The Letters and DC Domiciles of Leon Grayson
Leon H. Grayson, popular young Savannah attorney, has accepted a position in the Department of Justice, and will leave tomorrow for Washington.
Savannah, Georgia newspaper clipping, June 1935
Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993), our maternal grandfather and a Savannah, Georgia native, received his law degree and entered into private practice in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression. We grew up hearing stories of our grandfather being paid in potatoes, chickens, peanuts, or not at all by some of his clients. In June 1935, through the influence of his politically prominent father Col. William L. Grayson (1870-1941), Leon interviewed for and was offered a temporary appointment in FDR’s Justice Department in Washington, D.C. Leon carried on a correspondence with Mary Julia Bell (1909-2001), a 25 year-old dental assistant he was courting in Savannah. Through Leon and Mary’s letters we followed the ups and downs of their long-distance relationship and learned Leon stayed or lived in seven different places in just over four months in the hot and humid Nation’s Capital.
1. The Hotel Hamilton – 14th and K Sts. NW, June 3-7, 1935
“Everything is very pleasant”
From Leon’s letters to Mary, written on Hotel Hamilton stationery: “My Darling Mary – The bus trip wasn’t so much, in fact I didn’t get comfortable or asleep the whole trip up. Arrived at eight oclock this morning, and have seen the important parties with the exception of one. Everything looks as if I may be successful…. I saw the Senate and House of Representatives in action…. Everything is very pleasant, and I believe that I will remain here a day or so longer until I have some understanding …. I feel badly about being here and you not with me. But it won’t be long darling before I’m with the most beautiful, loveliest girl in the world and she is mine.”
The 11-story, 400-room Hamilton Hotel was completed in 1922, and still stands at the northeast corner of 14th and K across from Franklin Square. According to a DC history blog, “In keeping with the high style and reputation that was sought for the building, its manager and top chef were brought in from the Plaza Hotel in New York. The attention to style worked, and the hotel enjoyed great popularity throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.” Leon stayed in Washington for four or five days, returning to Savannah Friday or Saturday June 7 or 8.
2. The Ambassador Hotel – 14th and K Sts. NW, June 10-12, 1935
“Arrived 4.AM Monday, and went to work at nine so was rather tired.”
After being offered the temporary position, Leon returned to Washington: “My Darling Mary, I had some time getting straight, arrived 4.AM Monday, and went straight to work at nine so was rather tired. Met a bunch of traveling salesmen coming up, and I could tell as tall a story as any of them. Those day trains aren’t so hot…. Write me immediately my dearest beloved heart – Yours forever and ever, Leon.” These many years later we can still attest to our late-grandfather’s skill as a storyteller.
The 12-story, 500-room Ambassador Hotel opened in 1929 and stood on the southwest corner of 14th and K, catty-corner from the Hamilton, five blocks from the White House. The Ambassador boasted a roof garden, gymnasium, and swimming pool. According to the same DC History blog, “The trendy new hotel was to be the first hotel in Washington equipped with a radio loud speaker in every room and one of the first hostelries in the country in which radio will be part of the customary service without extra charge. Guests enjoyed the luxury of choosing between two different radio stations (WRC and WMAL) by the mere turning of a switch.” A cocktail lounge on the top floor, the Hi-Hat, opened in 1934 and proved to be a major attraction as well. The building was razed in 1978.
3. 1421 Massachusetts Ave. NW, June 13-31, 1935
“It is in the center of the up town district which saves a lot of time each day.”
Leon described this boarding house as “a large red brick affair.” His sleeping area was a bit of a disappointment. “The room is a front one on the second floor. There are three [beds] in it which isn’t so hot, but it’s a large cool room. My part is in a sort of alcove.” He drew a diagram for Mary and then wrote, “I love my beautiful precious wife and I don’t see how I can stand it without you.” The boarding house at 1421 Massachusetts Avenue was soon razed and an 8-story apartment house with the same address completed in 1937, still standing on an elevated frontage road just northwest of Thomas Circle.
4. 2811 Connecticut Ave. NW, July 1935
“It seems I’ve got to like it here [in Washington] – for at home business is dead.”
2811 Connecticut Avenue lay in an area across the Rock Creek Valley from the federal city, a streetcar suburb that was quickly being subdivided into luxury apartments and single family building lots. Surely Leon knew that Mary’s maternal aunt Adelaide Barnard (1873-1954), an unmarried clerk in the Treasury Department, was even then living across the street in the ca. 1923 South Cathedral Mansions at 2900 Connecticut Avenue? Aunt Addie’s influence would be felt more keenly in the years to come.
“It’s a little far out – but it will be private with an adjoining room.”
Leon wrote Mary that his newest accommodations will cost “about forty-five a month including breakfast and dinner” ( his salary was $150 a month at the time). He was paying extra for the connecting bath, mentioned twice, and the increased privacy. “There won’t be so many interruptions, people coming in.”
“My expenses run terribly high – And I’m not living fancy either. Money goes like water.”
Through his letters we learned that Leon was in debt back home. Even as children we recognized that our grandfather did not look too much to the future. If he had money, he usually spent it. “I like this new place much better, am rooming with a North Carolina boy, he has a car and offers to carry me everywhere….We had a couple of beers, played ping pong, and watched the crowd.” In his letters that summer he also mentioned ball games (including witnessing a Lou Gehrig grand slam), dinners, vaudeville, trips to Baltimore, MD, Alexandria and Warrenton, VA, an invitation to Atlantic City, NJ (declined), and extensive dental work.
“This is the biggest cut throat place in the world, everyone is insincere.”
Despite longing to be with Mary, Leon once suggested that he didn’t miss Savannah all that much. Even so, in one of his July letters he complained: “This is the biggest cut throat place in the world, everyone is insincere, and the devil gets the hindermost – But I’m in the swim and holding my lead. It hardens you as time passes, but I still hold and cherish those dear, tender moments with my only love.” The more things change…
5. 1332 Vermont Avenue NW, August 1935
“This is some place. When your thoughts are far away there’s always something doing – if you have the ole cash.”
This lovely red brick Victorian rowhouse was built in 1895 and continues to host multiple families. It sits just off Logan Circle, two blocks northeast of Leon’s former boarding house at 1421 Massachusetts Avenue. Leon anticipates a Labor Day weekend visit to Savannah and writes from his new place:
“”The end of our separation will soon be here. I love you, miss you, need you… If the next few weeks don’t rush by, I’m going nuts… Sweetheart if you get a chance, go out and see My Mother, and tell her for me how much I love her, for being away from her being sick is wearing me down.” Mary writes back:
“Dearest Heart, It really doesn’t seem possible that you are really coming… I will be up and waiting for you, any time at all…. Just to see you again will be marvelous. I love you, Your, Mary.” Leon writes back:
“This is some place. When your thoughts are far away there’s always something doing – if you have the ole cash. My appointment expires Sept. 6, and I want my reappointment to go through before I leave for home…. Mother wrote me how well you are looking, and how nice you were to come out to see her…. I’ve been catching some dark moments up here – but believe everything will be brighter for us soon.” And in his next letter: “I’ll come by your house as soon as the train comes in…. I’ll see you Darling early about Dawn Sunday [Sept. 1].”
6. The Mayflower Hotel – Connecticut Ave. and De Sales St. NW, Sept. 3-8, 1935
“Honey, we belong together, and I’m working toward that end.”
Leon doesn’t mention staying here upon his return to Washington, but his next letters are written on Mayflower stationery. The Mayflower sits on a 1.5 acres with entrances on Connecticut Ave., De Sales St., and 17th St. One history of the hotel boasts, “Built in 1925, the Mayflower set the standard for elegance and beauty and was quickly considered the “Grand Dame” of luxury hotels among Washington society. When its doors opened, the property had more gold leaf than any other building in the country (save the Library of Congress). Such rich, regal detailing quickly qualified the Mayflower for true presidential importance—every inaugural ball since Calvin Coolidge has been held in the Mayflower′s Grand Ballroom, and the hotel′s rooms and restaurants were fixtures along Washington′s powerful political circuit. FDR used the Mayflower as a retreat to work on his 1933 inaugural address.” Leon stayed at the Mayflower only long enough to find another suitable boarding house, hopefully one he could share with Mary, as his letters make clear.
“Honey, we belong together, and I’m working toward that end. I think we can work out October 1st, not positive but almost – I want you to come up then…. They say October is the loveliest month of the year, and it would be beautiful spending or rather starting off that month with you…. I’m moving Sunday to a new place. It isn’t so much to board as to keep house, so I think a nice room with 2 meals a day would be good to start on. Anyway Darling, plan to leave Savannah in less than three weeks. It may be deferred for a couple of weeks but not probably. Keep this quiet until you hear definitely. Love, Leon.”
About this time Leon’s previously mentioned sick mother Lillian Turner Grayson (1872-1936) wrote him with family news, and mentioned:“Well the storm came gave us all a good scare and went… We were not hurt at Isle of Hope though the wind and rain was something fierce. No electricity no telephones back to candles and kerosene, the gay nineties.” It was the Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, which passed through coastal Georgia after Leon had returned to Washington.
7. 2031 Q St. NW, Sept. 9, 1935 until…?
“This place is more of a mad house than the usual.”
2031 Q Street is a yellow rowhouse near DuPont Circle, 1/2 block from the ca. 1921 Phillips Gallery. City records indicate it was not built until 1948, but possibly this is only when the building was modernized into condos, as what seem to be the original fire escapes are still attached. Be that as it may, after a couple of weeks at his new boarding house Leon realized it wouldn’t do for Mary. “Have to pick a[nother] place for us to live…. This place is more of a mad house than the usual. Have a few freaks here, and that sort of stuff – that is they look queer.”
“I wonder what you really want to do…”
In a particularly long letter, after telling Mary that his temporary appointment had been extended until Nov. 16, Leon shared his great anxiety that she might not come after all. “Received your letter. It was wonderful. You didn’t say whether you would come or not…. When I don’t hear I sometimes wonder if you have ceased caring as much. Honey, it’s no bed of roses here, things are high and money goes like water. I wonder what you really want to do, if you have plans of finishing the business course; if you have a job or position in view, if there are other interests taking you away from me…. This uncertainty is driving me crazy…. If you decide to come I’ll make the old financial arrangements.”
“I am afraid you about to make a serious mistake.”
The plans Leon and Mary were pondering were being kept secret from their families, but the self-educated Col. Grayson must have gotten wind of something. In a letter dated Sept. 24 he wrote extensively with family news, with condolences that Leon was still having trouble with his teeth, and finally got to his real reason for writing (original grammar and spelling retained):
“I sure wish I could see you and have a long talk as I am afraid you about to make a serious mistake, you know my dear boy you are heavily in debt, your position may not be perminant, and you have no money saved up to make a start on and you tell me you can hardly live on what you are getting, you had better stop. Look and Listen. Listen to the advise or your dady; Look as well as you can into the future, and stop long enough to take a serious and seuceable view of what you are doing. If Mary loves you she will wait until you can establish yourself where you will be able to make a living for two, and if she won’t wait she does not love you enough. I hope you will heed my advise and not ack hasty, you know there is a saying. ‘Marry in haste and repent a leasure.’… Hope this will reach you feeling much better and that you will look well before you leap, you ought to have some pretty firm ground on which to stand in the beginning of a double and new life. Lots and Lots of love from your loving and devoted dady, William L. Grayson”
Would Leon listen to his father’s advice? Had Mary changed her mind? Thus ended a long, hot, and anxious summer for Leon. Would the cooler nights of autumn find our 28 year-old future grandfather still alone in the cut-throat city, sharing a new life with his love, or back in his home town after his temporary appointment expired?
Continued in “A Double and New Life“
No Comments