Crawford Family Papers, Box 1, Folder 72, GTM-GAMMS261
“My garden lies deeply buried under an avalanche of dirt, my young orchard of thirty fruit trees is broken down and destroyed; while still the dirt is continued to be poured in upon me, threatening even the stability of my house itself.”
So writes Southworth to the Mayor of Georgetown about the plight of her home in the face of an encroaching mountain of dirt being used to re-grade Prospect Street, in a letter that would not seem out of place in a contemporary city council meeting. While the mayor’s reply remains unknown, judging from photos taken decades later this was not an issue that was quickly resolved.
New York, Oct 1st, 1858.
To His Honor The Mayor of Georgetown
Dear Sir
I take the liberty of writing
to solicit your kind attention to a matter,
which I am informed, comes partially
under your supervision — I refer to the
manner in which the subordinates of the
street commissioners, employed in grading
Prospect Street, are ruining my property
on Prospect Hill. My garden lies deeply
buried under an avalanche of dirt, my young
orchard of thirty fruit trees is broken down
and destroyed; while still the dirt is contin-
ued to be poured in upon me, threatening
even the stability of my house itself.
As my cottage lies near your dailey [sic] walk
you, Sir, might look over and see for yourself.
I am told that my only remedy for all this
ruin is to fill up my lot to the grade, or to
build a stone wall to support the street. This
proposition is a mere mockery of my trouble
as I am totally unable to meet the enormous
expense.
I am further told that in case of my
failing to do this, a bill will be brought
before the corporation, to build a wall at
this point and tax my property with the
cost — a cost that would cover the whole
value of my estate that would then have
to be sold to meet it. This, if true, is a
deliberate scheme to rob me of my whole
hard won property.
[page 2]
Sir, that little home on Prospect Hill is the
only property I own in this world.
It is mine not by inheritance or gift, but by
long years of daily and nightly toil and
self denial — toil and self denial so severe as
nearly to ruin my health before they
secured me this little home for myself and
children, where I had hoped, defenceless [sic] though
we might be, we should be safe under the
protection of your laws.
And now Sir, I would ask of you, as the
chief magistrate of Georgetown, information
upon two points —
1st Is there any remedy for me, for the
great injury already done to my home?
2nd Can the corporation of Georgetown, tax
my property with the building of a wall at
that point, to the extreme of covering and
absorbing the whole value of my little
property and so depriving of my hard won
home?
Praying an answer to these distressing questions
and premusing [sic] that —
— in making my income in New York and Philadelphia
and spending it in Georgetown, in promptly
paying my taxes and in many ways con-
tributing to all public enterprizes [sic],
— I have deserved not evil, but good at the
hands of the town, —
I have the honor to remain,
Sir, Very Respectfully,
Emma D.E.N. Southworth