Pauline Artes was born September 10, 1860 in Georgetown, DC to Sophia Gramler and Daniel Artes, two German immigrants.
Looking at the the description from a photo of a young Ms. Artes it reads, “This little girl grew up to be a beloved caretaker in the Artes family. She is listed in the household of her parents as they became elderly. After their death she managed a boarding house where her cooking was renown. My mother met my dad there. Mom’s diary is full of visits to Aunt Lena’s with her parents. She recalled this tiny women wresting huge roasting pans from the oven and still making time to share special treats with her nieces. I have a picture of two of her boarders, Swedish carpenters who made Aunt Lena’s their home in DC.”
“Aunt Lena” had made her home and place of work in Truxton Circle. The 1905 and 1909 city directories listed her as a grocer at 61 P St NW. A little earlier, an article celebrating parents Sophia and Daniel’s golden wedding anniversary in 1904, mentioned their home was 61 P St NW.
By 1910 her mother was a widow and the 41 year old never married daughter was listed in the census as a business woman running a grocery on her own account. Lena lived in the house with her mother, two adult nieces and a 14 year old nephew with a Kennelly surname.
1915 she had gone from a grocer to a confectioner, a seller of sweets at 61 P St. And the 1920 census showed that she switched to being the mistress of a boarding house. At the time of the census she only had two roomers. She also housed her 85 year old mother, a 34- year old cousin, and an 11 year old niece.
Despite running a business out of 61 P St, the family did not own it. They were renters.
According to the 1921 city directory, her home was 25 Q St NW. The 1922 directory has her running a boarding house there. Then in 1923, she relocated to 1619 1st St NW taking up her former grocer profession.
She was out of Truxton by the 1930 census, scooted up the road to 1829 1st St NW in Bloomingdale. She was 72 years old and running a rooming house of sorts. She only had two roomers at the time of the census. She was also housing a 28 year old nephew and her 54 year old widowed sister.
Lena died January 1940. The funeral was held at her home at 74 T St NW, also in Bloomingdale. She was 82 years old.
At this point I’m going to pontificate about single women like Pauline. She is one of many women, who as single women were able to make a way for herself over 100 years ago, before Suffrage and other rights. My annoyance with Women’s history is that it gets boiled down to that, Suffrage and Rights. The same way Black History is just Slavery and Civil Rights, as if we didn’t do other things. Anyway, misery sells and I’m not selling misery. I’m telling the history of Truxton Circle, which was formed by a variety of people, including Miss Artes. She served people with groceries, candy, and a place to rest their heads. She didn’t need to be a teacher or a nurse, she was a business woman. She didn’t need a man to handle her business. Nor did she need to work for someone else while she was in Truxton Circle and Bloomingdale (she worked as a cook earlier). Scroll up and see a strong independent woman who took care of her loved ones.
Thousands of people have lived in the Truxton Circle neighborhood for over 100 years and they have thousands of stories. The goal of the Truxton Circle History Project is to find every man, woman, and child who lived in the neighborhood using every available source. The Project uses the 1880-1950 censuses, the power of Ancestry and every other online resource to discover and uncover neighborhood history.
