Booth's mistress, Ella Starr, and other "unknown" Booth ladies!

[Jenny]

You guys are going to brain me for keeping this thread at the top of the forum. However I *think* I might have discovered something that might interest those of you who are curious about Ella Starr.

(Beware - this is long and image heavy. Note: I do not claim any of these images as my own and have tried to properly credit my sources.)

To my knowledge, a picture of Mollie Turner's bawdy house at 62 Ohio Avenue where Ella Starr would have resided in 1865 (and where she attempted suicide on April 15, 1865) has never been found.

Until, dare I get my hopes up, last night.

According to the late Mr. Hall and land records at the Surratt Society, Mrs. Ellen Starr (Ella's mother) purchased a lot on square 257 in Washington D.C.'s "Murder Bay" area.

This lot on 257 was lot B, subdivision of lot 1, in Washington D.C. Lot 1, you see, had been further subdivided in 1858. Lot A was vacant; no building stood there in the 1860s. That would have made the structure on lot B the literal "corner house" at the time.

(Image of squares 257 and 258 on an 1888 fire insurance map from Those of Little Note)

There has been some confusion about the actual location of this lot as one provost marshal's list of bawdy houses lists Mollie Turner's house as being "62 C Street" in (I believe) 1864. However the 1865 newspaper accounts that involve Ella Starr and her arrest etc. all indicate that the house was actually on the corner of 13 1/2 Street, facing Ohio Avenue. As Ohio Avenue was diagonal and actually crossed C Street at 13 1/2 Street, the provost marshal could easily have marked it by accident as "62 C Street."

According to The of Little Note: Gender, Race, and Class in Historical Archaeology edited by Elizabeth M. Scott, the 1865 city directory also indicates that that 62 Ohio Avenue was the corner house at the crossing of Ohio Avenue and 13 1/2 Street.

The number was changed from 62 to 1353 Ohio Avenue NW after the Civil War.

(Close-up of square 257 with 1353 Ohio Avenue in red)

(Another map from 1887 with lot B in red)

Well, while researching Ella Starr, I searched the wonderful online catalog of the Kiplinger Research Library at The Historical Society of Washington D.C to see if I could find an image of the house. Typed "Ohio Avenue" into their search engine, took a look at the images which popped up, and lo and behold before my eyes sat one picture of houses that looked like it might be interesting.

The picture in question is call number BI 117 from the Joseph E. Bishop Photograph Collection. It is titled "General view north down 13 1/2 Street NW from Ohio Avenue" and features "squares: 0257/0258."

Here is the link to the Historical Society of Washington D.C.'s page on the photo.
http://historydc.pastperfect-online.com/...0;type=102

(Image from the Historical Society of Washington D.C.)

The photographer was standing on Ohio Avenue and looking directly up (I don't know why it says "down" when he was looking north up the street) 13 1/2 Street.

(Location of photographer from photo description by me on unknown map. Note the location of the White House!)

Even the angle of the street matches up if you look at it from the photographer's perspective on the above map!

But wait! 62/1353 Ohio Avenue was the corner house in 1865 because it sat next to an empty lot (which was the actual corner lot). When this picture was taken between 1924 - 1928, a building had clearly been constructed on the empty lot. Thus Ella Starr's house is not the house closest to 13 1/2 Street in the picture on the left side but the second house closest to it.

This is where the trees get in the way. I personally cannot make out where the "new" corner house stops and the second house begins and then ends. It appears to be a very slender building as I think that's a third house/part of a third house at the extreme left of the photo.

I blew up the picture and started trying to distinguish building from building. Unfortunately my results are inconclusive... but I believe 1353 Ohio Avenue (Ella Starr's 62 Ohio Avenue) is between the purple and the yellow lines I marked.

Let me know what you all think!! I do have all images in larger sizes if wanted.

Sources:
Those of Little Note: Gender, Race, and Class in Historical Archaeology edited by Elizabeth M. Scott.
James O. Hall and his research on the Starr family and location of the lot.
The Historical Society of Washington D.C. (Kiplinger Research Library)