From:
carolynlong@earthlink.net
Here are my notes from the interview that Frank Haendler and I did
yesterday with Captain Lynn. There is a lot more information on the
tape.
Interview with South T. Lynn, January 14, 2008, by Frank Haendler and
Carolyn Long, at Captain Lynn's place of business, Universal Floors,
Wisconsin Avenue.
Captain Lynn grew up at 37th and Quebec streets. His family raised
chickens there, and there was an "ash dump" in front of the house. His
father, who was the Architect of the Capitol, built the house. His
grandfather was a clerk at the House of Representatives.
He attended Hurst, Deal, and Wilson schools. He caught the streetcar
to Wilson and belonged to the High School Cadets. He was raised as an
Episcopalian and attended St. Alban's, not St. Columba's.
The street cars didn't turn around when they reached the end of the
line, they just switched directions, and the back became the front for
the trip back down Wisconsin Avenue. There were watering troughs for
horses at intervals along the avenue. There were trucks that sold
sno-balls.
Captain Lynn remembers the businesses on Wisconsin Avenue, such as
People's Drug and Gawleys. Bernard Brodersohn owned the liquor store.
Pete Zane's place is now a "Chinese laundry"–he probably means Hann's
Cleaners. He remembers Christian Heurich's old Tenleytown Inn, which
was torn down to make way for the Sears and Roebuck's Department
Store. The neighborhood children used to watch the television in the
window of Sears, before most households had their own TV. The Brown
Derby was a bar at Wisconsin Avenue and Macomb Street–Nat King Cole
performed there. He mentioned several movie theaters. He remembers
McLean Gardens when Mrs. McLean was still alive; kids would climb the
brick wall and jump in her swimming pool. He spent some "evenings on a
hard bench" at the old No. 8 Police Precinct (located where Iona
Senior Services is now).
Admiral Grayson and his cronies played poker in the little stone house
on the Phoebe Hurst school grounds.
He remembers the Jesse Reno Colored School. An African American lady
named "Aunt Lou" had a store across from Deal Junior High, and the
boys bought cigarettes there for a penny a piece. Their metal shop
teacher at Deal was opposed to smoking and didn't like them going there.
He was a member of the Singleton Masonic Lodge. He was a Confederate
reenactor.
The Pernas built the stone houses on Brandywine. There was a
Stonyhurst Quarry out River Road.
At the end of the interview, Captain Lynn's wife, Jo-Anne, joined us.
--- Carolyn Long