Comments on: Thayer’s Quest

By: ThayerAvenue.com » William Melanchthon Thayer, 1822-1893

ThayerAvenue.com » William Melanchthon Thayer, 1822-1893 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:33:42 +0000

[...] earlier post about the history of William Thayer (and that awesome Thayer’s Quest game) seemed to strike a [...]

By: Sligo

Sligo — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:03:14 +0000

That sounds like a challenge. Montgomery Blair is also buried at that same cemetery.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:27:03 +0000

I’d love to go. But understand about the Saturday gig. If you guys head out, be sure to take lots of pictures. Would be happy to have other contributors for this! Might try to take a day off and make it out there myself on a nice afternoon.

By: Rhona

Rhona — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:41:32 +0000

William and Julia are both buried at Rock Creek Cemetery – one of these afternoons with nice weather I thought I’d take our little one for a cemetery stroll and photograph the headstones. Want to join us? Only thing is, the parish office won’t necessarily have someone working on a Saturday, so if we go on a Saturday we’ll have to find section B, lot 148 1/2 by ourselves with only a general map to section B for help.

The headstones should tell us more specific information, but the office manager was able to tell me that William’s body was interned on August 12, 1893; Julia, as her obit stated, on Sept. 19, 1913.

By: Bonifant more sinister than Thayer

Bonifant more sinister than Thayer — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:36:40 +0000

Re: 914 and 916. Maybe we could speed the demolition by borrowing a page from Detroit:

http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Look/Bright_Orange

Come to think of it, there are probably several other buildings in DTSS that merit this treatment.

I nominate the large brick building on the north side of the 900 block of Bonifant.

By: David

David — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:35:11 +0000

Speaking of old, we should take a moment to mark the passing of 914 and 916 Thayer Avenue, the two houses that were recently gutted (and soon to be demolished to make way for the Studio Plaza development. These houses were some of the last reminders that the area used to be a residential neighborhood much like the portion of Thayer and nearby streets to the east.

Given that the area is now mostly low-rise retail buildings, these two houses seemd out of place to me, but I was hoping they could be moved to a more residential area (a long shot, I know, since it’s not like there’s a lot of vacant land around crying out for houses). Now that they look like something out of post-Katrina New Orleans, I hope the developer knocks them down soon to put them out of their misery.

By: Jerry A. McCoy

Jerry A. McCoy — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:44:35 +0000

Any suggestions for a free web site hosting service would be appreciated.

By: Sligo

Sligo — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:51:55 +0000

Well, that explains who Easley St. is named after.

By: Rhona

Rhona — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:52:03 +0000

So I did a *brief* bit of digging in the Historic Washington Post records, found an obit for his wife, Julia McChevne Thayer (the one who, according Jerry’s _Historic Silver Spring_, sold the land that we’re now living on to developer R. Holt Easley in 1902). I can send on the PDF if you’d like; it’s very brief. But it does state that she was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery and her death was Sept. 17th, 1913. She was 83 years old. I thought maybe I’d call the cemetery to see if he’s buried there, too… maybe the tombstone would give more to go on Now you’ve got me interested in doing some research – I’ll keep y’all posted.

BTW – we’re assuming, I think, that it was named after William. But Julia sold Easley the land; maybe it’s named after her.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:19:28 +0000

Now *that’s* something I can appreciate. Thanks.

But the site still looks like it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years. Not to mention it’s in serious need of a redesign.