions, including an initial bequest of 40 gold coins earned, in part, by Nourse's granddaughter Phoebe for her needlework, made possible the opening of St. Albans Church in 1854. It was the first church with no pew fees in Washington. Construction of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was begun in 1907 and completed in 1990. It is a house of prayer for all people.
Dumbarton House
Fronting the Dumbarton house is a bronze marker erected by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the District of Columbia.
The site was part of a tract called “The Rock of Dumbarton” patented 1703 by Ninian Beall. The house was probably started 1799 by Samuel Jackson. It was completed 1805 by Joseph Nourse, first Registrar of the Treasury. He sold the property 1813 to Charles Carroll who named it “Bellevue.” Purchased by this Society 1928, it was restored to the early Federal period, renamed; and opened to the public 1932.
Note: Scholz told me the house itself was already completed when Nourse bought it.
Charles Town
Near Charles Town marker on the ruins of St. George’s Chapel notes:
The Washington, Nourse, Davenport and Throckmorton families worshiped here.
Rock Creek Cemetery
The searcher of the final resting place of some of the Nourse family members is guided by seeing the Rock Creek Parish Church in the middle of the cemetery. As seen in this photo, their family plot lies steps south of the church.
Here lies Joseph (1754-1841) and Maria (1765-1850)
Charles (1786-1851) and Rebecca (1793-1885)
(Mary (1817-1908), Rosa (1827-1907), James (1828-1917)
and others.
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