Madams and Museums

At a birthday party last Friday I was told a tale involving graves, wine, sex and money; in other words, a fabulously wonderful DC story. When excavating the site for the Native American Museum across from the U.S. Capitol, the workers came upon the remains of a house of ill repute. See http://www.si.edu/oahp/madam/index.html. The brothel opened its doors in approximately 1840 and provided comfort to congressmen and soliders alike. The Civil War was an especially lucrative affair.

Mary Ann Hall ran the facility and made an excellent living; her estate was $100,000 in 1886. Ms. Hall is buried in Congressional Cemetary with a huge gravestone. Her obituary says it all: Mary Ann Hall, long a resident of Washington. With integrity unquestioned, a heart ever open to appeals of distress, a charity that was boundless, she is gone; but her memory will be kept green by many who knew her sterling worth