RIDER'S GUIDES

Ready:

Rider's NEW YORK CITY

Rider's BERMUDA

Rider's WASHINGTON

In Preparation:

Rider's NEW ENGLAND

Rider's CALIFORNIA

Rider's FLORIDA

Rider's WEST INDIES

WASHINGTON

A GUIDE BOOK for TRAVELERS

with 3 maps and 22 plans

Compiled under the general editorship of
FREMONT RIDER

BY

FREDERIC TABER COOPER

NEW YORK

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1924

All Rights Reserved

Copyright, 1922

by

The Rider Press, Inc.

The contents of this volume are fully pro-
tected by copyright, both in the United
States and in foreign countries, and infringe-
ments thereof will be vigorously prosecuted.

Following New York, Washington of all our cities is most obviously deserving of adequate guidebook treatment.

Soon after the issuance of "Rider's New York City," the first in this series of "American Baedekers," therefore, editorial work was begun on the Washington volume. The war temporarily necessitated some postponement of plan, but actual field work was completed early this year.

The problems met with in the preparation of the "New York" volume had to be solved again with the "Washington" guide in peculiarly accentuated form. New York is in a constant state of flux; but the last three years in Washington have witnessed an unprecedented growth, with attendant dislocation and relocation-all particularly disconcerting to the maker of guidebooks.

The bibliography of Washington is of course extensive, but authorities of equal standing disagree astonishingly when one attempts to run down specific antiquarian details. Following the precedent of the New York volume, moreover, every endeavor was made to secure information or verification of every item at first hand, and this has meant an amount of first hand research not easy to appreciate.

As in the case of "Rider's Bermuda," the actual labor of compilation in the present volume has been largely in the hands of Dr. Frederic Taber Cooper, to whose painstaking enthusiasm and critical sense whatever excellence it may possess is largely due.

The Editor desires, however, to express his indebtedness to the many others who have assisted in the work of compilation, and particularly to: Miss Florence A. Huxley, who read much of the volume in proof and also prepared the index; to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Lyman B. Swormsted, formerly treasurer-general of National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a Washingtonian of many years standing, who went over the data on the D. A. R. headquarters building and gave invaluable advice in the annotation of the material on Shops, Clubs, Hotels and other sections of the introduction; to Dr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, and H. H. B. Meyer, Chief Bibliographer, who assumed responsibility for the correction of the material relative to that building; to the Rand, McNally Co. for their co-operation in the making of

the maps and for the use of two of their floor plans; to his cousin, Mr. Gerrit Smith Miller, Curator of the Department of Mammals of the Smithsonian Institution, for most cordial assistance in securing co-operation in the correction of the great mass of material relating to that institution and its various museums; to Bro. Anthony S. F. M., of the Commissariat of the Holy Land, for the revision of material relative to the Franciscan Monastery; to Dr. William Tindall, for many years secretary to the Commission of the District of Columbia, and an old resident and enthusiastic student of Washington lore, for his courtesy in reading and revising many of the street sections, as well as the historical and other general sections; to C. Powell Minnigerode, Director of the Corcoran Art Gallery, who revised the Corcoran data, and to Elliott Woods, the Architect of the Capitol, who did the same work for that building; to his brother-in-law, Major Stuart C. Godfrey, C. E., U. S. A., for suggestions on material relating to the War Department buildings; to Lieut. Col. C. O. Sherrill, C. E., U. S. A., for reading the White House material, that building being under his jurisdiction; to W. A. Reid, Trade Adviser of the Pan-American Union, who read proof on the Pan-American Building; to Miss Ellen M. Brown, John Keller, of the staff of the Washington Evening Star, and Robert B. McClean, Business Manager of the Consolidated Press in Washington, all of whom assisted in the compilation of the Preliminary material; to Herbert P. Williams, who gave helpful aid in the collection of material; to George F. Bowerman, Librarian of the Carnegie Public Library of Washington, for his unflagging interest and many helpful suggestions as well as for the special privileges he extended in the use of the library's unique collection of Washingtoniana; and to Leonard C. Gunnell, of the Smithsonian Institution, who generously proffered much valuable advice.

Acknowledgment should also be made of the help received from a large number of local histories and monographs (See the Bibliography); also more specifically to the following works, which have been of special service: The two recent standard Histories of Washington, by W. B. Bryan and Dr. William Tindall, respectively; the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, which have been of great aid, especially regarding the old residential section; Early Days of Washington, by Sally S. Mackall, containing many sidelights on early Georgetown history; and Mount Vernon, by Paul Wilstach, a wellnigh indispensable source book of the local history of the home of Washington.