14 Aug 2017

History:

Lost Capitol Hill: Thomas H. Pickford

Last week, I wrote about Pickford Place, and the some of its history. Today and next week, I will look at its namesakes: two builders who were not unimportant in filling the Hill in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Thomas H. Pickford was born in Canada to Irish-Canadian parents. He was one of nine children. The next-born was Martha Emma Pickford (pic). Pickford emigrated to the US shortly after the Civil War, settling first in Michigan and then moving to D.C. around 1890. He started out as a real estate agent with Samuel M. Jones. Some time later, he opened a grocery store on Louisiana Avenue, right about where the Department of Justice is today in Federal Triangle.

In the mid-1890s, Pickford began expanding after his eldest brother Charles joined him stateside. Pickford had bought and sold property in a small way, but now he began building as well. One of his first projects was a pair of buildings on the south side of Lincoln Park, 1107 and 1109 East Capitol Street. Both are still standing.

With this success under his belt, the Pickford brothers started to aim higher, this time buying an entire square and filling it with houses, starting in 1896 with Pickford Place. Afterward, Thomas began building up the surrounding streets as well.

Ad for the Pickford grocery store from 1898 (LOC)

All the while, Pickford continued to operate his grocery store. In fact, in the 1900 census both Thomas and Charles are listed as grocers. They were by then living on the Hill, at 120 Maryland Avenue NE. It was in his capacity as a grocer that Thomas Pickford first found himself in trouble with the law: He was charged with selling butterine in lieu of butter. Butterine was defined by Webster’s 1913 dictionary thusly: “A substance prepared from animal fat with some other ingredients intermixed, as an imitation of butter.” In other words, it is clearly not the same as butter and is generally sold for half the price of the real deal.

Pickford managed to get out of this and continued on with his real estate deals. Along with Charles, he built up the entire square 1064 – which is today the exit from the Potomac Avenue Metro stop.

Unfortunately, Thomas got in trouble in 1897 in a way that was to haunt him for the next 15 years. It began with the suspicious fire in a building owned by him and others in Maryland. While at first the damage was paid out by his insurance agent, subsequently, Henry M. Talbott, the Maryland state’s attorney, smelled a rat. Talbott said it was, in fact, arson by Thomas and his partners. They were all indicted. However, when it came to trial, Talbott announced himself unprepared– thus, the charges were dropped.

Thomas Pickford did not leave it at this, however. In December 1901, Pickford “procured to be published of a newspaper in Washington an article concerning Talbott,” in which it was stated that Talbott was part of a criminal conspiracy to force Pickford and other to repay the insurance companies.

Unsurprisingly, Talbott reacted poorly to this, and filed a libel suit against the writers. Talbott won the action, and was thus counter-sued by Pickford. It was this suit that ended up in front of the Supreme Court with a loss for Pickford.

Pickford stayed in the business, however. After the First World War, he became known for his trips to Germany and the reports of what he saw there. Thomas eventually moved to the West Coast, dying in 1939 in Coronado, California – near San Diego. He was brought back to D.C. and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery.

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