aint little brick houses here seem to be an unknown
quantity to even some of the oldest inhabitants and nearest neighbors.
In number 3021, long ago, lived Horatio Berry, the brother of Philip
Taylor Berry. In number 3025, the quaint locks on the doors all have on
them a small, round brass seal, bearing the coat-of-arms of Great
Britain, the lion and the unicorn rampant, also the name "Carpenter &
Co.", and in the cellar are crossbeams hewn by hand.

Next we come to a pair of cottages, changed from their pristine
loveliness--now the "Mary Margaret Home," for old ladies. The one at
3033 P Street in my girlhood was the home of Mrs. James D. Patton, the
former Jennie Coyle. She gave me piano lessons for four years, but she
gave me much more! She formed a group of girls into a King's Daughters'
Circle, "The Patient Workers," which met at her house on Saturday
mornings when we sewed and made articles which we sold at a Fair in the
Spring. The proceeds were divided between the Children's Country Home
and the Children's Hospital. There is still a brass plate in the
hospital bearing the name, "The Patient Workers" for a bed we named.

The two big houses on the northeast corner of West (P) Street and
Congress (31st) Street were built by Joseph H. Libbey, a well-to-do
lumber merchant. They continued to be in his family for a long time. The
one on the east now is the Catholic Home for Aged Ladies. In front of it
is the largest and most beautiful elm tree in Georgetown. The two houses
at 1516 and 1518 Congress (31st) Street, Mr. Libbey built about 1850 as
wedding gifts for his two daughters, Martha, Mrs. Benjamin Miller,
becoming the owner of number 1516. It is still owned by her descendants.
Number 1518 has changed hands several times. It was where Richard V.
Oulahan, the well-known newspaper correspondent, lived until his death
several years ago. At that time it was said of him: "He gathered news
like a gentleman and wrote it like a scholar."

Back in the eighties, a party was given at number 1518 one night for the
young niece of two maiden ladies whose home it then was. The guests were
about sixteen and seventeen years old, and the boys had all just arrived
at the age where their most treasured possessions were their brand new
derby hats. When the party broke up and the guests trooped upstairs to
get their wraps, the young gentlemen found, on entering their dressing
room, that on one of the beds reposed the crowns of all their d