Took this picture this weekend when the temperature was about 20F. Notice the figure in the bottom left corner.
I just saw this guy, just standing there on the street. It’s 20F f’ing degrees out. Who the heck just stands out in the cold like that?
There is the chance that he’s just a normal guy waiting for a ride. Possible. He could be a dealer waiting for a customer. Just as possible given the block. Since I was trying to hustle back to the house, I didn’t have time (or the will) to observe him for too long. I did think the scene was just not right so I snapped this picture over my shoulder.
Neighborhood Research: What I find plodding along
No. I have not found anyone famous. Of course, I am not looking for
anyone famous for that matter. What I am looking for are demographic
patterns of the NW Truxton Circle Neighborhood in 1880. The goal was
to do 1890-1930. Sadly, there is hardly any 1890 census as it was
burned, there is a 1880 census with addresses (the main thing that
allows me to focus street by street) and there are over a thousand
people to track each census year.
Anyway, just wanted to share one of my unexciting finds from the 1880
census. I keep finding Irish and German immigrants, or their crummy
children. I do find my clusters of African Americans but so far, and
I’ve only done a few blocks, we are a minority. Understand I had a
theory going in about the racial make up of Truxton, the data is
proving me wrong and I’m a bit miffed.
One of these immigrant or 2nd generation American families were the
Clarks of 406 Florida Avenue, NW. Headed by Cornelius Clark, clerk at
the S.G. (State Government?) Office, he lived with his wife Emily,
their 5 children, his 45 year old sister Margaret (dressmaker) and
their African American servant Henrietta Majors. The Clark parents
were born in New York but were children of immigrants as Cornelius’
and Margaret’s parents were born in Ireland and Emily’s father was
German and her mother Irish. Ms. Majors, their live-in
maid/housekeeper was of Virginia as were her parents. Given Majors age
at the time of the census (21) and her home state, I’ll go as far to
say she may have been born a slave.
So far, off the top of my head the Clarks are the 3rd family I have
found in Truxton to have a live in servant. Typically it was just one
servant. I haven’t found a home so grand in our area that there was a
need for multiple live in servants. The live-ins are recorded on the
census, those who went home after their shift were not recorded, so
there might be other households with servants but that information is
not recorded in the census.
Where U At?
Yesterday I tried to make a map from the DC Gov site to figure out where different neighborhoods are. The picture on the side is of the different real estate assessment neighborhoods (tags are mine). I broke Old City 2, up into it’s subneighborhoods because it is so big.
There is a funky way of adding neighborhoods but you can’t get an outline of where a neighborhood is. You’d have to go block by block. In Old City 2 A the blocks above S Street and south of Florida are in Cardozo/Shaw. South of S, west of New Jersey is Logan/Shaw. But suprising to me Truxton Circle is east of New Jersey, south of Florida, north of New York AND (the surprising bit) includes the area on the other side of North Capitol…. according to the DC Citizen Atlas map.
Off the top of my head and skimming the newspaper databases, Shaw, as it was defined was the Shaw Junior High Urban Renewal Area. According to 5 Housing Plans Win Approval; 1,589 Housing Units Cleared Here by RLA in the Washington Post May 16, 1974. p. C1 areas in the NW side of Truxton are in Shaw.
Well that’s enough for today, I’ll investigate neighborhood borderline some more later.