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Clara Barton and Red Cross workers have a picnic in Tampa, Florida, in 1898.

Clara Barton National Historic Site: A Saga of Preservation

An exterior view of the house at Glen Echo.

Clara Barton’s house in Glen Echo owes its existence to two unrelated facts: The 1889 Johnstown Flood and a plan for a housing development at Glen Echo. In 1890, two brothers, Edwin and Edward Baltzley, decided to develop a cultural and intellectual residential community in Glen Echo. The next year they established a branch of the National Chautauqua, an association dedicated to education and productive recreation. The Baltzley brothers approached Clara Barton and offered her a plot of land and the workmen necessary to build a structure if she would locate in their community. They hoped that the attraction of such a well-known personality as Barton would be a testimonial to the soundness of their enterprise.

The proposal suited Barton perfectly, for she was looking for a location on which she could build a new headquarters building for the Red Cross. After the Johnstown Flood she and Dr. Julian Hubbell had had one of the Red Cross warehouses dismantled and the lumber shipped to Washington, D.C., where she hoped to use it for the construction of the new headquarters building. The Baltzleys’ offer came just at the right moment and she accepted immediately. Although it was understood that it was Red Cross property, the land was deeded directly to her. The whole transaction was typical of the confusion that Barton allowed to exist between her private possessions and those of the Red Cross; she could never clearly separate the two.

Dr. Hubbell supervised the construction of the building, clearly following the lines of the Johnstown structure. Here, however, he added an extra flourish: a third floor “lantern” room over the central well. In the summer of 1891 Barton and Hubbell moved in, but she found daily travel to Washington, D.C., every day too taxing and decided to use the house at Glen Echo strictly as a warehouse.

In 1897 electric trolley lines made Glen Echo more accessible to Washington, and she decided once again to try living in Glen Echo. Extensive remodeling made the house livable. A stone facade originally built so that the Red Cross headquarters would harmonize with the nearby Chautauqua buildings, which were never built, was removed and the house was painted a warm yellow with brown trim.

The center hall with its balconies.

The front parlor contains furniture that originally belonged to Clara Barton. The portrait is of her cat Tommy.

The Glen Echo house was the headquarters of the American National Red Cross from 1897 to 1904. As such it was the scene of much official activity. But it was also a quiet retreat, a farm, and a home. Chickens and a cow provided food for the household that usually included eight or nine staff members. Frequent overnight guests and indigents sheltered by Clara Barton swelled this number further. Her horses, Baba and Prince, were housed in a stable, and cats Tommy and Pussy roamed the grounds. A large vegetable garden furnished fresh produce. The grounds were a profusion of flowers and vegetables mixed together. Visitors noted that carrots and beets edged the walkway out to the trolley stop. Beds of marigolds, corn, roses, and tomatoes grew together. Of particular pride to the owner were the two varieties of Clara Barton rose that were developed independently by two nurserymen: Conrad Jones in West Grove, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Hofmeister in Cincinnati, Ohio. Strawberry plants sent to her by the grateful farmers of Galveston, Texas, in appreciation of her services after the disastrous hurricane and tidal wave in 1900 provided great desserts each June.

In 1909 Barton deeded the house to Dr. Hubbell—perhaps in fear that the Red Cross might try to reclaim the building after her death. When she died in 1912, Dr. Hubbell together with Mrs. John Logan and Gen. W.H. Sears formed the Clara Barton Memorial Association. They hoped to turn the house into a monument to Barton’s memory. They sold memberships in the association to finance the maintenance of the property but the response was poor, and they soon ran into financial problems.

The solution to their problems appeared to be at hand when Mabelle Rawson Hirons came on the scene. A native of North Oxford, Massachusetts, she was an acquaintance of Clara Barton and thus known to Hubbell and his colleagues. She claimed that Barton had appeared to her at a seance and told her to go to Washington and take charge of the Glen Echo house. This message “from the beyond” and Mrs. Hirons’ assurances that she was wealthy and would take care of all the financial problems were all that the Memorial Association members needed to receive her with open arms. Even her demand that Dr. Hubbell sign the deed over to her raised no doubts.

Within a short time it became startlingly apparent that Mrs. Hirons was not about to pay off the debts of the house. Instead she was using the house to pay off her debts by selling Barton’s own furniture and renting out rooms. Dr. Hubbell was evicted by Mrs. Hirons and abandoned by members of the Memorial Association who were disgusted with his failure to understand what Mrs. Hirons was doing. He had to fend for himself until a Mr. and Mrs. Canada, owners of a local grocery store, took him in. They persuaded him to sue Mrs. Hirons in 1922, and four years later the courts returned the house to him.

Dr. Hubbell died in 1929 and left the house to two of his nieces, Rena and Lena Hubbell. Only Rena lived in the house, which she ran as a rooming house. In 1942 she and her sister sold it to Josephine Frank Noyes, who had come to Washington from Iowa. Mrs. Noyes and her sister Henrietta Frank continued to run it as a rooming house. They also urged people to come and see “Clara Barton’s House.” They took care of the remaining original furniture and even managed to acquire some of the pieces that Mrs. Hirons had sold.

In 1958 Mrs. Noyes died and left the property to her four sisters: Frances Frank, Henrietta Frank, Katherine Frank Bronson, and Sarah Frank Rhodes. By 1963 the sisters, being quite elderly, felt that the house was too big for them to keep up and decided to sell it. The amusement park next door offered them $50,000. The sisters feared that the house would be torn down to enlarge the amusement park’s parking lot. Unhappy at such a possibility, they decided to sell the house for $35,000 to anyone who would save and maintain the property even though this would mean a financial loss to themselves.

A group of Montgomery County, Maryland, Red Cross volunteers met and proposed that the American National Red Cross buy the property and preserve it as a historic site. The Red Cross replied that it could not use its money for such a purpose, that its donations could only go for disaster relief. The Red Cross, however, did enthusiastically support the preservation project and in May 1963 passed a resolution urging all Red Cross members to support the fund-raising effort. On May 28, 1963, this group incorporated itself as the Friends of Clara Barton. They agreed to pay the Frank sisters $1,000 by July 1963 to secure the sale. A whirlwind of bake sales, fashion shows, and other events had raised only $800 by the deadline. Several members went to talk to the Frank sisters to get an extension of the deadline. As they were talking, the amusement park’s lawyer walked in and handed one of the sisters a check for $50,000. While they pondered whether to accept the check or grant an extension, one of the Friends ran into the house and burst into the room with a check for $200. The Franks handed the lawyer his $50,000 check and sent him packing.

This was only the initial hurdle, for half of the remaining $34,000, plus the settlement costs had to be raised by January 1, 1964. Public solicitation, two house tours, and two benefits raised the amount and at the turn of the year the Friends took possession. Later the group bought all of Clara Barton’s furniture in the sisters’ possession.

In the succeeding years the Friends continued to raise money and work on the house to repair structural defects. In April 1965 the house was designated a registered national landmark. The Friends made their final payment on the mortgage in early 1975. In April they presented the deed to the National Park Service in accordance with legislation passed by Congress in October 1974 authorizing the establishment of Clara Barton National Historic Site.

In December 1979 the Friends disbanded and donated the $8,435.37 remaining in their treasury to the park to purchase furnishings for the Red Cross Offices in the house. Their generosity contributed substantially to the preservation of this property and ensured its survival.

Since acquiring the property, the National Park Service has done extensive research on the building and its contents to determine the proper course of the preservation efforts. Today, work continues on the building and on acquiring furnishings that reflect these findings.

The process of restoration is simultaneously tedious and fascinating. Bit by bit the materials—wallpaper, partitions, even bathrooms—added after Clara Barton’s time are removed, revealing the original fabric of the building. Newspapers found in the walls as insulation are removed, flattened, and saved. Historic floors, 1908 electrical wiring, and doorways reappear. New questions arise as old ones are answered. The sources are the house itself, Clara Barton’s diary and other writings, and a collection of historic photographs. Each source adds a different perspective to the restoration of her home and to a better understanding of her life.

Clara Barton National Historic Site is open for guided tours on a limited basis. For details call 301-492-6245. Free parking is available. The park offers a variety of special programs on Clara Barton and her times.

Red Cross family tree

Diary and first aid kit

National Park Service Sites Associated with Clara Barton

Andersonville National Historic Site, Andersonville, Georgia 31711. The park is the site of the Confederate prison camp for Union prisoners of war. In 1865 Clara Barton met Dorence Atwater, a former prisoner at Andersonville, while she was involved in her search for missing men. Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war, approved of her plan to go to Andersonville with Atwater and identify as many of the graves as possible. Atwater’s written record, which he had kept during his imprisonment, listed each man’s name and the number that marked his position in the trench; by comparing this list with the cemetery’s numbered markers Barton had no trouble identifying 12,920 graves; 440 remained unknown. During her stay in Andersonville, Barton wrote to Secretary Stanton requesting that the former prison grounds be turned into a national cemetery. Stanton agreed and on August 17, 1865, Barton raised the flag at the dedication.

The park museum contains an exhibit devoted to the work of Barton and Atwater and further explains their role in the establishment of the cemetery. The park is open daily except for January 1, Thanksgiving, and December 25.

Andersonville cemetery.

Antietam National Battlefield, Box 158, Sharpsburg, Maryland 21782. During the battle of Antietam, Clara Baron attended and helped a Pennsylvania surgeon tend to the Union wounded. The location of this activity has never been precisely determined, though it is known that it did not take place on ground currently owned by the park. Within the park near stop 2 on the driving tour is a monument erected by the Washington County, Maryland, Red Cross chapter in honor of her work during the battle. The park is located north and east of Sharpsburg in west central Maryland and contains the ground on which the bloody September 17, 1862, battle was fought. It is open daily except for January 1, Thanksgiving, and December 25.

Antietam battlefield.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, P.O. Box 679, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401. At Chatham Manor, across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, you can visit the house where Clara Barton provided relief and comfort to the wounded during the battle of Fredericksburg. Exhibits in the Manor about Barton’s role include a letter written to a cousin describing the battle scene and her work. Chatham Manor is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed January 1 and December 25. The main visitor center for the park, which contains the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, is on U.S. 1 (Lafayette Avenue) in Fredericksburg. A self-guiding automobile tour connects all the battlefields.

Reenactment at Fredericksburg

Johnstown Flood National Memorial, P.O. Box 247, Cresson, Pennsylvania 16630. The park is located along U.S. 219 and Pa. 869 at the site of the South Fork Dam, 16 kilometers (10 miles) northeast of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Located at the dam site are a small visitor center, restroom, interpretive trails, and a picnic area with tables and cooking grills. If you drive to Saint Michael on Pa. 869, which closely follows the shore of the 1889 lake, you will pass some of the Queen Anne cottages and the clubhouse that were part of the resort at Lake Conemaugh. Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown contains the graves of many victims, including 777 who were never identified. The park is open daily except Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1.

Aftermath of Johnstown flood

Manassas National Battlefield Park, Box 1830, Manassas, Virginia 22110. During the battle of Second Manassas, Clara Barton arrived in Fairfax Station, Virginia, by train with supplies for caring for the wounded. She joined a Federal field hospital that had moved into the hamlet ahead of the Union retreat. At St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Fairfax Station the Union doctors set up a hospital. Barton arrived at the same time and contributed medical help. She never reached the battlefield that is preserved in today’s park. St. Mary’s Church still stands at 11112 Fairfax Station Road, Fairfax Station, Virginia, and a plaque on its wall honors Barton’s work.

Statue of Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson at Manasses

National Park Service Sites Commemorating American Women

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York 12538. Eleanor Roosevelt used “Val-Kill” as a retreat from the cares of her busy and active life. At the cottage, built in 1925 in a pastoral setting, she entertained friends and dignitaries and promoted the many causes in which she was interested.

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, c/o Richmond National Battlefield Park, 3215 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23223. The brick house at 110A E. Leigh Street was the home of the first woman president of an American bank. She was the daughter of an ex-slave.

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Sewall-Belmont House National Historic Site, 144 Constitution Avenue, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. Since 1929 this house has been the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party. It commemorates Alice Paul, a women’s suffrage leader and the party’s founder, and her associates.

Sewall-Belmont House

Related Sites

The American National Red Cross Headquarters, 17th between D and E Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006. After Clara Barton resigned as president, the Red Cross needed to find a suitable place for its headquarters. After spending some years in various unused rooms in government office buildings, the U.S. Congress approved legislation that provided $400,000 to match an equal amount raised privately by Red Cross officials and that donated a city block of land for a building. The land has remained U.S. Government property although it is in the perpetual custody of the American Red Cross. The main building, which fronts on 17th Street, contains exhibit areas on the ground and main floors. A library on the third floor of the office building contains extensive holdings about the Red Cross and related subjects. The complex of buildings is open to the public 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday.

American National Red Cross Headquarters

Clara Barton Birthplace, 68 Clara Barton Road, North Oxford, Massachusetts 01537. Clara Barton was born in this house on Christmas Day, 1821, the youngest child of Stephen and Sally Barton. The house, which had been built shortly before her birth, is now a museum and contains memorabilia of Clara Barton and her family. The house is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in July and August. The remainder of the year it is open only by appointment, primarily for school and private groups. A fee is charged.

Bedroom in Clara Barton birthplace

Johnstown Flood Museum, 304 Washington Street, Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15901. The museum chronicles the events of the disastrous flood of 1889. Special exhibits detail the role of Clara Barton and the American Red Cross. Here the new organization first demonstrated its ability to respond to a major disaster. The museum continues to work closely with the local chapter of the American Red Cross in maintaining a record of the organization’s relief through the years in this flood-prone valley. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays. It is closed January 1, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and December 25. A fee is charged; group rates are available.

Johnstown Flood Museum

Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress, 10 First Street, SE, Washington, D.C. 20540. In the 1930s the Hubbell sisters were doing some remodeling on the Clara Barton House. In the process they discovered a boarded-up corridor between two bedrooms. When the corridor was reopened they found the area filled with Clara Barton’s personal papers, diaries, scrapbooks, and other memorabilia of her life and career. Who put them there remains unknown. The two sisters presented the entire cache to the Library of Congress. The collection has been sorted and indexed and is available for the use of scholars only.

Library of Congress

Armchair Explorations: Some Books You May Want to Read

Barton, Clara. A Story of the Red Cross; Glimpses of Field Work. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1904.
——. The Story of My Childhood. New York: The Baker and Taylor Company, 1907.
Barton, William E. The Life of Clara Barton. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922.
Dulles, Foster Rhea. The American Red Cross: A History. New York: Harper, 1950.
Dunant, Jean-Henri. A Memory of Solferino. Washington, D.C.: The American National Red Cross, 1939.
Fishwick, Marshall. Illustrious Americans: Clara Barton. Morristown, New Jersey: Silver-Burdett, 1966.
Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Leech, Margaret. Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865. New York: Harper, 1941.
Ross, Ishbel. Angel of the Battlefield. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1956.

? GPO: 1981—341-611/1

Stock Number 024-005-00806-3.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,

U.S. Government Printing Office,

Washington, DC 20402

Index

Numbers in italics refer to photographs or illustrations.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A
American Equal Rights Association, 32
American Red Cross, 27, 42;
disaster relief, 6, 11, 33, 34, 48-59 passim, 77;
headquarters, 6-7, 13, 52, 68-71, 76;
photos, 51, 56, 68-69, 71;
under Clara Barton’s leadership, 11, 45, 46, 48-50, 52, 54, 56-59
Andersonville National Historic Site, 6, 33, 72-73
Anthony, Susan B., 7, 10, 43, 62
Antietam National Battlefield, 6, 25, 72
Appia, Louis, 10, 11, 35, 39, 43
Atwater, Dorence, 33-34, 72
B
Baltzley brothers, 68
Barton, Clarissa (Clara) Harlow, 16, 18, 42, 59, 62-64;
and International Red Cross, 43-46, 52;
and women’s rights, 7, 18, 20, 43, 52-53, 62;
as American Red Cross leader, 8, 11, 13, 45-59 passim;
as lecturer, 34, 44, 52-53;
biography, 8-13, 16-17, 42, 64, 76;
European travels, 35-37, 40-42;
health, 20-21, 34, 36, 40, 42;
memorabilia and papers, 6, 60-61, 71, 77;
other careers, 17-18, 20, 21-22, 31, 52;
personality, 16, 17, 26-36 passim, 43, 46, 47-48, 54, 56;
photos, 8, 46, 53, 64-65;
publications, 10, 12, 13, 43, 44, 56, 62-63;
relief activities, 11, 12, 13, 22-34 passim, 54-56, 72, 74;
retirement, 59, 62-64
Barton Birthplace, Clara, 76
Barton Memorial Association, Clara, 70
Barton National Historic Site, Clara, 68, 13, 52, 70-71;
photos 12, 68-69
Barton, David (brother), 16, 19, 30
Barton, Dolly (sister), 17
Barton, Edward, 19
Barton, Julia, 17
Barton, Sally (sister), 17, 42
Barton, Sarah Stone (mother), 16
Barton, Stephen (father), 19, 23
Barton, Stephen (brother), 16, 19, 30
Barton, William E., 47
Beaver, James A., 50, 52
Bellows, Henry, 36, 43, 45
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 9
Boardman, Mabel, 13, 57, 58
Bowles, Charles, 36, 43
Butler, Benjamin, 31, 52
C
Civil War:, battles, 6, 23, 25, 30, 72, 73;
relief work, 22-23, 25-29, 30-32
Clinton Liberal Institute, 9, 18
D
Dix, Dorothea, 27, 29
Dunant, Jean-Henri, 13, 35-36, 38-39, 44
F
Franco-Prussian War, 10, 37, 40-41, 43
Frank sisters, 70
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, 6, 25, 73
Friends of Clara Barton, 13, 70, 71
Freedmen, 32-33
G
Gage, Frances Dana, 27, 44
Geneva Convention. See Treaty of Geneva
Glen Echo house. See Clara Barton National Historic Site
Graves, Lucy, 55
H
Harris, Joel Chandler, 57
Hirons, Mabelle Rawson, 70
Hubbell, Julian, 41, 47, 48, 68, 70;
photos 10, 64-65
Hubbell cousins, 70
J
Johnstown flood, 6, 12, 50, 51, 52, 68, 74, 77
L
Lapham, Elbridge, 45
Lincoln, Abraham, 9, 22, 33
Logan, Mrs. John, 70
Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden, 10, 37, 42, 47, 50, 60, 61
M
Manassas National Battlefield Park, 74.
See also Civil War battles
Margot, Antoinette, 36, 40, 42, 46
Moynier, Gustav, 39, 45
N
Napoleon III, 37, 38, 43
National First Aid Society, 13, 59, 62
National Park Service, 6, 13, 71
Noyes, Josephine Frank, 70
R
Red Cross, International, 10, 11, 35, 36, 40, 43, 52, 60
Red Cross Relief Committee of New York, 54, 55
Roosevelt National Historic Site, Eleanor, 75
Roosevelt, Theodore, 55, 58, 59
S
Sears, W.H., 70
Second Manassas, 6, 23, 74
Sewall-Belmont House National Historic Site, 75
Shepard, Hannah, 44
Souvenir de Solferino, Un, 35, 36, 38, 39, 44
Spanish-American War, 33
Stanton, Edwin M., 72
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 10, 18
Stone, Elvira, 18, 20, 36
T
Treaty of Geneva, 35-46 passim, 60.
See also International Red Cross
Tubman, Harriet, 9
U
U.S. Christian Commission, 27, 29
U.S. Sanitary Commission, 26, 27, 36, 57
W
Walker National Historic Site, Maggie L., 75
Welles, C.M., 25
Whitman, Walt, 27, 29
Wilhelm I, Kaiser, 37, 60
Williams, Sophia W.R., 57
Wilson, Henry, 21, 23, 30, 32, 42
Women’s rights, 7, 8, 32, 44, 62;
and Clara Barton, 18, 20, 43, 52-53
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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