Day: June 30, 2023

Although the African American home owners of Truxton Circle are my focus, I am looking at a few other blocks in Washington, DC to compare them to. So I looked at the census for blocks in the city that were in the F1 or red-lined category, but happened to be 90%-100% white. I included Georgetown, and this is the story of one household.

I stumbled on this one because James D. McKenna was the son of Thomas McKenna. I’m guessing at the address because in the Recorder of Deeds online system they owned a property on Square 1255 lot 163. I cannot locate lot 163 on the 1919 map.

I was looking for McKennas on square 1255 and found James around the same time period as his father.

James a single man at the time bought lot 163 from Henry W. Offutt a widower from Montgomery County on July 3, 1943. He borrowed $5,300 from trustees Hubert R. Bauckman and Wendel C. Shoemaker. March 27, 1946 James and his wife Eve Ruth McKenna sold the property to Fanny Fiske Eaton. James D. McKenna was released from his 1943 mortgage in November 1946. So, he owned it just 3 years.

I could not locate any useful information about James and Eva McKenna after this sale. James Doyle McKenna died in Florida on July 19, 1980 and is buried in Montgomery County, MD.

Although the African American home owners of Truxton Circle are my focus, I am looking at a few other blocks in Washington, DC to compare them to. So I looked at the census for blocks in the city that were in the F1 or red-lined category, but happened to be 90%-100% white. I included Georgetown, and this is the story of one household.

There honestly isn’t a lot in the Recorder of Deeds online records. The Recorder of Deeds trove of records start around 1921 and the records for square 1255 lot 187 or 3233 P Street NW in Washington, DC starts in October 1947 when three of the 5 McKenna adult children sold the property to Loulie M. Wilson.  Thomas McKenna died December 16, 1940, at home.

Thomas Patrick (?)McKenna was born August 15, 1866 in Ireland. I arrived in America in 1879/1881. He married Irish-American Angela Doyle in 1901. In the 1910 census Thomas and Angela were living at 3233 P St NW with their four children, 7 year old James Doyle, 5 year old Theresa M., three year old Thomas Pierce, and infant John J. McKenna. Patriarch Thomas worked as a grocer with his own shop.

In the 1920 census there was a change. The family was still at 3233 P St NW. Thomas was 54 years old, working as a watchman for the government supporting a wife and five children. M. Delores was the fifth child and eight years old. In the 1930 census he was still a guard working for the US government. His wife Angela had died in 1923. Daughters Theresa and Maria Delores lived with him and sons Thomas and John were in the plumbing trades. The 1940 census was Thomas the elder’s last at the age of 72. He lived with James, Thomas Pierce, Theresa and Delores. Sons James and Thomas worked as cab drivers.

After the death of their father, as mentioned above, Theresa, Thomas and Marie Delores sold the family home in 1947. In the 1950 census Theresa, an insurance clerk for the VA, married Joseph E. Crowley and had adult siblings, Thomas and M. Delores living with them at 2417 39th Street NW. The siblings were not employed.

I will have another post about eldest son, James D. McKenna who owned another property on the block.

John Joseph McKenna married Mary Dorothy Poore in 1938. In the 1940s they lived at 648 1/2 Morton Street NE and he worked as a plumber. By the 1950 census they lived at 3614 T St NW, had three kids under the age of 6.