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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 1d

To do this, we are working to ensure our interpretation is inclusive of their histories.

We honor their enduring connection and understand that we are actively shaping a relationship with this land.

Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 1d

Our goal as a museum is to preserve the physical space and the lived experiences connected with it. The stories and continuing contributions of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) and Piscataway peoples are central to understanding a truer, more comprehensive history of the site.

Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 1d

The Heurich family built their home - where the Museum stands today - on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) and Piscataway peoples. The Heurich House Museum acknowledges the Indigenous labor and care that have shaped these lands for generations.

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 2d

📸 “Gichner, the Roofer,” The Washington Times, March 22, 1908 - also I spy an ad for A.F. Jorss Ornamental Ironworks (who also worked on the Heurich home)
📸 Ernest Girchner in “Killed in Plunge at F.J. Hogan Home,” Evening Star, November 2, 1932.

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 2d

🔹 When did Lawrence begin training - how did it compare with his father’s?
🔹 What did his everyday work look like?
🔹 How did his lived experiences differ from other people working at the shop, given his father owned the business?
🔹 How did he get the opportunity to work on the turret?

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 2d

In 1932, Ernest tragically died after falling from a roof. Two years after his father’s death, Lawrence worked on the turret project for the Heurichs. Based on a newspaper article from 1950, we know Lawrence became the president of the business, then called Gichner Sheet Steel Works.

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 2d

In a 1908 Washington Times ad, Gichner boasted: “I have repaired and put on new 847 tin roofs. Only two complaints have been made during the heavy snow and slush of the past few months. This is the result of thorough and sincere work.”

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 2d

Lawrence Gichner (who replaced the turret roof) was born in DC in 1907 to Ernest and Helen Gichner. His father apprenticed in metalwork in Vienna, Austria starting at 14 years old. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1888 and opened a DC shop DC with the slogan: “everything in sheet metal.”

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 5d

Source: Notes from “Don King’s 50th Birthday held at the Heurich mansion” on April 2, 1987 - in the HHM Reference Collection & at DC History Center

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 5d

Over 50 years after working on the turret, Gichner attended the party in the home, so:
🔹 Who was Lawrence Gichner?
🔹 What was his relationship with the Heurich family?
🔹 How many other former contractors, artisans, or workers were they still in contact with if any?

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 5d

You hear a man speaking with a small crowd around him. His name is Lawrence Gichner and in the 1930s he replaced the turret’s roof with copper plates. He remembers that the original circular ceramic tiles began falling - and Amelia was worried they'd hit people walking on the sidewalk!

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 5d

Imagine it’s 1987: You step inside the Heurich mansion, which looks like a time capsule to the 1890s. The halls are lively and filled with chatter - 60 guests mingle to celebrate the 50th birthday of Don King, one of the Heurich grandchildren.

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

📸 Oak ceiling in conservatory
📸 Memoranda in Amelia’s Heurich’s diary, July 1923
📸 James T. Kenyon listed in the 1925 Washington, DC City Directory
📸 James T. Kenyon listed in the U.S. Census in DC, April 5, 1930

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

While we know about Kenyon - who she didn’t specifically blame - we don’t know the workers’ names.
🚧 How much was the delay caused by them versus other circumstances?
🚧 What was Kenyon’s leadership and supervision like as an employer?
🚧 What would their sides of the story look like?

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

In July 1923, Amelia was frustrated with the project’s progress, writing in her diary: “This has been a very busy month for me. Our conservatory is not completed…yet. These workmen are doing as little work as they can.”

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

Kenyon’s business was located at 827 14th St NW.
🚧 As a US-born business owner, how did his training and lived experiences differ from his employees who worked on the roof?
🚧 Where were they from?
🚧 Where did they live locally and what did their rent or homes cost?

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

Kenyon, born in Virginia in 1873 to New York parents, was living large by 1930. He and his wife Fodie owned a home at 311 Maryland Ave NE valued at $170,000 — the equivalent of $3.2 million today. For comparison, the average DC home then cost just $7,489 (about $141k today).

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 7d

Contractor James T. Kenyon and architect Appleton P. Clark Jr. led the Conservatory roof replacement. 👷

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 8d

Last chance to Get Crafty this year! 🎨✨ Join us as we paint river rocks — take yours home or add it to our rock garden around the firepits. Leave your mark and get creative before the season ends!

📅 Wed Oct 15 | 6-8pm
📍 1921 Biergarten @ Heurich House
🎟️ FREE: events.humanitix.com/get-crafty-n...

Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 9d

Images:
📸 Glass roof overlaid on the current roof
📸 Application for Permit to Repair or Reconstruct Buildings, Permit No. 10619, May 16, 1923
📸 Amelia Heurich’s diary entry for January 29, 1922, where she discussed the roof collapse

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 9d

Amelia chose to keep the house dark, leaving the wooden shutters closed and sometimes adding cardboard behind them to block out light. Could the roof replacement be related to her lighting preference or hopes of preserving the interiors?

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 9d

Perhaps there were other factors: In 1985, Karla Heurich Harrison (Heurich daughter) remembered: “the [Conservatory’s] window ceiling had large green canvas shades hung like sails with ropes to block out the sun. Long wooden poles with metal hooks on the ends were used to open and close.”

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Heurich House Museum @heurichhouse.bsky.social · 9d

Amelia captured the horror in her diary, her words edged with fear; only ten days before the collapse, she, Christian, and their daughters had sat beneath that very roof, watching a film together.

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