Mary's Carriage Accident

[Laurie Verge]

Donna,

On modern maps, the asylum sits at the junction of the Anacostia River (called the Eastern Branch at that time) and the Potomac River. The modern main streets around it are Martin Luther King Avenue (which was Nichols Avenue until the 1970s - named after Dr. Nichols, a leading psychiatrist at the asylum) and Alabama Avenue.

Now comes the HOWEVER: When one crossed the Navy Yard Bridge in 1865, a left-hand turn would take you up Harrison Street (now Good Hope Road, which runs into Alabama) and out a few miles into Southern Maryland. Bearing to the right would put you on the road that led to the asylum. I just can't find the name of that road in 1865.

The whole area was known as Anacostia, but a lot of books on the CW and Booth's escape mention Uniontown. The latter was actually a "subdivision" of the time that was started in Anacostia in 1854 as a settlement for working class people, most of whom worked at the Navy Yard. Interestingly, there were specific covenants to buying in that area that, among other things, prohibited the sale, rent, or lease of property there to anyone of African or Irish descent. Ironically, in 1877, Frederick Douglass bought "Cedar Hill," originally the home of the developer, and lived out his life there, dying in 1898. Douglass was known as the Sage of Anacostia. He broke a lot of barriers -- as well as covenants, evidently!

I know, back to looking for coordinates or something to prove that Lincoln could point to the asylum from the White House....