the city park across the street was once Emery Place, the summer estate of Matthew Gault Emery. A prominent builder, Emery was Washington City’s last elected mayor during our first period of home rule. He was succeeded in 1874 by a presidentially appointed board of commissioners, which governed until Mayor Walter Washington was elected a century later. Emery made a fortune in stone-cutting, including the cornerstone for the Washington Monument. He excelled in insurance, banking, and eventually new technologies – elec- tric streetcars and lighting. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Captain Emery led the local militia. His hilltop became Camp Brightwood, a signal station where soldiers used flags or torches to communicate with nearby Fort DeRussy or the distant Capitol. During the Battle of Fort Stevens in July 1864, Camp Brightwood was a transfer point for the wounded. The property passed on to Emery’s daughter Juliet and her husband, businessman and civic leader William Van Zandt Cox. In 1946 Cox heirs sold the rundown estate to the city for use as a playground. Emery Recreation Center opened about 1958. Across Georgia and one block behind you was the site of two successive neighborhood depart- ment stores. The Abraham family operated shops and eventually Ida’s Department Store there from 1915 until 1983. Morton’s came next, part of a chain founded in Washington in 1933. In his early stores, Morton’s owner Mortimer Lebowitz refused to segregate rest rooms or prohibit black customers from trying on clothes, despite local custom. Mayor Emery And the Union Army georgia avenue north of madison street nw
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