Inside and Upstairs in the Surratt Boarding House... (Kinda)

[BettyO]

I spent Saturday in DC after tours in Grant Hall at Fort Leslie McNair. I went to lunch with friends at the Surratt Boarding House (Wok n' Roll) and afterwards decided to take a free "tour" upstairs; something I've wanted to do for at least 40 years.
For starters, there is a Karaoke lounge up there - but that wasn't what I wanted to see! The doors opened at 2:30 PM and we headed up. It is technically housed within Mrs. Surratt's neighbor's house next door - but.....we snooped around a bit and to the right of the hallway next door, we found ourselves in what was more or less what we felt was Mrs. Surratt's hallway and parlor in perhaps a small way. The entire structure upstairs has been subdivided into apartments and the doors were locked - so no ingress. The staircase is behind a door and the little ante-hall leads to two apartments as well as a dining room. A man was sitting and watching up from the Karaoke Room across the hallway so we were afraid to open the white door to the staircase....some other time, perhaps!

   

   

   

Lots of interesting folk at McNair that morning - including the great-great grandson of General Hartranft!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for sharing, Betty - that's really neat you could do this "upstairs tour"!!! Great you had such a fun time!

[Jim Page]

Betty, about two-and-a-half years ago, after a nice lunch at the Wok 'n' Roll, Jim Garrett and I tried to get some photos of the inside of the Surratt Boarding House's "resident's door."

The staircase is said to be original to the house. I was carrying my bulky Nikon digital SLR, and it was just too unwieldy to work for a snap shot. The few residents who opened that locked street door whipped through it like lightning.

I did manage to photograph this unusual individual, though!!!


--Jim

[BettyO]

What a wonderful photo, Jim!!! It's an absolute Gem of "Our Jim!" Thanks so very much for sharing!!

Years ago, I knew Bert Shelton - a retired DC Cop. Bert was also quite a historian and managed to go upstairs into the boarding house via a friendship with the owner, Harold Wang. Bert for years owned two of those wonderful old white "egg" porcelain door knobs from the boarding house. About four years ago, they were sold on eBay for $1,000 apiece!

Betty O

[RJNorton]

Betty and Jim, thanks for sharing such fascinating photos! Betty, you really stepped into history! Jim, I think the person in your photo might be Mr. Kirby.

Rosemary, if you go to the link below, there are lots of old photos of the Surratt House and its interior:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=ma...ng&sg=true

[Susan Higginbotham]

Great tour! Best I managed was to get a photograph of the Wok n' Roll's lucky cat waving. Maybe things would have been different if Mary had had the foresight to buy a lucky cat for her dining room.

[L Verge]

What a wonderful photo, Jim!!! It's an absolute Gem of "Our Jim!" Thanks so very much for sharing!!

Years ago, I knew Bert Shelton - a retired DC Cop. Bert was also quite a historian and managed to go upstairs into the boarding house via a friendship with the owner, Harold Wang. Bert for years owned two of those wonderful old white "egg" porcelain door knobs from the boarding house. About four years ago, they were sold on eBay for $1,000 apiece!

Betty O

Betty - Just to clarify, Harold Wang was never the owner of the H Street building. He was another person (like Bert) who was given permission to go upstairs there. The owner for many years was a Dr. Lee.

Harold "stumbled" into getting permission to enter due to his last name. Dr. Lee was Chinese and assumed that Harold was also (having never met him). Harold's last name (Wang) is of Scandinavian origins. After his visit, Harold supplied a very nice article to the Surratt Courier describing the layout and also things he thought were still original.

P.S. Back in the 1970s and early-80s, Betty and I and several other assassination nuts would stand on the sidewalk outside of what was then Suey Sang Lung's Chinese Grocery at 604 H Street and contemplate making a mad dash into the private door that led upstairs. One thing that stopped us was the thought of a possible opium den that we might find.

Chinatown had not become quite so gentrified at that time. The construction of Verizon Center has greatly improved the neighborhood visually, but there has been a recent spike in crime there aimed at visitors exiting night activities at the Center.

[Jim Page]

Back in the 1970s and early-80s, Betty and I and several other assassination nuts would stand on the sidewalk outside of what was then Suey Sang Lung's Chinese Grocery at 604 H Street and contemplate making a mad dash into the private door that led upstairs . . .

It really is mysterious. I'm reminded of that old '50s song, "Green Door (What's That Secret You're Keeping?)."

--Jim