A Portrait of Old George Town

by Grace Dunlop Peter

A block or two further west, on the north side of the street, stood the very modest home of Jacob Schoofield, the Quaker with whom William Wirt was put to board when he was sent in 1779 to George Town to attend school. He speaks of how Mrs. Schoofield comforted him the first night he was there, a home-sick little boy, by telling him the story, from the Bible, of Joseph being sold by his brother and carried off into Egypt. He said "I remember, also, to have seen a gentleman, Mr. Peter, I think, going out gunning for canvas-backs, then called white-backs, which I have seen whitening the Potomac and which, when they arose, as they sometimes did for half a mile together, produced a sound like thunder."

Just a few doors from this house was the famous Union Tavern, of which I have already said so much. The building was standing until a few years ago when it was replaced by a filling station. When it became Crawford's Hotel after John Suter, Jr., gave it up, again William Wirt comes into the picture:

Here I am at Crawford's. I am surrounded by a vast crowd of legislators and gentlemen assembled for the races, which are to commence tomorrow. The races amidst the ruins and desolation of Washington.

These gentlemen used to ride to and from the capitol in a large stage-coach with seats on top called the "Royal George."

Among the other notable guests of the old hostelry were Louis Philippe, Jerome Bonaparte, Talleyrand, ex-Bishop of Autun when he was driven from France, John Adams, when as President in the early summer of 1800, he came down to look over his new field; Anthony Merry, Minister from England to the United States; Washington Irving, Count Volney, Humbolt, the geographer; Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat; Lorenzo Dow, the eccentric preacher; several young naval officers from the Tripolitan War; and John Randolph of Roanoke. I wonder if it was from this old tavern that that brilliant but erratic statesman went out across the Chain Bridge to fight his duel with Henry Clay? It is recorded by a marker, just at the end of the bridge on the Virginia side, and reads thus: "Near here Henry Clay and John Randolph of Roanoke fought a duel April 8, 1826. Randolph had called Clay a 'Blackleg' in a speech. Both men were unhurt, but Randolph's coat was pierced by a bullet."

John Randolph spent the night before the duel in quoting poetry and playing whist while his will was being amended.

John Randolph must have liked George Town, for years afterwards when he lay very ill in his boarding place on Capitol Hill, he insisted on his body servant, Juba, getting him some water from George Town, no other would do. He called it "The water of Chios."

Joseph Crawford, the proprietor of this hotel, was the principal manager in the unloading of the records and furniture belonging to the government when the ships bringing it from Philadelphia docked at Lear's Wharf. Abraham Bradley, who, as Assistant Postmaster General, had charge of the removal of that department, and Joseph Nourse, who was Registrar of the Treasury, may also have stopped at Crawford's until settled in their homes.

Just opposite on the southeast corner of Bridge (M) and Washington (30th) Streets stood, until 1878, the Presbyterian Church, whose founder, Dr. Stephen Bloomer Balch, was its pastor for fifty-two years. When it was first built in 1782, it was only about thirty feet square. In 1793 it was enlarged by extending the north front. In 1801-'02, it was further enlarged by extending it on the west side. For this purpose Thomas Jefferson helped by subscribing $75.00. In 1806 the trustees of the congregation were incorporated by Congress. They were: Stephen B. Balch, William Whann, James Melvin, John Maffitt, John Peter, Joshua Dawson, James Calder, George Thompson, Richard Elliott, David Wiley, and Andrew Ross. The first and only elder for some time was James Orme, son of Reverend John Orme, of Upper Marlborough. In 1821 a new building was erected. When Dr. Balch died in 1833, he was buried there, but when the congregation moved in 1878 and the church was torn down, his remains were taken to Oak Hill, where, with the original gravestone, they lie not far from the chapel and just north of the grave of John Howard Payne.