Wednesday, June 8

Clara Barton House

Stained glass windows in front of Clara Barton's house 

Clara Barton was actually a shy child growing up, but also really stubborn, when she wanted something she made things happen to get it. Hard to believe, after hearing all she did. She was born on Christmas day and actually grew up to be a teacher. At the time, students paid a fee, and a teacher was compensated by the number of students in her classroom. Clara did not like this because there were children who could not afford to pay for school.. So she tried to convince the town of Bordentown, NJ to open a public school, but they did not really jump on the idea immediately - that is until Clara said she would teach for free. When this school actually opened, she ended up with so many students that the town decided to build a new building and hire more teachers. When they hired a man as principal to oversee things, Clara quit. She said she was not going to do a man's job and not get paid the same salary. After all, she started the school, and knew more about it than the man they hired.

She then began working in DC as a recording clerk for the US Patent Office. She was paid the same as the men which resulted in her being spit on as she walked past some of them on the way to her desk.

Most notably, Clara Barton is known as "The Angel of the Battlefield". Having no training, she volunteered to help when the 6th Massachussetts was attacked by a mob in Baltimore. In helping, she realized that many of the deaths that occured on the battlefields were simply for lack of supplies. It  was then she began collecting supplies, sending them out and even going to the battlefields herself. She became someone that both sides, Union and Confederate soldiers, trusted.

The house was actually given to her by two brothers who were developing the area and wanted someone of notoriety to live there so to attract others from DC to the area. It is located in Glen Echo, MD. The house was too far from DC at first for Clara to live there, so she used it as warehouse space to store supplies for the   American Red Cross which she had founded. Eventually with new rails put in the trip was shortened to an acceptable travel time and she moved into the house making it also the Red Cross Headquarters.

The house is exceptional in that the three stories contains 30 rooms and 50 closets.  A woman's dream to have so many closets! There was not one bit of wasted space in this house. Every wall had doors that blended into the decor with storage behind it. Click here for the floor plans. Whole rooms were used for storing furniture and various items. One point of interest were the ceilings. The material used to make bandages, white muslin, was used for everything from covering her ceilings to making rope like hangers for lanterns. Clara Barton would have been today what we call a "no-nonsense" type of lady. She knew what she wanted and was gutsy enough to get it!