DC Sites

[L Verge]

A mystery - at least to me - that needs solving: Exactly where did the Harrises and Henry Rathbone live on April 14, 1865. As you can tell from above postings, I have always assumed that they lived together in a lovely house on Lafayette Square and were picked up there by the Lincolns en route to Ford's. I believe that it was Roger who earlier thought that maybe Clara and Henry went to the White House to leave from there.

Joan Chaconas and I did a little debating today, and she (who is a D.C. history nut) believes that Henry may have been the one who lived on the Square and that the Harrises lived in a suite of rooms at the Willard Hotel. What we need is the 1865 City Directory for D.C. We know that the D.C. Historical Society has/had one and so does the Martin Luther King Public Library's Washingtoniana Room. However, getting anyone from either of those two institutions to respond to questions has proved useless.

Researching in D.C. with all its wonderful archives used to be much easier fifty years ago. You actually had wonderful personnel who were eager to help. I guess some like that still exist, but it's frustrating when you can't get anyone to help you.