15 Sep 2014

Lost Capitol Hill: Becker's Saloon

John M. Becker


“Where do you get your ideas, Pohl?” is a question that I get asked a lot. Often by myself. Today’s is easy, though: A tweet from 20002ist, with a picture of the Latrobe Gate, plus a couple of the buildings on the east side of 8th Street – and the intriguing note that John M. Becker’s saloon was to be seen in it. So, the question arose: Who was John Becker?

John Martin Becker was born in Brooklyn, the son of Martin and Mary Becker, both of whom had been born in Germany. During the Civil War, the family moved to Washington, where Martin first worked as a butcher, then later opened various restaurants. John grew up, and, after a brief stint as a sailor, settled down in his father’s business, working as a bartender in his father’s establishments.

In 1878, John married Ida, but continued his peripatetic existence as a bartender. In 1885, he and his father made the papers after members of the Pennsylvania 18th Regiment, in town for the inauguration of Grover Cleveland, smashed up their establishment at 628 Virginia Avenue SW. While this sounds quite alarming, it must be admitted that the total damage was listed at $7 (or about $180 in today’s dollars) Other businesses did not get off as lightly.

The end of 8th Street SE in 1910. Becker’s Saloon is at the end of the street on the left. (from the Willard R. Ross Postcard Collection at DCPL, via 20002ist)

Ten years later, the same year that Martin died, John decided to strike out on his own, and received a liquor license for 1120 8th Street SE. If the news of the day is to be trusted, it seems to have been a quiet place. The only time it was mentioned was when a Marine Corporal fell against the lunch counter and managed to knock himself out. A brief stop at the Naval Hospital was enough to set him right. Otherwise, the excitement tended to happen outside, such as when a runaway pair of horses crashed first into a gas lamp and then a tree in front of the establishment. Or when Becker himself found himself the target of a robbery. He was just running an errand on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and returning to where he had left his horses, found them gone. He soon spied the carriage in the distance and gave chase, eventually running down one Frederick Greenwald who was “having a good time on the wide boulevard with the speedy horse,” according to the Post of September 20, 1904. Becker turned Greenwald over to the police, and Greenwald found himself charged not only with theft, but “destroying private property” – he had broken the carriage’s dashboard during his joyride.

A few years later there was a real close call with the law: An ex-employee, who had briefly worked as a piano player and horse wrangler around Christmas, 1907, was found a few months later, dead in clump of bushes near Camp Spring, Maryland. No suspicion, however, fell on Becker, who continued to operate his business for the next ten years or so.

With prohibition now looking more and more likely to become the law of the land, Becker got out of the alcohol business and instead worked for the Recorder of Deeds. In 1928, double tragedy struck when his son, Charles died of the aftereffects of gas he had inhaled during the First World War, followed four days later by his wife, distraught over her son’s death.

Becker himself lived only four more years, dying at the ripe old age of 79.

Next week: The “pride of the Navy Yard” and his “battleship sinker.”


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One response to “Lost Capitol Hill: Becker's Saloon”

  1. kpjarboe says:

    Joyriding in a stolen carriage in 1904! Guess “nothing new under the sun”

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