f the conditions existing in
Washington when I first knew it.

Two rows of houses on Pennsylvania Avenue, known as the "Six and Seven
Buildings," were fashionable dwellings. Admiral David D. Porter, then a
Lieutenant in the Navy, occupied one of them. Miss Catharine L. Brooke
kept a girls' school in another, while still another was the residence
of William Lee of Massachusetts. I have been informed that while serving
in a consular office abroad, under the appointment of President Monroe,
Mr. Lee was commissioned by him to select a dinner set for the White
House.

Architects, if I remember correctly, were almost unknown in Washington
at this time. When a person was sufficiently venturesome to build a
house for himself, he selected a residence suited to his tastes and
directed a builder to erect one like it. Speculative building was
entirely unknown, and if any resident of the District had embarked upon
such a venture he would have been regarded as the victim of a vivid but
disordered fancy.

Mrs. C. R. Latimer kept a fashionable boarding house in a large brick
dwelling facing Lafayette Square where the Belasco Theater now stands.
Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Fish boarded with her while the former was a
Representative in Congress, and Mr. and Mrs. Sanders Irving, so well and
favorably known to all old Washingtonians, also made this house their
home. Many years later it was the residence of William H. Seward, and he
was living there when the memorable attempt was made in 1865 to
assassinate him. As is well known, it subsequently became the home of
James G. Blaine. When Hamilton Fish was elected to the Senate, he
purchased a house on H Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Streets, which was afterwards known as the "Porter house." Previously
it had been owned and occupied by General "Phil" Kearny.

The shops of Washington in 1845 were not numerous, and were located
chiefly upon Pennsylvania Avenue, Seventh Street then being a
residential section. The most prominent dry-goods store was kept by
Darius Clagett at the corner of Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Mr. Clagett, invariably cordial and courteous, always stood behind his
counter, and I have had many pleasant chats with him while making my
purchases. Although he kept an excellent selection of goods, it was
usually the custom for prominent Washington folk to make their larger
purchases in Baltimore. A little later Walter Harper kept a dry-goods
store on Pennsylva