Jaybird's Jottings

Morning Walk: Rock Creek Park

Rock Creek Park was our destination on Sunday morning. 

This place does not need an introduction in Washington, but there are some interesting facts about it.  We culled these from several sources:

Acreage is over 2,000, making it twice the size of Central Park (843).  

Unlike some other great American urban parks designed in the nineteenth century, Rock Creek Park was created by forces of nature.  

The creek originates in Laytonsville, Maryland and runs for 31 miles to the Potomac.

 

The Fall Line runs along the creek, the boundary between two of the eastern United States large geological provinces, the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.

23 of its crossings have been documented by the Historic American Engineering Record, and two, the Taft Bridge and Boulder Bridge are on the NRHP.

In what I am assuming is a coincidence, the creek’s gorge begins at the District line.

More than 10 quarry sites are still visible.

Historic resources include the Pierce Mill, the Pierce-Kingle Mansion, a Georgian with brown and gray stone. and Fort DeRussy earthworks.  Many of the trails go along old farm roads.  

Rock Creek was the third national park, coming after Yellowstone and Mackinac National Park.   

Rock Creek Parkway was laid out in 1913.

The Rock Creek Conservancy website proudly hails that Rock Creek Park “has always been a place for horses.”

Established in 1972, the Center offers lessons, mainly in English riding and pony rides and camps for kids.   Therapeutic rides are also given.

The Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission came about in 1902 after it was realized the park was under threat from activities upstream in Maryland.

In 1932, Rock Creek Parkway opened, aided by the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Cyclists seemed to love the hairpin turns.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a frequent visitor.   

Jean Jules Jusserand, French ambassador and friend of Roosevelt, went hiking with his pal. 

Metro’s Red Line has with four stations within walking distance.

The lack of crossing points give neighborhoods such as Forest Hills a quiet buffer and prevents cut throughs.

Morning Walk: Foggy Bottom/GWU

A first time visitor to George Washington University, which lies in the heart of the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, might ask — “Where’s the bottom part?”

“Washington at Home,” shines a light.   The low western end near the Potomac River shoreline, holding today’s Watergate and the Kennedy Center, was where the neighborhood got its nickname, and where the calloused hands of German-Americans, African-Americans and Irish-Americans did the hard work in factories, breweries and coal yards.  Up on the crown of the hill lived those with better paying jobs, land today occupied by the GWU campus and the State Department.   

Note:  Several sources address the origin of the Foggy Bottom name.   According to the always reliable Paul Dickson (“On This Spot, Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C.”), some say it referred to the smoke and fumes from the glass plant, brewery, and glass factory along the river.  Others point to the fog that arose over the river.   "Washington at Home" offers it could be the combination of the two.  The Foggy Bottom Heritage Trail report points to the "low-lying land along the river, where, early on, the atmosphere could be foggy.   In the mid-19th century, the fog was more smog." 

At first glance, it might also seem to the newly arrived that the history of this part of Washington started with the arrival of GW.    This stems in part from the way we look back, which is to say, we look from land to river.   In the case of Foggy Bottom, we need to put ourselves at the water's edge and look up to the land.

 

ThThat is exactly what Jacob Funk did in the 1770s, when this land was part of Maryland.  Funk, a German immigrant, mapped out the streets of a 130-acre village he called Hamburgh.   Funk envisioned a port town like that of the Hamburg in his homeland, and one he hoped would compete with Alexandria and Georgetown.  The modern day equivalent of Hamburgh is 19th to 23rd and Constitution to H Streets, the area to the east of the State Department.

Although the village never got going, the land north of Tiber Creek and east of the Potomac was part of the discussions in the laying out of the new Federal capital.  In the early 1790s, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were trying to figure out where the ten mile square would go.   Jefferson wanted something smaller and at one point favored the Hamburgh land.

Allen Carl Greenburg covers this in his book, “George Washington, Architect.”   In 1791, Washington penned a “confidential letter” to his land agents, expressing his desire “In favor of the latter (Hamburgh) and its vicinity to Georgetown.”   Hamburgh was included in L’Enfant’s much grander layout, but its future as a port town was doomed when Washington wanted the President’s House “on the high ground near Hamburgh.”  

Although Hamburgh is now a footnote to history, the bottomland over by the Potomac River waterfront (today’s Kennedy Center and Watergate) did come alive with industrial activity for many years.   German-Americans, Irish-Americans and African-Americans did the hard and sweaty work to put gas in the city’s streetlights; make the lime, plaster and glass for home and building construction, and most importantly, brewed the beer.   Although nothing is left from those days, the historic soul of Foggy Bottom lies on this strip of land.    

The land below the Hamburgh site (today’s Constitution Avenue) also saw some action.  From 1833 to the end of the 1850s, this bottomland was home to the C&O Canal Extension.  It linked the C&O Canal in Georgetown to the Washington City Canal, which started at the Lock Keeper’s House at 17th and what is now Constitution.    Like Funk’s Hamburgh, this one was ultimately filed under “Dreams Dashed.”

In their book, "Foggy Bottom and the West End," Matthew Gilmore and Joshua Olsen tell us the Civil War brought changes to Foggy Bottom.   Camp Fry was put up near Washington Circle and 23rd Street.  The GWU museum adds that the Veteran's Reserve Corps called the camp home.  Research by Dr. Elizabeth Chacko found the camp included warehouses for uniforms and military supplies, and slaughter houses.

 

Back at the bottomland along the Potomac River, one sees today two iconic landmarks — the Kennedy Center and the Watergate apartment complex.    During the first half of the twentieth century, the two landmarks there were a massive brewery and a gas light plant.

In 1892, Christian Heurich built a fireproof beer factory, whose site is the Kennedy Center.   During his time, Heuruch was perhaps the most famous German-American in the city.    The mansion he built in DuPont Circle is an iconic landmark itself.

Dickson tells us at its peak the plant produced 100,000 barrels of beer per year.   Brands included "Senate" and "Old Georgetown."  The factory was demolished in 1961 to make way for the Kennedy Center.  

(Note:  Garret Peck, Washington’s man of the history of spirits, tells us the Washington Brewery got its start in Foggy Bottom in 1796.  It moved to the Navy Yard in 1805.   The Albert Brewery Company, later known as Abner Drury Brewing, also brewed at the bottom).

Less appealing to noses and architects, but also a landmark and provider of jobs was the tanks and smokestacks of the Washington Gas Works.   

After the turn of the century, the factories along Foggy Bottom continued to billow smoke.   Up on that flatter part of the area, a new chapter began to unfold.   We might call it an industry of higher learning.   George Washington University arrived here in 1912.  Its campus today spreads across the heart of the neighborhood.    

DC Historic Preservation tells us GWU began in 1821 when Congress chartered Columbian College (Florida Avenue and Sixteenth Street).  George Washington had expressed a desire for an institution of higher education in the new Federal city.

In 1912, the university moved to 20th and G Street.   They acquired homes along the square of G and H, and 20th and 21st.  In the coming years, GWU would help shape a newer identity of the neighborhood.   But as Jason Kane tells us (GW Hatchet, GW vs. Foggy Bottom, November 14, 2004), there were scars of battle between residents and the university.   Two years earlier, Christopher Shea (The Washington Post) wrote a piece on the subject titled, "The University that Ate Foggy  Bottom).   The Post published a Q&A with Shea that addresses many of the issues.

The GWU campus continued to grow in the middle of the century while the industrial plants along and near the river were demolished.  

Note:  Image (1949) is a purchase from Historic Aerials.

In 1954, two large storage tanks owned by the Washington Gas Light Company were taken down at the intersection of New Hampshire and Virginia Avenue.

Dickson writes:  the removal of these tanks and the relocation of the State Department to 23rd and D, Foggy Bottom was able to establish itself as a neighborhood with high real estate values.

The neighborhood didn’t change overnight, but the arrival of the Department of State did indeed kick off a new era.  In March 1949, Edward Folliard of The Washington Post ("Foggy Bottom Becomes Focus of Western World") told readers the neighborhood, “in Cinderella fashion, has recently acquired a new dignity and a fame that reaches the chancelleries of the world.” 

He quoted a Newsweek article that covered a shake up in the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.   “The Quai d’Orsay, Whitehall and Foggy Bottom all professed astonished bewilderment.”  

What a change for the neighborhood.  The Post’s headlines on this part of Washington in the 1880s had been one of toughs, assaults, riots, and murders.   Snow’s Alley was infamous as a place to stay away from.   Of course, a policeman’s memory piece in the paper reminded Washingtonians that Foggy Bottom was not the only place in the city to not take a lady.  

There was also neighborhood pride.   Irish-American boxer Martin William Gallagher (1907-1994) became known as the "Pride of Foggy Bottom."  The heavyweight's life is chronicled in "The Irish Warrior," by his daughter, Margaret Gallagher Colbert.  She tells us the family lived on H Street.   "Marty" had four brothers and sister.    

Gallagher's 15-year career in the ring started in 1925, a fight against Sailor Beam at the Aloysius Club in Washington.   The upstart's timing was certainly brilliant.  The twenties were a golden age of sports, a time when the papers spilled more and more ink on star players such as Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Knute Rocky and Jack Dempsey.  Boxing, especially, drew the attention of fans and the writers.

Gallagher's meteoric rise began in venues such as Arcadia Hall in Washington, the Armory in Silver Spring, and Carlin's Park in Baltimore.  It leveled off in 1931 with losses in New York, Boston and Chicago.   The heavyweight then made a recovery, winning matches at Portner's Arena in Alexandria in 1933 and 1934.  One of them was attended by The Washington Post's Shirley Povich, who pointed out Gallagher scored best with his right.

This comeback of sorts put him on the bill a number of times at Griffith Stadium in 1934-1939.   His last TKO win took place there on September 4, 1934 over Tony Galento.   Gallagher rallied after two knockdowns in front of 25,000 fans with a stoppage in the 12th round.

After retiring with a 72 and 11 record, Gallagher stepped over to Georgetown University, where he coached the boxers there and served in leadership roles for a total of more than 30 years.   

 

In the 1960s, the industrial footprint along the river went down, paving the way for the construction of the I-66 bridge and the E Street Expressway.   The Kennedy Center and Watergate went up around this time.   World views became more spacious with the arrival of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Pan American Health Organization.   Metro arrived in the 1980s and the United States Institute of Peace landed in 2011.  

On the other hand, the redevelopment overlooked the needs of some of the residents.  What was once affordable, became unaffordable.   Ethnic diversity was lost.  

For some observers of the history of Foggy Bottom, there must have been a puzzling situation in the latter part of the twentieth century and after the turn of the century.    In 1987, the Foggy Bottom Historic District was approved by the National Register Historic Places.   But it only included the small northwest corner and left out the GWU campus, which contains more than a dozen buildings on the National Register for Historic Places.   The paradox ended a couple of years ago when the “George Washington University/Old West End Historic District” was approved.  

A new arrival today will see a Foggy Bottom neighborhood that boasts a walk score of 95.  That mark puts it in the upper tier of the city's rankings.   There were plans for a Neighborhood Heritage Trail but a lack of funding nixed the project.   There are a good number of historical markers in Foggy Bottom.

Here are the highlights of our visit.

 

Lisner Auditorium

Although nothing special architecturally, this boxy, venerable arena has hosted many events in its nearly 75 year history.   According to a marker, the venue was the biggest south of New York City when it opened in 1946.   None other than Ingrid Bergman helped lift the lid on the night of October 26.   At the time she was riding a wave of popularity, made even stronger as the star in the play, Joan of Lorraine.    An historical marker by the entrance tells us she inspired protesters that night by being "outraged by the theater's policy of racial discrimination."  The following year the University ended the restrictions on attendance."      

Linthall Houses, 606-610 21st Street 

Built circa 1800, and moved from 612-614 19th Street, these twin red brick Federals are the oldest building in the historic district.  

Benjamin Latrobe hired John Lenthall, a proven mechanic, to help construct the new Capitol.   Sadly, Lethall lost his life in an accident there when a vault collapsed on him.

Corcoran Hall

A Georgian Revival built in 1924 with truncated L-shape.  First building constructed for GWU on its Foggy Bottom campus.

Concordia German Evangelical Church and Rectory

According to the nomination form, this press-brick church is one of the finest Victorian (Gothic) eclectic churches in Washington.  The windows are Romanesque.  

The site of the church goes back to the 1760s when Funk subdivided lots he hoped would develop.   In the book, "Washington Odyssey," Mona E. Dingle tells us the church remains the only visible remnant of German intention to develop Foggy Bottom.

 

Engine Company 23

Who doesn't love a fire station?  Built in 1910, this one features a rear campanile tower and hipped roof.   According to the nomination form, this is the smallest firehouse in Washington.   John Aaron of WTOP reported on it in March.  The hay loft, reached by a spiral staircase, is now a weight room.  The original crew consisted of a dozen firefighters, six horses and a steam-powered pump.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

In their essential book, “The Guide to Black Washington,” Sandra Fitzpatrick and Adele Logan Alexander describe this church as an “architectural jewel.”   The congregation began in 1867.  The famed James Renwick designed this one (completed in 1887).  It was the first black Protestant Episcopal Church in the District.  

 

Coffee/Food

In a sea of spiffy places, "Leo’s GW Deli" doesn't look the part.  But oh what joys are found inside.   Walking up to order a bagel, I saw an older photo on a wall.   One of the work crew looked like the gentleman waiting on me.  Sure enough, he said, nineteen years behind the counter and Leo's brother has racked up 30!

 

Observatory Hill (Off-Limits, We Did Not Visit)

One of the best-kept secrets in the DMV is Observatory Hill.   Looking like a fortress and situated across from the State Department, this Federal campus holds a total of 13 buildings.   The oldest is the Old Naval Observatory, located here from 1844 to 1906.   The registration form tells us Pierre L'Enfant recognized the importance of its height, setting aside 17 acres as a public reservation.   Remarkable is the fact it is significant under criteria A, B, C and D.  

DC Preservation tells us this hill had several names, including Camp Hill, Peter's Hill, Reservation Number 4.  Before the adoption of the Greenwich Meridian, the American Meridian line passed through the dome of the Observatory.    

 

Demolished Structures 

It’s understandable that some demolition was needed in Foggy Bottom, but there were a handful of losses.  James Goode covers them in his classic, "Capital Losses."

Van Ness House (C, Constitution, 17th and 18th)    

The OAS building was a great gain on this corner spot, but the destruction of this historic house was a huge loss.   

Goode gives it four pages of coverage, a sign of highest tribute.  He described it as, “one of the finest private residences in Washington at the time it was constructed in 1813-1816."   Designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the style was Georgian with a hipped roof.   An historian called it, "the finest house in America."

Earning political acumen in New York, John Peter Van Ness (1769-1846), came to Washington in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson appointed him a major in the District of Columbia militia.  He rose to the rank of Major General.  Van Ness rubbed shoulders with a Who’s Who of Washington.   He served as Mayor of Washington from 1830 to 1834. 

Van Ness married Marcia Burns, a famed philanthropist.  Boundary Stones, WETA’s Local History Blog, called her "The First Leading Lady of Washington."   They tell us the parties thrown in the Van Ness mansion were "attended by all the very best in Washington, such as the Madisons, the Monroes, the Decaturs, the Tayloes."

The couple moved into their new house in 1816.   Goode writes the home “became a social center for members of Congress for many years afterward." After Van Ness passed away in 1846, Thomas Green, a prominent newspaper editor from Richmond lived in the mansion.   After the Civil War, a variety of uses included the Columbia Athletic Club.   The home was demolished, making way for the Pan American Union Building, completed in 1910 (name change in the 1940s).

 

Village House

Built in the 1780s at 412 20th Street, a two-story wooden house with a gambrel roof house stood there until it was destroyed in 1935.    Goode tells us it was the only known eighteenth-century building of its type in the District of Columbia, and was the only remaining building in the village of Hamburgh.   He points out the house still possessed its original panels, woodwork, staircase, mantels, and doors.   A small park is there now.

Heurich Brewing Factory

Christian Heurich was the granddaddy of them all among the Washington brewers.   His factory looked more like a castle and lasted for 83 years.   The site is just to the southeast of the Kennedy Center with some overlap.   Goode tells us Arena Stage used the gym  for a while before it was demolished in 1963.    

 

 

 

 

Morning Walk: Navy Yard

Yesterday we looked at the part of our visit to Capitol Hill which included the Marine Barracks.   Today we show and tell about the Navy Yard, which was the final part of our walk.

When folks think of early Washington history, we’re not sure they realize some of it is here.   Yesterday we pointed out the Marine Barracks is the oldest continually manned post in the US Marine Corps.  The Navy Yard is the oldest shore establishment of the US Navy.   

I also learned the Navy Yard was the city's first reliable large employer and served as Washington's ceremonial and diplomatic gateway.   

After passing through the security check, I began my walk. It doesn’t take long to see tributes to Commodore Thomas Tingey.  They include the Tingey Gate, the Tingey House (1804) and Tingey Street.   The London-born leader served as the installation’s first commandant, a period of 29 years.   In 1814, Tingey made the tough decision to burn the Navy Yard, knowing the British would have torched it during their march to the Capitol and the President’s House.   

My destination was the Naval Museum.  On the way I took in the impressive display of items on the grounds, which include a titanium pressure sphere and a 36,000 pound propellor from the battleship South Dakota.   

The look westward along the waterfront is a remarkable sight, a vibrant neighborhood hugging Nationals Park.   I recalled visiting that area in 2004.  Almost everything at Capitol Riverfront is new since then and DC United’s new stadium has extended the show across S. Capitol Street.

One also can see the first part of the construction of the new Frederick Douglass Bridge.    When the plans were announced several years ago, the Navy had to remove the  Display Ship Barry.   I’ll never forget standing on the marina dock in Old Town and seeing it make the turn south from the Anacostia to the Potomac.   The play of light gave it a ghostly pale color.

The Naval Museum is extraordinary in its array of items.  I only cracked the surface of taking it all in.   One thing that caught my eye was a display titled, "Anti-Slave Patrols, 1848-1861."    

I had not heard about this.    We owe gratitude to the efforts as displayed here, but as one scholar said —  “Only the abolition of slavery would effectively end the slave trade to the Americas, a full seventy years after the first U.S. law against the “inhuman traffic.”

One of the naval officers seen is Captain Elisha Peck.   In 1849 the Navy ordered him to patrol off the African coast.  Commander Peck was 59 years old at the time.  His last act of service was recruiting sailors for the Union during the Civil War.    

The other officer talked about is Lieutenant Andrew H. Foote.   He is best known for commanding the Western Flotilla during the Civil War.   His service includes captain of the USS Perry.  In 1850, it seized the slave ship Martha, which held captive 1,800 Africans from Angola.  (Fort Foote, now a park located on the Maryland side of the Potomac across from Dyke Marsh, carries his name forward.)  

There’s something for everyone at the Naval Museum.  For me, the star of the show is the Bathyscape Trieste.  Although many of my generation remember watching Jacques Cousteau and his underwater dives on TV back in the day, I had never heard of this vessel and knew nothing of its story.

The National Geographic website tells us a bathyscape is a self-propelled vehicle used for deep-sea dives.  They can dive deeper than submarines.   

The information placards tells us on January 23, 1960 the Trieste descended to the Marianas Trench, the deepest place in the ocean, 35,800 feet between Guam and the Philippines.  Manning the vessel on its epic dive were Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Dan Walsh.   Only one other person, James Cameron, has boldly gone to that alien place. 

In 1963, the Navy Museum acquired the Trieste after it was replaced by the Trieste II.   One can see the dents made from the sea pressure.   The Trieste’s record of service includes searching for the lost submarine USS Thresher in 1963.   According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, the Trieste took photographs that proved the sub had broken up off New England.

It seems to me that lost in the story of the Trieste is Auguste Piccard.   Once again, never heard of him.

The Swiss-born Belgian, the father of Jacques Piccard, designed the bathyscaphe and completed it in 1953.   Three decades earlier he had set a record by taking his hydrogen ballon up to the stratosphere. 

We owe a lot to Piccard for designing the two vehicles that took humankind to a place above (15 miles) and below (7 miles) where no human had ever gone.    In her biography of Piccard (“Captain of Space, Admiral of the Abyss”) author Adelaide Field tells us,

“When he accomplished all that he had set out to do in the sky, he tackled with equal dedication the opposite direction, straight down to the deepest ocean bottom.    He created, perfected, manufactured, and eventually tested both of his inventions.”

Many brave people have charged forward into the unknown and Piccard is one of them.  His achievements not only inspired others, they helped advance our understanding of the world.   

In what serves as a memoir ("Earth, Sky and Sea"), Piccard gave us all words of inspiration when he wrote:   

To discover new countries, to climb the highest peaks, to travel through new areas of celestial space, to turn our searchlights upon domains of eternal darkness, that is what makes life worth living. 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Walk: Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill was our destination yesterday.  Started out at Little Pearl, a cafe located at Pennsylvania and Ninth, steps from Eastern Market.   Something unique, it’s located in an old carriage house and steps from the Old Naval Hospital.   It’s a special pairing, with a lovely set of flowered grounds.  The building, constructed just after the Civil War, fell into disrepair in the 1990s.  A group of citizens rescued it and it is now The Hill Center.

The rest of the walk was south of Pennsylvania, mostly along 8th Avenue/Barracks Row and down to the Navy Yard.    “Washington at Home” has a nifty primer on Capitol Hill, one of the city’s oldest.  In the first years of the new city of Washington, there were two small clusters of development in these parts.   One was just east of the Capitol and the other was near the Navy Yard and the Marine Barracks.   An 1857 map shows these two areas as still the most dense, with some homes and buildings in between the two. 

William Prout, an Englishman who arrived in America in 1790, helped start the Marine Barracks part of Capitol Hill.   An historical marker at L and 8th tells us about him.   He was one of 19 landowners who sold tracts to the Federal government.   Prout helped build the community which began with a fishery and Eastern (Branch) Market at Sixth and L.   The current one, halfway between the Capitol and the Navy Yard, was built in 1872.   

The commercial strip along 8th Street gets all the attention here, but a pillar within the fabric of the community is Christ Church (Washington Parish).  Built in 1807 near 6th and G, it lines up on that lesser thought of line of early development between the Navy Yard and the Capitol.   The original structure remains behind the Gothic Revival facade.   

A historical marker tells us Prout donated the land.  Presidents Jefferson and John Quincy Adams attended services here.  Other members included enslaved humans, the Marines and John Philip Sousa.  

Sousa was born at 636 G Street, just steps from the church.   

Running beside the church is an alley.  A marker says it is one of Washington’s remaining inhabited alleys.  

Back over at 8th Street we checked out the Marine Barracks.   It is the oldest continually manned post in the US Marine Corps.  A 23-room house with mansard roof (added 1901) is the only remaining original structure. 

I talked briefly with two marines standing guard and thanked then for their service.  One did his Basic Training at Parris Island, the other at Camp Pendleton.  

Our final stop was a visit to the Navy Yard and Naval Museum.   That was something really special, so we will write about it separately.

All in all a good walk.   We learned Capitol Hill is more than just what’s near the dome.    

 

Morning Walk: Indian Head

I’m a community that lies about four miles from George Mason’s Gunston Hall. 

Woodbridge?   Lorton?   Fort Belvoir?

All correct answers, but today we’re talking Indian Head, a town on the Maryland side of the Potomac.   Although it is bisected by Indian Head Highway, most folks peel off before they get here, and head to Waldorf and other parts of Southern Maryland.   In fact, Highway 210 dead ends at Indian Head.   

The town’s website has a brief history.   Algonquin Indians once lived on the peninsula land.  Mattawoman Creek pays tribute to one of their groups of people.  Cornwallis Neck refers to Thomas Cornwallis, friend of Celilius or Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore.    In the days when the Potomac was brimming with fish, Indian Head was a point of sale.   These days, kayakers enjoy the serene waters.    

 

 

1890 was a milestone for the town.  Workers arrived that year for jobs at the Naval Proving Ground.    Its mission was to test guns, powder, fuses and other naval ordnances and to produce smokeless powder.  The Washington Post reported two 12-inch armor-piercing shells were successfully tested there in 1893.   

In their history of Charles County, Charles County Bicentennial Committee tells us transportation to and from the Navy Yard in Washington was via the steamers.  The Santa Barbara was the first in 1890.   Of course, steamers were already running to Glymont, Indian Head’s sister community.

The paper also tells about an accident that rattled the installation and homes as far away as Alexandria.  The explosion took place on the night of October 25, 1900.  50,000 pounds of black powder and small shells gave off a fireworks display seen from afar.    Fire damaged or destroyed three buildings.   Remarkably no deaths occurred and only one injury.   

Charles County Bicentennial Committee tells us about the “Toonerville Trolley.”  Lt. Commander Joseph Strauss established a street car on the installation in 1900.  

The Indian Head base saw an uptick in employment during World War I.    A historical marker on the base (military ID needed for access) tells us the proving grounds moved to Dahlgren in 1918.  The move was prompted by overshooting shells into residential areas.  The marker also provides historic photos.

World War II also brought an increase in jobs and prompted the construction of Highway 210.   The base has gone through several name changes.   Recently it became the Naval Support Facility.   The town was incorporated in 1920.   The majority of the population are the military folks, who give the area its largest employer.   Town leaders are currently working with a Master Plan to foster an increase in business and tourism.    

For those who visit here, a highlight is the Indian Head Rail Trail.   A historical marker tells us the Indian Head - White Plains Railroad was built during World War I (1918).  14 miles long, it connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad junction at White Plains.

The line became obsolete in 1956 when powder production ended.   In 2009, the Indian Head Rail Trail opened to the public.

One gets to the trail and boat launch via Mattingly Avenue, Indian Head’s lovely lane of charming small homes and St. Mary, Star of the Sea Parish.  We talked with one enterprising resident who gussied up her home and made it into an Air BnB.

All in all a good walk.   Here’s to the Navy at Indian Head and the folks who have supported them all these years.   There are certainly challenges ahead.  One recommendation we make is for a museum that would combine the history of the land, the town, the naval installation and Glymont.    

Note:  The businesses seen on the panel may not all be still open.    

 

 

 

 

 

Potomac River Landings During the Steamboat Era

The Potomac has always been not only the chief glory and crowning natural beauty of Washington, but the broad highway of a wondrous stretch of water connecting the city with the sea.  -  Frederick Tilp, "This Was Potomac River."

A wharf bustled with activity when a boat arrived.  Children raced to the dock to watch the action. Stevedores moved freight. Passengers disembarked or boarded. Farmers brought their products to the dock for loading. Locals exchanged news with travelers. --  Historical Marker, Hubs of Activity, Denton, Maryland.

There were once hundreds of them, just about any spot a country road dead ended at tidewater. They were the lifeblood of communities, a portal to the world beyond. Folks once planned their days, their seasons around them. But now the rotten pilings that descend into murky water do little service to the long-lost importance and memory of these forgotten landmarks. --  Steamboat Wharves, Abandoned Country,  Ben Swenson.

 

The puffs of smoke first started appearing on the Potomac River around 1815.    After the Civil War, the steamboats dotted the waters of the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay in greater and greater numbers, a long and prosperous run that lasted into the twentieth century.    

Glymont, Cedar Point, Bundick’s Wharf, and other riverside places are long-forgotten destinations that were visited in great numbers by residents of Washington, Alexandria and elsewhere.  Even the vocabulary  — excursions, pleasure resorts, riverside stores, fishing villages — has long since faded away.

And it wasn’t just pleasure cruises either.  As Ben Swenson points out.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, steamboats were central to Chesapeake commerce and communication, long before motor vehicles and telephone wires linked every spot on the mainland. The wharves where these stately ships made landings were bustling junctions, alive with merchants conducting business, passengers readying for travel, crewmen coaxing their mighty craft to moorings. 

It’s easy to wax nostalgic about a time long past, but as one old salt said:

“Today, we consider them romantic, but, they weren’t. It was a necessity. 

He went on, however, to say:

Steamboats were the lifeblood of the people around here. ... Lots of little towns that are small villages were thriving towns, because of steamboats.”

Another recalled the activity this way:

Recalling the 185-foot steamboat, Laurence Hartge of Galesville told New Bay Times, "she looked like the Titanic when she came into the West River. It was the highlight of our lives. We'd hitch a ride to Chalk Point and swim back - about a 100 yards."

The total number of places where the steamboats stopped on the shores of the Chesapeake is a staggering amount, a summit no writer has reached.

We thought we would take a look at a handful of them along the Potomac River.   Frederick Tilp, the one who knew the wide waters better than anyone else, and his book, “This Was Potomac River,” is our captain.  

 

Glymont (Indian Head, MD)

After the steamers slipped away from Washington, they began a zig zag course along the Potomac.   Sometimes there was no set route, but Alexandria came first, followed by a handful of “beach” spots.   One of the more popular was Glymont on the Maryland side.  Originally called Lower Wharf and Pie’s Landing, it got its name from the Fruit Growers Association of DC, who desired to make it better known as a place to purchase their fruits and flowers.

With their springs of fresh water, places like Glymont attracted a lot of people who had concerns about the city water.   Relaxing at these places was the best way to escape the summer heat trapped in the bowl of Washington and get away from the rat race.

Tilp tells us Glymont, also known as Pye’s Wharf, was the main steamboat landing in Charles County for over a century.  

The Washington Post covered the resort’s grand opening in June 1899.   Thousands of “pleasure-seekers” took the short trip from Washington on the River Queen and the Kent.

Twenty years before, a select group of Washingtonians including senators and representatives went down to Glymont for a shad-bake.

In 1877, the steamer Pilot Boy took about two dozen guests including some from the newspapers from the Seventh Street Whart to Glymont.  On the way a saloon served beverages and guests had an “elegant dinner.”  Other events included yacht races and rifle shooting matches.

In her book, “Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, DC,” author Patsy Mose Fletcher guides us through the forgotten history of Glymont.  With Jim Crow laws in full force, African Americans could not purchase a ticket for a steamboat cruise.  Instead churches, fraternal organizations, labor groups and social clubs sponsored group trips.  In August 1876, the 15th Street Presbyterian Church sponsored such a trip to Glymont.   

In 1896, a black-owned steamboat company leased the Glymont wharf and grounds for “colored excursions.”  The owners of the Jane Moseley advertised in the Colored American.

What's There Now?  

The Potomac Heights neighborhood sits where the Glymont action took place.    River Edge Place leads to the water’s edge.  A mansion there burned in 2014.

 

Aquia Creek

About forty miles south of Washington, and ten miles north of Fredericksburg lies Aquia Creek.   Its quiet and detached setting belies its history as a bustling entrepot. 

During the Colonial Era, stagecoach travelers had to endure a long and bumpy ride from the Virginia capital to Alexandria.    Breakdowns added to the travel time.  As early as 1815, steamboats shortened the time.   

Around 1842, travelers had a second option for the first leg of the journey, as the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad began service from the capital of Virginia to Aqua Landing.    The railroads and steamships worked together to get people and cargo to many parts of the region.

Some enslaved humans knew Aquia as part of the slave trade.  A historical marker points out a quote by Solomon Northrup, who was put on a steamer for Washington in 1841.

Tilp tells us steamers were built here in the 1870s for the excursion trade.

What's There Now?  

Aquia Landing remains a quiet place but a good number of historical markers have been erected.  

The blog, Mysteries and Conundrums notes:

Of all the places in the Fredericksburg region, I expect we will learn more about Aquia in the coming years more than anyplace else. Stafford County’s ABPP grant for archeological investigations and intensifying interest (and research) in the passage of escaped slaves through Aquia–these both portend a far greater understanding of the landscape in two years than we have today.  

 

Lower Cedar Point

Glanced at by oblivious motorists driving on the rickety Highway 301 Bridge over the Potomac,  Lower Cedar Point can be pinpointed by its billowing neighbor, the Morgantown Generating Station.   Before the span was built, the steamboats were the only connection between southern Maryland and Virginia’s Northern Neck.

Tilp says Lower Cedar Point was first shown on a 1635 chart marked Cedar Point.  According to the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society, a lightship was located here from 1825, but the Confederates burned and destroyed it in the first year of the war.   

Mike Boucher of the Lighthouse Society tells us about lightships.   For most of the nineteenth century, they marked the dangerous places where a lighthouse could be not built.  From 1820 to 1952 (when the last lightship was built), 179 vessels were constructed with wooden hulls and sail powered ships, to iron hulls with diesel engines.  The first lightship was placed in service in the Chesapeake Bay in 1820 to mark the Willoughby Split in Virginia. 

Near Dahlgren, across from Lower Cedar Point, a screwpile light house replaced a second lightship (1864) in 1867.   Fire burned it in 1893.   The replacement lighthouse was deactivated and the cottage dismantled in 1951.  A skeleton tower was built on the original lighthouse foundation, standing today about a half mile from the point.

Peter J. Dill built a wharf at Lower Cedar Point  in 1870.  It served as a shipping center for water freight for the next fifty years.    Stevedores stayed busy moving boxes of fish, produce, fertilizer, tobacco and flour.   The steamships meant bigger sales for the farmers.

The end of the Civil War brought a return to the steamer activity.   An ad in the Alexandria Gazette gave notice for the steamer Mattano, that left the wharf at the foot of King every Monday and Thursday morning at 7:30, with returns on Tuesday and Friday morning.  Stops included Marshall Hall, Pye’s Wharf, Sandy Point, Matthias Point, Dill’s Wharf, Colton’s Wharf, Blackistone Island and Nomini Ferry.

In the first part of the twentieth century, two steamers, the Henry Randall and the Wakefield, stopped at Dill’s Wharf.   The former ran year round, ice permitting.

Ice was the enemy for the steamers and even the wharfs.  Frozen floats damaged the Dill Wharf in 1905.  A new and better one was built that year.

Robert Crain (Highway 301 from the Potomac to Bowie is named for him) named the wharf, Morgantown Wharf.   He could have named it Crain’s Wharf and few would have objected.  Crain (1866-1928) was a noted lawyer and farmer.   He lived at Mount Victoria, a landmark country mansion home in Thompkinsville.   His farm spread out over 10,000 acres, making him one of the largest land owners in Maryland.  His obituary noted he specialized in breeding shorthorn cattle.    

What's There Now?  

The tip of land remains unspoiled.  A scattering of homes line a couple of nearby streets in Morgantown.  The historic home of Waverly, a five-bayer Federal with Flemish bond brick  is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a noted landmark in a part of Charles County that remains rural.

 

Coan River

Known for its colonial history  —  figures such as George Washington and members of the Lee family — Virginia’s Northern Neck also has a rich history of boats and landings.

Colonial Beach was one of the best known destination for beach goers, while the commerce along the Coan River also put jingles in pockets.

According to Tilp, the House of Burgess established Northumberland County out of the Chickacoan Indian District.  At that time, 1648, Northumberland consisted of the entire Northern Neck.   In 1680, the Jamestown lawmakers selected “Coan Wharf” as the seaport town of entry.    

At the start of the twentieth century, Coan was a major wharf for the shipment of oysters, produce and livestock.  

Most destinations during the Steamboat Era had one wharf, sometimes two, where the boats landed.   Here stood a handful — Lewisetta, Coan’s Wharf, Bundick’s Wharf, Cowart’s Wharf, and Walnut Point.   

Most of the riverside places Tilp talks about had only one store.   The author devotes a chapter to these public places, describing them as “placid islands of community life.”  Remarkably, Coan and its environs had four of them.

This part of the Northern Neck had a hey day with steamboat activity until the 1940s.   The tomato and seafood factory benefited greatly from the steamers for transport.   

Author David C. Holly supplements our knowledge of this area.  He tells us Coan consisted of a hotel, boarding house, and packing plant.   Bundick’s Wharf had an agent’s house, a store, wharf, shed and cattlemen, Cowart’s the tomato cannery and seafood packing plant, Lewisetta a wharf, a grove of summer cottages, store and warehouse and Walnut Point a packing house.

Most of the riverside landings were fairly easy to navigate for the seasoned captains.  These shallow waters required a “tricky maneuver with spring lines to turn around in the narrow channel.” 

Tilp tells us about Harry Smith, an African American he knew.  Smith started off as a caulker, a trade he plied for 18 years.   His hard work paid off with a promotion to Captain of a car ferry operating out of Bundick’s Wharf.  

What's There Now?  

This part of the Northern Neck is still sparsely populated.  The county seat of Heathsville, where the Coan River begins, is home to just 142.  Northumberland County holds about 12,000.  That figure is just 3,000 more than the 1790 figure.

Coan Baptist Church stands near Highway 360.  A marker points out the congregation was first known as Wicomico Baptist Church whose congregation goes back to 1804.

The Coan River trail includes the Bundick and Coan Landing and the Forest and Rowes boat ramps. A terrific website details the history and the trail.  It identifies the Bundick Old Steamboat Landing and the Coan Wharf Old Steaming Landing.  

 

Piney Point

Note:  We visited Piney Point in January.  These photos are from that trip.

Piney Point was the furthest point from Washington, a distance of about 90 nautical miles that perhaps kept some away.  Nevertheless, this one was popular.

Piney Point (pop. 810) has a history that goes back further than one might think.  The Alexandria Gazette’s "Marine Journal had shipping news on the harbor as far back as 1819.  In that crude era of navigational ads, light ships hoisted up a signal light as the boat approached.  

Tilp tells us there’s an Alexandria connection to the lighthouse at Piney Point.  In 1835, William Brent, collector of customs in the seaport, selected Piney Point as the site of a new lighthouse that Congress had authorized.   

The next summer a fixed white light shined its beacon on top of the new 35 foot tall conical shaped lighthouse.

The tower was the first of eleven lighthouses to be built along the river, and is one of only four that remain standing today (Jones Point, Fort Washington, Point Lookout).  In his book, "The Potomac River," Garrett Peck says this one is the most endearing.

The golden age of steamers along the Potomac ran from about the 1880s to the 1930s.   An ad in the Alexandria Gazette in 1820 tell us Piney Point was drawing folks even before that. 

Piney Point could brag its vacationers included Presidents James Monroe, Franklin Pierce and Teddy Roosevelt, as well as the lions of the Senate such Calhoun, Clay and Webster.    Its east facing beach was a major plus.

Oral histories add to our knowledge of the Piney Point lighthouse.   One tells us:

“You’d get up in the morning, no electricity.  You had to clean the shades.   We had a bell tower and had to ring it during foggy nights.   For fun we would crab and fish, do stuff around the water.”

In 1878, a travel writer visited Piney Point and found it “one of the most delightful resting places within a hundred miles of Washington.”   The Piney Point Hotel had the “best bathing and the prettiest beaches.”

A most unwelcome visitor stormed through the Chesapeake during the Depression.   The hurricane of 1933 damaged Tolson’s Hotel and ruined the waterfront.   

Although heroic rescues made the locals proud, Piney Point was never the same.

As told by an historical marker, the US Government established a torpedo testing station at Piney Point.   The 111 acres were sold off in the early 1960s and redeveloped.

What’s There Now?

Almost a dozen historical markers are clustered by the lighthouse.  Two of them touch on Alexandria.   One notes Piney Point became the testing range for torpedoes manufactured at the Naval Torpedo Station (Torpedo Factory).   One photo shows a torpedo being fitted at the torpedo factory in Alexandria.  Another shows an aerial view of the building.

The Test Center and Range is now the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education.   Founded in 1967 offers the most US Coast Guard approved courses of any maritime school in the nation.

Houses, some built in the 1920s, line the beach along Lighthouse Road.  Piney Point Lighthouse and Museum stand as a sentinels.

 

Conclusion

In 1920, "The Rambler," a popular local interest columnist for the Washington Evening Star, got caught up in the romance of the steamboats.

There was a time in your life and there was in mine when a steamboat seemed a more romantic thing than now. A ride on a steamboat was an event. There were thrills and adventure in it. A steamboat trip in retrospect was a subject of thought and talk for several other days. 

The writer also saw what was coming.  

You only travel on it if you must, and the wide river, glittering in the sun or shining under the moon, begins to bore you before you have traveled far.

The steamers still had some life in them but as Holly writes, the industry was holding on with little more than nostalgia. 

In 1934, the Baltimore steamers paid a final visit to Alexandria.  Slowly, the others ended their runs.   The driving of each pile for the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge was a nail in the coffin for the steamship companies.   Beachgoers hopped in their cars and headed for the Atlantic beaches.    A summer of 1952 report by Dorothea Pattee (The Washington Post) put the numbers on the sand at 10,000 to 12,000 with triple the figure on a holiday weekend.

As far as those steamer days, one might still feel some of the lost magic by taking a short cruise from Washington or Alexandria to Mount Vernon.   Or if they so desire, one could find a block of unhurried time, make their way over to a quiet spot along the river, lay out a blanket with a spread of picnic food, look up at the blue sky, and be taken away by Tilp’s vessel, “This Was Potomac River.”