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This is the oldest house of worship in the District of Columbia, or near it, and was erected in 1719, by the planters of the neighborhood, of bricks imported from England as ballast in empty tobacco ships. It was remodeled, however, in 1868, and now appears as a small steepleless structure nearly hidden among great trees and surrounded by ancient graves and vaults, whose tablets bear the names of the foremost of the old Maryland families and early Washingtonians. The oldest graves are nearest the church; and one headstone is pitted with marks of minie balls, showing that some soldiers have used it as a convenient target. The cemetery is still used, and contains two splendid bronze mortuary statues, one of which, by St. Gaudens, at the grave of Mrs. Adams, is

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that mysterious veiled

sitting figure entitled,

"Peace of God," which

Memorial Statues.

is famous throughout the art world.

The monument above the grave of Peter Force is also of much interest. In Mrs. Lockwood's "Historic Homes" will be found a long incidental account of the history of this sacred spot and the relics still used in the service of the old church.

A delightful homeward way is to walk

across, a mile or so, through the paths of the Soldiers' Home park to the terminus of the Eckington electric railroad; but many will be interested, instead, to go around the Military Cemetery, and up the hill to the right, where, in the woods, may still be seen the star-shaped embankments of Fort Totten, with numerous rifle-pits and outworks. This is one of the best preserved and most accessible of the old forts, and its parapets command a wide and beautiful landscape. From Fort Totten the Harewood Road may easily be reached and followed southward along the eastern side of the park until it emerges upon the campus of the Catholic University.

This is the national institution of higher learning established by all the Catholic bishops of the United States in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, and is regarded by Pope Leo XIII as one of the chief honors of his pontificate.

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The grounds comprise seventy acres, and the visitor is at once struck by the stately appearance of the structures already erected. Divinity Hall was Catholic erected in 1889. It is a solid stone structure of 266 feet front University. and five stories in height; the lower floor is given up to classrooms, museums, and the library; the upper floors are occupied with the lodgings of the professors and students of the department of divinity; the top story is a well-equipped gymnasium. The Divinity Chapel is admired by all visitors. The building to the right is known as the McMahon Hall of Philosophy, and was dedicated in 1895. It is built of granite throughout, is 250 feet front, and five stories high. It consists entirely of lecture-rooms, classrooms, laboratories, and museums. It accommodates two great schools or faculties, each comprising several departments of study. The School of Philosophy comprises departments of philosophy proper, letters, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and has attached to it a department of technology giving full instruction in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. The School of the Social Sciences comprises

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departments of ethics and sociology, economics, political science, and law. The former faculty leads up to the degree of Ph. D., the latter to all degrees in law. Immediately adjoining the university are three affiliated colleges, called St. Thomas' College, the Marist College, and the Holy Cross College. Each of these contains from fifteen to twenty students of philosophy and theology, and their professors. They attend courses in the university. The divinity courses are attended only by ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church. To the legal, philosophical, and scientific courses lay students are admitted, without regard to their religious creed.

The old country village and present suburb of Brookland lies just beyond, and farther on are Hyattsville and other suburban residence centers, reached by the Eckington line of electric railway, which extends northeast as far as Berwyn, Maryland. The time of return

Suburban
Towns.

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JOHN HOWARD PAYNE MONUMENT. Rock Creek Cemetery.

ing from the University and Soldiers' Home Station by this line is about twenty-five minutes. Just south of the station, west of the suburban district of Edgewood, through which the line passes, are the Glenwood, Prospect Hill, and St. Mary's (Roman Catholic) cemeteries, which contain the graves of many famous persons and some tall monuments. Nearer the city line is the fine suburb, Eckington, in the midst of which, upon a beautifully wooded hill, is the Colonial building of the Eckington Hotel, open in summer. This line enters the city along New York Avenue, and terminates at the Treasury.

4. To the "Zoo," Rock Creek National Park, and Chevy Chase. This is an excursion into the northern and most beautiful corner of the District, reached by taking the cars out Fourteenth Street to the boundary, and then (by transfer) the Chevy Chase line. The latter extends from Sixth Street (connecting with the Seventh Street line) along U Street West, through Hancock Circle (where New Hampshire Avenue crosses Sixteenth Street), and thence turns up the hill at Eighteenth Street, and goes across Rock Creek, and out into the country, along Connecticut Avenue Extended, passing on its way half way around the Zoological Park.

Routes.

A zoölogical garden is among the most recent additions to the sights of the capital. It is open all day, including Sunday, and no admittance fee is charged.

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Zoological
Park.

Previous to its organization and the purchase of this site of about 167 acres, in 1890, the National Museum had accumulated by gift many live animals, but had no means of caring for them; these at once became the nucleus of the new collection, which was placed under the general charge of the Smithsonian Institution, with Frank Baker, M.D., as superintendent. Two definite objects have been in view here. The original idea was not a park for public exhibition purposes a popular "Zoo "- but a reservation in which there might be bred and maintained representatives of many American animals threatened with extinction. Congress, however, enlarged and modified this notion by adding the exhibition features, making the place a pleasure-ground as well as an experiment station, and consequently imposing upon the District of Columbia one-half the cost of its purchase and maintenance. Nevertheless, the managers do all they can to carry out the original, more scientific intention.

Animals.

A walk of five minutes from the cars at the gate brings the visitor to the principal Animal House, which is a commodious stone building, well lighted and well ventilated, and having on its southern side an annex of very fine outdoor cages, where the great carnivora and other beasts dwell in warm weather. The collection is not very large, as the funds do not at present allow of the purchase of animals, which must be obtained by gift or exchange. Captures in the Yellowstone National Park are permitted for the benefit of this garden, and have supplied many specimens. The hardier animals (except a few antelopes and kangaroos, which have a stable) are quartered out of doors all the year round in wire enclosures scattered about the grounds. These are all healthy and happy to a gratifying degree, and as a result they produce young freely.. The herds of bison, elk, and deer were recruited mainly from the Yellowstone Park. The former occupy adjacent paddocks upon the rising ground north of the animal house, and the latter enjoy extensive pastures and a picturesque thatched stable somewhat to the east, on a hillside sloping down to Rock Creek. In another quarter are to be seen the cages of the wolves, foxes, and dogs. The beavers, however, probably constitute the most singular and interesting of all the features of the garden at present. They consist of a colony in the wooded ravine of a little branch of Rock Creek, where they cut down trees, burrow in the banks of the stream, and construct dams and houses, precisely as in a state of nature. The Bear Dens are the best of their kind in the country, being rude caves blasted out of the cliff left by an abandoned quarry, which form natural retreats for their big tenants.

An alternative way out of the garden is to climb the rustic stairway near the Bear Dens, and walk a few rods to the street-car station at the Rock Creek bridge.

Chevy Chase is a charming suburb, just beyond the District line, at the extremity of Connecticut Avenue Extended, which is cut straight across the broken and

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picturesque region west of Rock Creek. The forested gorge of this romantic stream, east of the avenue, and embracing most of the region between it and Chevy Chase. the proposed extension of Sixteenth Street, or Executive Avenue," has been acquired and reserved by the Government as a public park; but as yet no improvements have been attempted, and it remains a wild ramblingground full of grand possibilities for the landscape artist.

Chevy Chase consists of a group of handsome country villas, among which an old mansion has been converted into a “country-club,” with tennis courts, golf links, etc., attached, and here the young people of the fashionable set meet for outdoor amusements, in which fox-hunting with hounds, after the British fashion, is prominent. A large hotel was started here, but the building is now occupied as a school. An additional fare is charged for travel beyond the circle at the District line, and there is little to attract the traveler farther northward. Instead of turning back, however, it is a good plan to walk southwestward eight or ten minutes, passing old Fort Reno, and striking the Tenallytown electric road at the Glen Echo Junction, where he can return direct to Georgetown, or can go on to Glen Echo, and then up to Cabin John Bridge or Great Falls, or out to Rockville, or back to Georgetown by the electric line along the bank of the Potomac.

5. Georgetown and Its Vicinity.

Georgetown, now West Washington, was a flourishing village and seaport (the river channel having been deeper previous to the construction of bridges) before there waз a

History.

thought of placing the capital here; and in its hospitable houses the early officials found pleasanter homes than the embryo Federal city then afforded. Its narrow, well-shaded, hilly streets are yet quaint with reminders of those days, and it has residents who still consider their circle of families the only persons "true blue." Georgetown is still a port of entry, but its business does little more than pay the expenses of the office.

Before the era of railroads Georgetown had distinct importance, due to the fact that it was the tidewater terminus of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, which was finished up the river as far as the Great Falls in 1784, and in 1828 was carried through to Cumberland, Maryland, at a cost of $13,000,000. It never realized the vast expectations of its promoters, but was of great service to Georgetown, and is still used for the transport of coal, grain, and other slow freights.

Pennsylvania Avenue forms the highway toward Georgetown, but stops at Rock Creek. The cars turn off to K Street, cross the deep ravine over a bridge borne upon

Union
Station.

the arched water-mains, and then run east to the end of the street at the Aqueduct Bridge. Here a three-story union railway station has been built; into its lowest level come the cars of the Pennsylvania Avenue line, and the top story forms the terminus of the electric railway to the Great Falls. Stairways and elevators connect the three floors, and reach to Prospect Avenue above.

Key House.

Georgetown does not contain much to attract the hasty sight-seer, though much for the meditative historian. A large sign, painted upon a brick house near the Aqueduct Bridge, informs him that that is the Key Mansion the home for several years of Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," who resided here after the War of 1812, became district-attorney, and died in 1843. Similar personal memoranda belong to several other old houses here. On Analostan, for example-the low, forested island below the farther end of Aqueduct Bridge-lived the aristocratic Masons during the early years of the Republic, cultivating a model farm and enter

taining royally. One of the latest of them was John M. Mason, author of the Fugitive Slave Law, and an associate of Mr. Slidell in the Confederate mission to England, which was interrupted by Wilkes in the Trent affair. The most prominent institution in this locality, however, is Georgetown College. This is

the School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University, which is Georgetown under the direction of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. This school, College. consisting of three departments - postgraduate, collegiate, and preparatory is the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States, having been founded in 1789. The college was chartered as a university by act of Congress in 1815, and in 1833 was empowered by the Holy See to grant degrees in philosophy and theology. The present main building, begun in 1878, is an excellent specimen of Rhenish-Romanesque architecture, and its grounds cover seventy-eight acres, including the beautiful woodland "walks" and a magnificent campus. The Riggs Library, of over 70,000 volumes, contains rare and curious works. The Coleman Museum has many fine exhibits, among them interesting Colonial relics and valuable collections of coins and medals. Not far from the college, on a prominent hill, is the Astronomical Observatory, where many original investigations are made as well as class instruction given. Thirty-nine members of the faculty and 300 students comprise the present census of this school.

The School of Law, situated in the vicinity of the District courts, is one of the best in America, numbering on its staff several leading jurists; the faculty now numbers fifteen, the students over 300. The School of Medicine is fully equipped for thorough medical training under distinguished specialists; the faculty numbers forty-nine, the students, 125. The total number of students in the university is about 750.

Oak Hill Cemetery, on the southern bank of Rock Creek near P Street, is a beautiful burying ground rising in terraces and containing the graves of many distinguished men and women. It is reached by the line of the Metropolitan

street cars, more commonly called the F Street line; leaving the cars

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Oak Hill.

at Thirtieth Street, a walk of two squares north will bring the visitor to the entrance. Near the gateway is the chapel built in the style of architecture of Henry VIII. This is matted by ivy brought from 'Melrose Abbey.' In front of the chapel is the monument of John Howard Payne, the author of 'Home, Sweet Home,' who had been buried in 1852 in the cemetery near Tunis, Africa, and there remained until, at the expense of Mr. Corcoran, his bones were brought to this spot, and in '83 were reinterred with appropriate ceremonies. The statue of William Pinkney is near here also (he was the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, and nephew of William Pinkney, the great Maryland lawyer). It represents that prelate in full canonical robes, and was dedicated to his memory by Mr. Corcoran, who was the friend of his youth, the comfort of his declining years. The mausoleum of Mr. Corcoran for his family is a beautiful specimen of mortuary architecture; this is in the northwestern section of the cemetery, while in the southeastern is the mausoleum of the Van Ness family, whose leader married the heiress, Marcia, daughter of David Burns, one of the original proprietors of the site of Washington City. This tomb is a model of the Temple of the Vesta at Rome. The cemetery comprises twenty-five acres, incorporated in 1849, one-half of which, and an endowment of $90,000, were the donation of Mr. William W. Corcoran. Here were buried Chief Justice Chase, Secretary of War Stanton, the great Professor Joseph Henry, and many others illustrious in American annals." Extremely pleasant rambles may be taken to the north and east of this cemetery, and it is not far across the hills to the Naval Observatory. This is the astronomical station of the Government under control of the navy and presided over by an officer of high rank, whose first, object is the gathering and collection of information

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