WHEN retained at age 18 to produce a survey of Key West, whose existing streets he could count on the fingers of one hand, William A. Whitehead drew a town “more pretentious on the map than in reality.”1 He would have been unfazed, then, to discover that most streets and squares on a “Plan of … More 100–Last dance
BEHIND the Speaker’s chair and around the perimeter of the Hall rose smooth columns of pudding stone, looking to some observers almost good enough to eat. Festoons of crimson tapestry between them lent an air of luxury to the space.1 An intent observer of the House’s deliberations might pay little heed to such embellishments, but … More 099–So fair a house
“OUR National Flag,” toasted William A. Whitehead, lifting a glass. “May the stars that compose its union forever remain united and as brilliant as they are now.” If, while standing to deliver this invocation, Whitehead seemed a little unsteady, there would have been neither scandal nor surprise, for in a sequence of thirty-five his toast … More 098–Florida man
ON his first Washington visit, William A. Whitehead likely made his way to Capitol Hill as a pilgrim would, on foot. His approach from the west began at “two flights of steps laid in the slope of the eminence.” Above and before him, crowned by Charles Bulfinch’s copper-clad wooden dome–not the massive cupola familiar to … More 097–Pantheon
DELEGATES, invigorated by a recent electoral victory, gathered in Columbia in November 1832 and decreed that federal tariffs would be null and void within the borders of their state. In so doing, they brought South Carolina to the threshold of armed conflict with Washington. On the heels of another election, twenty-eight years later, a similar … More 096–The fall line
ON a recent Sunday I was a spectator at the arrest of the Governor of New Jersey. Devotees of Perth Amboy history have taken the chief executive into custody regularly since 1976, commemorating Royal Governor William Franklin’s capture two hundred years earlier. These reenactments have never dislodged any incumbent office holders, which is perhaps to … More 006–A nest of families
An attractive presence 