What a scene that must have been! One can imagine the turtle soup, the fish and terrapin caught fresh from the river, wild ducks and ham with shoulders of mutton and all the vegetables and hot breads and other delectable foods for which Maryland is famous—for Uriah Forrest, himself a Marylander, had a Maryland wife, Rebecca Plater, the daughter of Governor Plater, whose home was Sotterley, in Saint Mary's County.
In 1792 Colonel Forrest was mayor of George Town. Not long after this, Colonel Forrest purchased a large tract of land lying north of the town and there he built a country home which he called Rosedale, and to which he eventually retired for his permanent home. His descendants, the Greens, lived on at Rosedale until not so very many years ago. One of them, Mr. George Green, sold to President Cleveland, in his first administration, a stone cottage on the Rosedale estate which the President remodeled and made his summer home. It was called Red Top, from its turreted red roof, but its real name was Oak View. From it, the suburb, Cleveland Park, derives its name.
William Marbury
Mr. Cleveland, in his second administration, used Woodley for his summer home. It had been a part of the Rosedale tract, and the house was built by Philip Barton Key, a brother-in-law of Colonel Forrest, for he also had married a Miss Plater.
Mr. Key moved out of town and resided at Woodley, where he dispensed lavish hospitality until his death in 1817. Thomas Plater also had moved out from George Town and lived near by. He was the executor for Philip Barton Key. After Mr. Key's death, his widow went back into town and took up her residence on the corner of Gay (N) and Congress (31st) Streets.
After Colonel Forrest left the house on Bridge (M) Street, it was bought by William Marbury, who had come to Georgetown from Annapolis. He was a justice of the peace, a very responsible and honorable office in those days. It was in connection with his reappointment to the office that the controversy arose which resulted in the famous law case of Marbury versus Madison, as James Madison, in his capacity as Secretary of State to Thomas Jefferson, was the Madison involved. The prominence of the case was because it was the first of those great opinions handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall in which he decided that the Supreme Court has the power to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional.
