Lost Washington: Carroll Row

Historic

by Kent Boese • October 26, 2009 3:00 pm

View down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., with Carroll Row on the left

Carroll Row, built ca. 1800, was located at the northeast corner of 1st and A Streets, SE.

The most important of the five houses in the row was the northern most structure, which was one of Washington's earliest hotels -- Long's Hotel. It was the site of many festive occasions, including President Madison's inaugural ball in 1809. An eyewitness of the ball described the guests as a "moving mass" that crowded into the ballroom and broke an upper window sash for ventilation when the air became oppressive.

Carroll Row was built by Daniel Carroll who was the principal landowner of Capitol Hill in the early nineteenth century. The row became famous for becoming fashionable boardinghouses for members of Congress prior to the Civil War, with patrons including John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln while he was a member of the 30th Congress (1847-49).

The row was occupied and used as headquarters by General Robert Ross and Admiral Sir George Cockburn, leaders of the invading British forces who burned the city on the night of August 24, 1814. During the invasion, the southernmost house (closest to Pennsylvania Avenue) became a hospital for wounded British soldiers. Later, in the 1830s, it served as the printing establishment of Duff Green, editor of the United States Telegraph and printer for the government.

During the Civil War the entire row served as Carroll Prison, housing the government's political prisoners.

The entire row was razed in 1887 to make way for the Library of Congress. The library's Jefferson Building is now located on the site that included Carroll Row.

8 comments — Share	— tags: Capitol Hill, DC, historic losses

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Comments

I will say this about Carroll's Row- at least what replaced it was phenomenal.

The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress is one of the most beautiful and splendid examples of architecture in this hemisphere. Incredibly- sounds were made in the 1950's & 60's to demolish this masterpiece. What DID happen- was across the street- an entire block of period builgs was destroyed- some dating back to the 1700's and this block was left abandoned until that awful edifice- the Madison Building- was put up.

IMO- the Madison is one of the very worst buildings in the city- along w/ the Department of Labor & the FBI building.

by w on Oct 26, 2009 3:11 pm

what are those little white things to the right of carroll's row in this photograph?

by IMGoph on Oct 28, 2009 12:03 pm

that was a stoneyard

This part of what is now called Capitol Hill had the largest population of stone cutters & carvers in the entire city.
A street NE and the surrouding streets were a veritable stonemasons neighborhood.

If you spoke German, you would fit right in.

Thomas U Walter, himself a German/American, evidently encouraged many of his fellow German Americans to come to this part of DC to work on the Capitol extensions & the new dome that he designed.

It is not as well known as being an "ethnic neighborhhod" since many of these folks had been in the USA for a few generations already , they were NOT immigrants, but kept the German culture close to hand. You can still see the signs in the area- storefronts, stained glass transoms with German Names , etc.