If a place was more than two centuries old, was once home to a distinguished DC family, held connections to President Washington and President Lincoln, and served as a home to the elderly for over 150 years, it would be a very special place.
Perched higher and standing back from a long line of commercial buildings below it, such a place is the Aged Woman’s Home of Georgetown (1255 Wisconsin Avenue). Its setting, further obscured behind a tree, serves as a metaphor for its forgotten history.
Thanks to the kindness of one of its staff members, I was able to take the first steps to learn more about the Lutz family, who, before moving to the city of Washington, lived at this dwelling in the first half of the nineteenth century.
The early details of the family, especially around the first John Lutz, are fuzzy. We do know Lutz family members lived at 1255 Wisconsin from about 1805 to 1868. In 1868, the Female Union Benevolent Society (became the Aged Woman’s Home in 1914) acquired the dwelling from the family. As noted by the Aged Woman's Home website, the home "offers, free of charge, a private room for senior citizens, as well as emotional support and the benefits of group living."
A HABS report says the house is “probably one of the earliest extant structures in Georgetown, is one of the few residences in the commercial district, and a portion of this building has a rare flounder half gable, alleged to date from 1756.” An addition was made in 1870 to the front and in 1872 to the rear.
Affixed to the front of the home is an historical marker. It tells the reader:
“From 1804 to 1841, the home of John Lutz, Sergeant of General Washington’s Guard at Valley Forge. Placed by The Historians and USA Bicentennial Committees - District of Columbia, DAR, 1970.”
This is the puzzling part of the story. Our searches for information on this John Lutz came up empty.
Things begin to clear up with John Lutz (1775-1841), perhaps the son of the above mentioned John Lutz. He became a well-known saddler and harness maker in Georgetown and served on boards with John Marbury and Francis Scott Key. In their collections, Mount Vernon has a campaign trunk probably used by Washington in the Revolutionary War. In 1820, Elizabeth Parke Custis had the lining refurnished. The Lutz shop label is affixed inside.
There are several other relics in this story. The first has been cared for by the Aged Woman’s Home. In their possession is a framed copy of a letter written by Elizabeth Parke Custis. The date is April 14, 1828. It’s addressed to the two sons of John Lutz — John S. Lutz (1813-1869) and Francis Asbury Lutz (1820-1885). An attached note shows it was written in Washington and delivered in June by Captain William Tell Poussin (1794-1876). Guillaume Tell Poussin (1794–1876) was a French topographical engineer who helped survey the waterways and roads of the US.
Custis, the eldest grandchild of Martha Washington, began by writing:
I have long intended to offer my good friend, Mr. John Lutz, a present, which he would not only value as a gift from one of the children of his General, but more so, because it once belonged to him.
She went on to say:
You must call to see me sometimes, my good friend. We will talk of your general. My health I believe, will never be good again.
John Lutz (1775-1841) passed away in 1841. He had two sons, John and Francis. Both earned some level of fame and carried the Lutz family story forward.
John S. Lutz (1813-1869) went off to the Big Apple and struck up a relationship with Laura Keene. (Note: Two excellent biographies are, “Our American Duchess: A Biography of Laura Keene" by Vernanne Bryan and "Laura Keene: Actress, Innovator and Impresario" by Ben Graf Henneke.)
Keene earned fame on the big stages and was also a pioneer as a woman owner of a theatre in New York. John was her watchful eye and indefatigable manager. Keene and Lutz probably stayed in the Lutz house on occasion, but they were on the road a lot. They had no children together, but Keene had two daughters (Emma and Clara) from a previous marriage and Lutz had Adelaide from his marriage to Malvina.
Deeds show John giving the home on Wisconsin Avenue (then High Street) to Adelaide in 1851. In 1872, Adelaide deeded the property to the Trustees of the Female Union Benevolent Society. One can conjecture with some degree of confidence that without their ownership, this dwelling might have been demolished.
On the night of April 14, 1865, after John Wilkes Booth mortally wounded President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Keene, starring in the lead actress role (Florence) of “Our American Cousin,” ran from the stage to comfort the President. She later gave her blood-stained cuffs (the second relic) to Morris Adler, a clerk in the War Department who had married Malvina Lutz (1810-1855), a daughter of John Lutz the Saddler. The Adlers lived at a handsome brick dwelling at 1821 Wisconsin Avenue, that was demolished in 1938.
Adler remarried to Mary Kurtz (1815-1898). Their grand daughter, Virginia Adler Thompson (1879-1962) donated the cuffs to the Smithsonian, who have displayed it from time to time. Ford’s Theater has also displayed them.
The web site Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher) tells us about a leather-covered wooden box dated 1838. It belonged to Adler and was manufactured by John Lutz (resists quip about Adler and Saddler…). This trunk is on display and in the good hands of the Peabody Room at the Georgetown branch of the DC Library.
The other son of John Lutz was Francis Asbury Lutz (1820-1885). Like his brother, he was probably born in the family home on Wisconsin. In 1853, Francis moved the Georgetown store his father started to Washington. Under his management, and then that of his son Francis Jr (1843-1903), the family established one of the finest Harness, Saddlery & Trunks outfits in Washington.
Perhaps Francis and his family attended a “Humorous Lecture” in Georgetown on the night of February 22, 1868. The great quipper, Mark Twain, drew laughs and spoke on the topic of the Sandwich Islands. The marquee event was held at Forrest Hall (now a Gap store), a stone’s throw from the Lutz House.
In what was Twain’s last public lecture in Washington, monies earned were donated to the Female Union Benevolent Society of Georgetown, who was renting the Lutz House. Britannia Kennon (1815-1911), the wife of Commodore Beverly Kennon (commandant of the Navy), the mistress of Tudor Place, and the daughter of Martha Custis Peter, and, most famously, a granddaughter of Martha Washington (Martha and Thomas Peter built and lived in Tudor Place), served as its President from 1879 to 1911. Perhaps one or members of the Lutz family visited the Kennons at Tudor Place.
Although Keene and John were not in Washington a lot, Henneke tells us John and Francis had a cordial relationship. It could have been torn asunder when their father willed his estate not to John, the eldest, but to Francis. John headed for New York where he met Keene. She had a remarkable career on stage. It was a vagabond existence, but Keene showed complete concern and care for her two daughters from her first marriage, Laura and Emma. She enrolled them at the Ladies Academy of the Visitation in Georgetown. Francis enrolled one of his daughters there, too.
Where John had no children with Laura, Francis and Nellie begot five who lived beyond childhood. The 1870 Census shows the family as: Francis (50), Mary (47), Francis A. (28), John A. (25), Mary E. (19), Samuel (17), Ada (15), and Adelaide (28). Adelaide was the daughter of John and Malvina.
Their home was at the corner of C and Four and a Half Streets. This put them in position A in the Judiciary Square neighborhood, about halfway between the White House and the Capitol, and the center of the city. Before it began to fade, the downtown neighborhood was one of the most fashionable residential sections in Washington. Former residents included Chief Justice John Marshall, Henry Clay, and Francis Scott Key. Elegant Blagden Row ran nearby.
Salmon P. Chase lived at 6th and E streets in an handsome Greek Revival house. A great social event took place there, giving the war-weary administration and city a brief distraction. On November 12, 1863, Chase’s (Secretary of Treasury, 1861-1864) oldest daughter Kate married William Sprague, wealthy Senator of Rhode Island. The wedding was a trifecta for head turning with Chase’s political stature, Sprague’s wealth, and Kate as the city’s premiere socialite. President Lincoln attended.
Salmon P. Chase and daughters, one of them Kate. , . [No Date Recorded on Caption Card] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/cph6238/.
The site of the family home is somewhere close to the John Marshall Statue at C and 4th. Steps away stood the Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Church. Dedicated in 1869, the church was a towering landmark. One source called it "the Westminster Abbey of American Methodism." Its first service drew 2,000 including President Grant, Chief Justice Chase, a large number of senators and representatives and other distinguished guests from the across the country. (Demolished in 1956).
From an article in the Evening Star, we know Francis served on the church board with Grant and Chase and Washington mayor Matthew G. Emery. Without a doubt, this was a high point of pride for the Lutz family.
A reporter for the Evening Star described the Lutz house as follows:
Standing high on a terraced lot at the NE corner of 4 1/2 streets is an old-fashioned brick house which was one of the most pretentious homes in Washington fifty years ago. John Quincy Adams once lived in it. It is four stories high and has a mansard roof. Originally it had a gabled roof. This was changed by the late F. A. Lutz, when he bought the property in 1861. Gottlieb C. Grammar (DC banker) lived in this house for thirty years before his death in 1857. Issac Torrey, Secretary of Navy, also lived in the house.
The Lutz family made the society news from time to time. A January 2nd, 1872 report said:
We venture the assertion that there was no finer reception given yesterday in all Washington than that of Mrs F A Lutz at her princely residence, corner of C and Four and a Half Streets.
Across the span of three generations, the Lutz family earned praise as makers and sellers in the saddle and harness business. John Lutz (1775-1841) would have been proud of his descendants. Francis, his son Francis Jr, and his grandson Francis III kept things going in fine fashion. An article in 1853 reported on "Awards of the Metropolitan Mechanics Institute." Francis won "first diploma for buggy harness, somerset saddle, gig saddle and and second diploma for shaftoe saddle."
The Washington Evening Star sang the praises of F.A. Lutz Jr. & Bros, noting “every President from Washington to Roosevelt has been a patron, and enrolled on their books are the names of cabinet members, ambassadors, and diplomats of world-wide fame.” Francis’s two eldest sons, Frank (1843-1878) and John (1845-1878), helped run the business.
“Luggage and Leather Goods,” (Volumes 25-25, 1909) wrote:
“Today, the business is one of Washington’s prominent enterprises and is carried on successfully by the fourth generation of the Lutz family — a record unparalleled in the trunk trade of America.”
In 1906, the company moved to 1325 G Street in a new three-story building.
In 1925, Corinne Frazier, a writer with The Washington Post, sat down with the shop’s musty old ledgers and found the accounts of President Lincoln and Booth. The President overpaid his account by 1 cent, and died before he made any more purchases. Booth purchased a pair of spurs the day before he ended the President’s life.
Seemingly something out of a script, Robert E. Lee’s account showed 37 cents in the deficit.
Part of the Lutz story made its way to Leesburg after the Civil War. The youngest son of Francis Asbury Lutz was Samuel (1853-1918). He and his family acquired and remodeled Springwood in the Second Empire style in 1869. The landmark home was built c. 1840 by George Washington Ball (1828-1889). The Lutz family made it their home and wedded there until at least 1946. Today the three-story dwelling houses a health facility on the outskirts of the town.
In 1925, The Washington Post published a story of the letter Elizabeth Parke Custis had written to John and Francis, the one displayed at the Aged Woman's Home in Georgetown. The article pointed out the letter was in the possession of Frank Lutz, Jr (1874-1933) of Woodside, Maryland. He was a great grandson of John Lutz (1775-1841), grandson of Francis Asbury Lutz (1820-1855), and son of Francis Jr (1843-1903). Along with the letter, Elizabeth Parke Custis had given the family some buttons from George Washington's uniform. The buttons were in the hands of Samuel’s widow, Mary Ida Lutz (1853-1943).
In 1936, Jessie Fant Evans (Evening Star) sat down with John A. Lutz (1884-1955) at his home at 1812 Monroe Avenue. She told her readers he was the last of the family's male line. John showed Evans his collection of Washingtonia, which included copies of letters and portraits. When John passed away in 1955, his obituary told the reader he was "an old time auto race driver here in the early days of motoring" and winner of several Silver Cups. His house at 1812 Monroe Street NW, where he lived for 45 years, still stands.
Lutz family members continued to make the news from time to time. John's sister Eleanor (1885-1960) married Richard Wilmer Bolling (1879-1951), who was a brother of Edith Wilson, second wife of President Wilson. At the time of his passing, he was living with her at the Wilson home in Washington.
In 1946, readers of the Loudoun News (November 28) saw a front page story that led with:
"One of Loudoun's most beautiful estates, Springwood, was sold at public auction."
Leta Lutz Clagett (1878-1948), daughter of Samuel (1853-1918) and Mary (1853-1943) acquired the family home. She passed away two years later.
One of the last obituaries in The Washington Post to mention the family history came on July 23, 1960. Eleanor Lutz Bolling (1885-1960) had passed away (2219 California Street, NW). It pointed out she was "a great, great, grand daughter of John Lutz who served with George Washington at Valley Forge and settled in Georgetown after the Revolution."
John and Eleanor and Leta and that line of the family had lived long, full lives. They witnessed the end of the saddle and trunk era, one that had been so much a part of the landscape of the colonies and the United States. Many of the Lutz family members were laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. Not far away lies the house on Wisconsin Avenue where their story began. The house is a special place and the story of the family is special, too.
Note: Oak Hill Cemetery records show the family having two places there - Chapel Hill, 565 and Chapel Valley, 415.
I took the above photo of the Lutz family obelisk. It is located at the Chapel Hill lot. As you can see it is down the hill from the chapel, about 50 yards away.
The two slabs are shown at Find a Grave to be John (1775-1851) and Mary (1783-1851).
On the obelisk is:
Francis A. Lutz (1820-1885), Mary (Wife, 1823-1897)
John A. Lutz (1878, In His 33 Year)
James F. Lutz (1847-1861), Ella Virginia Lutz (1857-1862), Oydanna C. Lutz (1864-1865), Clara Lutz (1861-1865)
Find a Grave shows for John S. Lutz (1813-1869) having an unmarked burial in Chapel Hill.
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