Several generations ago Civil war broke out in America

“Traces of the Confederacy in Washington, not all gone with the wind

By David Montgomery, Monday, April 11, 9:59 AM

The ladies sounded like Scarlett O’Hara and identified themselves on formal occasions by their husbands’ first and last names. The gentlemen nursed grudges and missing limbs. Senators and Cabinet secretaries accepted their flowery invitations and joined gallant toasts to the memory of the Lost Cause.

A century ago, an evening at the rowhouse later nicknamed the “Confederate Embassy” was as exclusive as any on Embassy Row.

The Queen Anne-style brownstone at 1322 Vermont Avenue NW in Logan Circle was one of the more counterintuitive addresses in Washington. From 1908 to 1997, Confederate Memorial Hall stood as a refuge for Rebel veterans and their descendants, an unlikely homage to Southern culture flourishing in the heart of the Yankee capital.

The hall was built as a private residence in 1889 and purchased by an umbrella group called the Confederate Memorial Association in 1908, according to city planning and deed records. In the early years, it was referred to as a Confederate “home,” and by some accounts, veterans of the war lived there. A period photo shows men in uniforms lined up out front.

What is certain is that veterans groups, sons and daughters groups, Dixie charities and Southern state societies held meetings and lectures, teas and balls there. The doings were chronicled in newspaper society pages. For a time, the hall was a pillar of Washington’s white social establishment.”