HE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA, 1910

Just behind the church and adjoining it on little Potomac Street, is a
house where, fifty years ago, used to live two old maid sisters who were
absolute hermits. Their food was drawn up in a basket which they let
down to an old family retainer containing the money with which to do
their purchasing. Whenever the organ was played in St. John's, they used
to take a hammer and beat upon the wall as long as the music continued.

The large yellow house at the southwest corner of Market (33rd) and
Second (O) Streets is where Thomas E. Waggaman lived in the nineties. He
built an addition on the west as an art gallery for his collection of
pictures. It is now a separate house. Here, some years ago, lived Jouett
Shouse at the time he formed his Liberty League. Recently, Colonel and
Mrs. Alf Heiberg made it their home. They placed an eagle over the door
and called it "Federal House."

Right across the street stood a dear old house some years ago. It was
white, with double piazzas all the way across the front. The yard was
enclosed by a paling fence and from the gate a double border of box led
to the door. It was the home of Dr. Hezekiah Magruder.

About 1833 the family of Admiral James Hogan Sands lived there. William
Franklin Sands, author of _Undiplomatic Memories_ was one of his sons.
The old house was torn down about 1890.

Across the street, at number 3318, is the home of Mr. and Mrs. David E.
Finley. He is the Director of the National Gallery of Art.

Number 3322 is the interesting old house where, in the forties and
fifties lived Baron Bodisco, Minister from Russia to the United States.
He had a very romantic marriage of which I shall tell later. Just before
the marriage he purchased this house from Sally Van Devanter, who had
inherited it in 1840 from her husband, Christopher Van Devanter,
apparently, the builder of the house. Baron Bodisco, the same day he
bought it, gave it to his fiancee, Harriet Beall Williams. Whether it
was a wedding gift or whether, as a foreign envoy, he could not hold
property, I do not know. She kept the property for twenty years until
her remarriage to Captain Douglas Scott, when it was bought by Abraham
H. Herr. During the Civil War, it was headquarters for the officers of
the Second U. S. Regiment, whose enlisted men were quartered in Forrest
Hall.

[Illustration: BODISCO HOUSE]

But to return to the period when it was owned and occupi