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Despite low incomes and inadequate housing, those living in Southwest DC at the beginning of the 20th century built tight-knit communities and organized for better living conditions. After World War I, federal officials became concerned with the neighborhood, which they deemed “shabby” and “crime-ridden.” Rather than creating more affordable housing for the families who had lived there for generations, officials decided to “renew” the area to attract white and middle-income residents. Marie Miles lived in Southwest during this period of change, commuting between home and work in Dupont Circle for nearly two decades. She became so close to the family that Amelia left Marie money in her will. The two women also enjoyed watching wrestling together. Which wrestlers do you think were their favorites?We do not know where Marie lived in her early years, but the DC City Directory records her address in 1929 at 615 2nd Street SW, Apartment 1. She then moved around the neighborhood until at least 1950, experiencing first-hand the process of urban renewal. What did Marie think of all the changes? Was she involved in any neighborhood activism?

Photo of a Black woman, likely Marie Miles, with a large dog in the Heurich mansion garden.

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The Southwest Washington we know today only emerged in the 1950s after the original neighborhood's destruction by city renewal and redevelopment movements. During the first part of the 20th century, working-class European immigrants and African Americans like Marie Miles, who worked as a maid for the Heurich family, called Southwest home.


Marie Miles -  615 2nd Street SW, Southwest Washington - 1929

 Welcome to the Heurich House Museum, which preserves the historic Victorian-era Heurich mansion as a museum, event space, and place to build community connections.

The mansion, built between 1892-94, was the family home of German immigrant, local brewer, and philanthropist Christian Heurich. 

Household staff were largely responsible for the upkeep of the large and ornate Heurich family estate in Dupont Circle.  This tour will introduce you to some of the places the Heurich house staff lived while working for the family. Let’s begin by exploring what life was like for staff who lived on the grounds of the Heurich family house. 




The household staff at the Heurich mansion likely lived on the fourth floor of the main building, with some employees living in the carriage house. The fourth floor of the house has low ceilings and originally did not have heat. Also, a bathroom was not added to the fourth floor until later, so staff would need to walk down to the basement. The Heurichs employed many young immigrant women, who might have felt safer finding lodging with their employers. Stories from the time tell us it was considered dangerous for women on their own to deal with landlords who might wish them harm. One of the young women who lived with the Heurich family was Dora Niebuhr. Dora immigrated to America in 1899 and by 1900 she found a job as a cook for the Heurich family. Living at the house, she would have found many other young German women who might have been able to share her hopes and worries for her new life in America.  How did the Heurich family decide which staff would live on site? How did this affect the relationship between the staff and the Heurich family? How did race shape the experiences of household staff at the mansion?

Today, the Heurich House stands as a museum and space for building community in Dupont Circle. However, when it was originally built in 1892, the mansion served as a home for not only the Heurich family, but also for many of their household staff. Young women such as Dora Niebuhr and other recent migrants from Europe most commonly lived in the house while working.

Dora Neibuhr, 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, Heurich House

Before World War I, Dupont Circle attracted well-off families with its lavish mansions and brick or stone row houses. The introduction of streetcars around the end of the 19th century and into the 20th led wealthier people to move to DC’s “streetcar suburbs” in the north and opened the neighborhood to people who worked as laborers, clerks, and craftsmen. As luxury apartment buildings came into fashion, families who could not afford their own residences also moved to Dupont. Belle Stone and her mother, also named Belle, came from Pennsylvania to DC around 1900. They moved around the Dupont neighborhood for about a decade until settling into their apartment at 2016 P Street NW. For skilled workers like this pair, Dupont would have been a good location - near many wealthy potential employers, relatively safe, and deemed “respectable” by the middle class.While we do not know the exact date that Belle Stone began working for the Heurich family, we do know from diary entries that her mother was a family friend of Amelia Heurich. How did Belle’s connection with the Heurich family affect her ability to get a job? What was her relationship like with the Heurichs?

Today a trendy yet expensive destination for Washington’s professionals, the Dupont Circle neighborhood has long been home to members of the elite class. However, less affluent residents also found their place. Belle Stone shared an apartment in the neighborhood with her mother while working as a seamstress for the Heurichs.

Belle Stone - 2016 P Street NW, Dupont Circle - 1914

After the Civil War Logan Circle became a hub for a large community of free African Americans, as segregation prevented them from living in other areas of the city. While America entered the gilded age of the 1880s, DC started transforming into the urban center we recognize today. Immigrants began moving into the neighborhood in the 1920s, and the Jewish Community Center opened at Q and 16th streets in 1926. Edward Brandstatter settled in Logan Circle in the 1920s as well. While we know that he was a trusted employee of the Heurichs, working there for over ten years, we do not know much about his life outside of work. How did he fit into the Logan Circle community?

Today Logan Circle is a bustling hub whose historic architecture, large park, and colorful homes attract a diverse array of residents. It was much the same in 1920 when Edward Brandstatter, a chauffeur and gardener for the Heurich family, called it home from his address at 1309 P Street NW.

Edward Brandstatter - 1309 P Street NW, Logan Circle - 1922-1928

Georgetown’s M Street in the early 20th century was full of small businesses owned by African Americans from the southern United States and immigrants from France, Germany, and Ireland. Not only home to businessmen, Georgetown also attracted both Black and white government clerks, merchants, and professionals such as doctors or lawyers. Poor families of formerly enslaved people and their descendants, working as laborers and domestics, along with the children and heirs of wealthy former slaveholders, rounded out the racially and economically diverse neighborhood. The German Orphan Asylum in Anacostia, where Louisa worked as a matron before moving to Georgetown, originally only took in white children of German descent. With the financial help of Christian Heurich and other leaders in the city’s German-American community, members of Concordia German Evangelical Lutheran Church founded the asylum in 1879.  After leaving her job at the asylum, Louisa started working for the Heurichs. A single entry in Amelia Heurich’s diary tells us that the family hired Louisa in 1911.  With limited information preserved about Louisa’s life, there are some questions we may never be able to answer. Did Christian Heurich help her get a job? What was her experience living in an overwhelmingly white orphanage then moving to Georgetown in 1910 with its racial and ethnic diversity? Why did she change jobs?

Independent from the District until 1871, Georgetown through the years has grown into a popular sightseeing, shopping, and residential area. However, Louisa Bergholz, who worked as a laundress for the Heurich family, experienced a very different Georgetown when she lived in the neighborhood at 1217 30th Street NW in 1910.

Louisa Bergholz - 1217 30th Street NW, Georgetown - 1911

By the mid-19th century and into the 20th, Foggy Bottom was one of the most industrial and ethnically diverse neighborhoods within the city. Immigrants, notably Irish and German, saw Foggy Bottom as a place to be close to their work while also living within a community of people with similar backgrounds. Max and Mary Dex moved into the Foggy Bottom neighborhood in 1914. William Bender, a chauffeur for the Heurich family, lived nearby with his family at 507 22nd Street NW in 1917. How might Max and Mary have experienced the neighborhood differently from the DC-born William Bender? What was it like for William, and his wife Bessie, to leave their family and children for work every day? How else might we explore the experiences of household workers, both women and men, in Foggy Bottom?

Hugging the shores of the Potomac River and the edges of Pennsylvania Avenue, Foggy Bottom was long an attractive area for workers, families, and immigrants. Painter Max and cook Mary Dex, both German immigrants employed by the Heurich family, lived in a row house at 536 20th Street in the early 20th century.

Max Dex - 536 20th Street NW, Foggy Bottom - 1914 / William Bender- 507 22nd Street NW-  1917 

Historically, four communities make up the Adams Morgan we know today: Kalorama Triangle, Lanier Heights, Shaw, and Meridian Hill. By the turn of the 20th century, many upper-class socialites lived in Lanier Heights while Latinx and African Americans filled other parts of Adams Morgan; Working- and middle-class families moved into the neighborhood’s affordable housing. During the 1920s, the massive Knickerbocker Theater, several other social hubs, and the introduction of the streetcar made Adams Morgan a vibrant place to live. The social aspect of the neighborhood continued after World War II, helping make Adams Morgan a hotbed for social and political movements in DC. Although we are unsure of Mary’s exact role working in the Heurich’s home, through diary entries we do know that she was likely a friend of the family. What does that tell us about her standing with the Heurichs? How might her experience have been different from other Adams Morgan residents, like staff member Ernest Gichner, a tinner for the family that lived nearby in 1918? At this time, Gichner offered his expertise in sheet metal work to several different employers while also registering for the draft.  How might the staff members have spent their free time in the neighborhood?

The historical and modern-day focal point of Adams Morgan is near the intersection of Columbia Road and 18th street. With her 2400 16th Street NW home, Mary Warwick, a household staff member in the late 1910s, lived right in the heart of today’s Adams Morgan near the spacious Meridian Hill Park.

Mary Warwick - 2400 16th Street NW, Adams Morgan - 1919

Even though historical records for some of the household staff members are incomplete, it does not mean that the history of their lives is limited to historical documentation. The historical record, whether census documents, personal diaries, or newspaper articles, is full of inaccuracies and exclusions. Upper-class white men like Christian Heurich often have the best-preserved histories. Why do you think this is? Who makes decisions about what is recorded and what is saved and how do those decisions impact the work of historians? Many staff lived in homes that no longer exist. Why weren’t these places preserved? What factors changed living patterns? Other times we know only partial addresses. Why is that? Why might the Heurichs have written down more information about some staff members than others? How do we address these incomplete histories? How do you think the household staff would tell their stories? To answer these questions and others, we are conducting ongoing research about household staff who worked for the Heurich family. Follow along as we learn more and share their stories on our @heurichhouse Instagram and Twitter accounts.

This tour has illuminated the lives of household staff members by exploring the places they called home. But, what about those staff members who did not leave a historical record? How do we continue to tell their stories even with limited archival resources and materials? And why is this work important?

Heurich House Museum

Marie Miles - 615 2nd Street SW, Southwest Washington - 1929

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

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