t in the seventies by
Oscar Stevens for his family and that of his brother-in-law, Dr. John S.
Billings. Their wives were sisters, and very dependent upon each other.
Dr. Billings was a pioneer in the introduction of indirect heating in
buildings, and became an authority on that subject, and on ventilation.
His textbooks on the subject were used in the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and when Johns Hopkins Hospital was built, he was consulted.
Because he had made such a fine record in creating the Army Medical
Library, he was asked to come to New York and create the new Public
Library there from the Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, which were
consolidated.

Across the street, at number 3032, where now is a large, modern brick
house, there used to be, before I can remember, a quaint, frame
structure. It was supposed to be one of the first houses built on the
grant of the Rock of Dumbarton, and was intended for the "overlooker" of
that part of the grant. It was a very plain but comfortable house, and
was the home in the early part of the century of Hezekiah Miller who,
like many of the gentry in those days, was in charge of government work.
His department dealt with the Indians, and he had the distribution of
money and supplies to certain tribes to whom he went from time to time,
and also looked after them when they came to Washington. They always
called him "Father Miller." Mr. Miller's wife was Miss Middleton, from
Brooke Court Manor, in Maryland. Hezekiah Miller was a devout member of
Christ Church. His daughter became the wife of the Reverend George
Leakin, an Episcopal clergyman of Baltimore. She was to have been a
bridesmaid at the wedding of Harriet Williams and Baron Bodisco, but was
prevented by the sudden death of her brother by drowning. He was one of
twins, born just at the time of General Lafayette's arrival on his visit
in 1824, who were named Washington and Lafayette at the request of the
townspeople. It was the latter young man who drowned, at the age of
twenty-five.

Number 3028 was the home, for a long, long time of the Reads, three
sisters. One married Dr. Post, who was a missionary to Syria, but Miss
Jane and Miss Isabella lived here many years after. The house next door
still has its old-time doorway, but, unfortunately, one owner in the
eighties spoiled its quaintness by adding a corner tower. It was here, I
think, that Dr. William Barton Rogers, first President of the
Massachusetts Inst