Baptist Alley

[BettyO]

Quote:Joan Chaconas and I were discussing the alley dwellers that were all over D.C. in the 19th century - and the colorful names of some of the alleys. There should be a book written on the whole subject. I suspect that many cities have much the same thing in their histories, but I wonder if D.C. had more because of the constant stream of contraband during the Civil War and freed men afterwards.

While conducting research on Annie Ward in Baltimore, I discovered some great material regarding the alleys and alley dwellers in Baltimore during the 1860s, including personal names of the residents as well as the colorful names of the alleys themselves. Same scenario here in Richmond. We had at one time, Pink Alley, Tulip Alley, Jassemine Alley (now Jassemine Street, etc.)