white, frame house
on the west side of the street, lived Captain de la Roche, who was the
architect of Oak Hill Cemetery and of Saint John's Church where he was a
vestryman when it was remodeled in 1840. Apropos of that, several years
ago while I was living away from Georgetown for a short period of years,
on one of my return visits, I was standing on the corner of Dumbarton
Avenue and 31st Street waiting for a street-car. The wait was long and I
looked about me up and down the streets, to the westward, above the tree
tops was an object totally strange to my Georgetown eyes, a church
steeple of the somewhat Bulfinch type. I reasoned that it could not be
anything but the steeple of Saint John's, but I knew I had never seen it
look like that--it had always resembled a large pepper pot more than
anything else. Upon inquiry, I found that not long before the vestry of
Saint John's had found that some repairs were necessary on the tower, so
one of their number, a civil engineer, ascended with an architect and
while hunting around, they discovered part of the original tower still
there, inclosed in the more modern square building. It was torn away
and the old church now bears part of its original headdress. Only the
lower story of the tower remains as the smaller ones which used to
surmount it had, of course, been lost.

Captain and Mrs. de la Roche had three daughters; two of them had
married officers in the United States Army. When the Civil War came
their sympathies were with the South. One husband promptly resigned and
went with the Confederates. The other would not resign but his wife,
being a very resourceful person, kept after him, not being able to stand
having a husband in the hated Yankee army, until, during a temporary
illness, she got him discharged as not fit for marching.

Captain de la Roche having died, his widow was forced to take boarders
at her table, and several of the Union officers availed themselves of
the bountiful Southern fare. After a while the youngest daughter, who
was a red-hot rebel, found herself deeply in love with a young Yankee
doctor. I wonder if he was on duty at the hospital in the Seminary down
the street? An engagement followed and the marriage was imminent, but
she could not bring herself to confess to her friends that she was about
to become the wife of one of the despised soldiers. Finally her mother
told her she must at least tell Mrs. Cassin, their neighbor on the
corner, who was