Lost Capitol Hill: Casparis’s Saloon

Harry Truman in the White House bowling alley, ca 1953. (White House Museum)

When Barack Obama bowled in Pennsylvania during the primary, his poor performance made for political good humor for quite a while. His bowling talents, it turns out,  give him further ammunition in comparisons with a previous president with whom he has already been frequently compared: Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln, however, bowled inside the beltway.

Over the fold is the story of Abraham Lincoln’s bowling on Capitol Hill.

Ad for Casparis's restaurant from 1849 city directory

While Lincoln was a congressman representing Illinois’s 7th district, he lived on Capitol Hill (see previous Lost Capitol Hill column) and a number of stories from his time there remain. One of the most charming was written by a Dr. Samuel Busey, in which he describes Lincoln’s attempts at bowling:

Congressman Lincoln was very fond of bowling, and would frequently join others of the mess, or meet other members in a match game, at the alley of James Casparis, which was near the boarding-house. He was a very awk­ward bowler, but played the game with great zest and spir­it, solely for exercise and amusement, and greatly to the enjoyment and entertainment of the other players and by­standers by his criticisms and funny illustrations. He ac­cepted success and defeat with like good nature and hu­mor, and left the alley at the conclusion of the game with­out a sorrow or disappointment. When it was known that he was in the alley there would assemble numbers of peo­ple to witness the fun which was anticipated by those who knew of his fund of anecdotes and jokes. When in the al­ley, surrounded by a crowd of eager listeners, he indulged with great freedom in the sport of narrative, some of which were very broad. His witticisms seemed for the most part to be impromptu, but he always told the anec­dotes and jokes as if he wished to convey the impression that he had heard them from some one; but they appeared very many times as if they had been made for the immedi­ate occasion.

Casparis’s saloon, which also contained the bowling alley, was on A Street, between 1st Street and New Jersey Avenue. It, like Lincoln’s boarding house, was removed to make way for the Library of Congress’s Jefferson Building.

(The above anecdote is from Dr. Samuel C Busey. Per­sonal Reminis­cences and Recollections of Forty-Six Years’ Mem­bership in the Medical Soci­ety of the Dis­trict of Columbia and Residence in This City, Philadel­phia: Dornan, Print­er, 1895.)