Mapping Georgetown: A Story of Love Stretching Back to The Mayflower
By • February 28, 2022 0 1273
“This sweet story is made doubly so because it threads together more than several centuries of connections back to those married at Plymouth Rock.”
“Drinking from the pasture spring, she showed him where they hid the drinking cup….”
Georgetown, Murdocks, Burnsides, Riggs Bank, St. John’s Episcopal Church and a sweet love story for our Mapping Georgetown Project to boot!
Diane Murdock’s story-map for Mapping Georgetown
Photo courtesy Diane Murdock.
I want to share this sweet story. It is truly an American love story that began with those who came a long time ago to our shores and finds its way through the ages to a boy and girl by a stream sharing a cup of water who lived happily ever after in Washington D.C.
The boy and girl were my grandparents. Harold Whiting Burnside met Enid Holden when he was a young man of 15 and she, a little tow head of 12. While Harold was picking strawberries in the field below Enid’s Grandpa’s house in Hyattsville Md and drinking from the pasture spring, she showed him where they hid the drinking cup. Grandpa said he was smitten right then and there. They married in 1917 and lived over fifty years in the District.
This sweet story is made doubly so because it threads together more than several centuries of connections back to those married at Plymouth Rock. Harold was a direct descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, fellow passengers with Bradford. Elizabeth’s parents were on board as well. And so, these two love birds trace back to Mayflower passengers, who also found love here in America.
The Burnsides raised their family of three children in Georgetown at 3010 P Street NW. Harold was a lifelong banker at Farmers and Mechanics Bank on the corner of Wisconsin and M Street, becoming a branch of Riggs Bank in 1928. Enid was an accomplished pianist and one of D.C.’s top-ranked women’s tennis players. They attended St. John’s Episcopal Church for all their years together. They moved mid-to-late 1930s from Georgetown.
Enid as a youth, photo courtesy of Diane Murdock.
Harold as a youth. Photo courtesy of Diane Murdock.
About the Author, Diane Murdock:
Diane Burnside Murdock is an Indie author of the award-winning The New Art of Dying. She worked as a health policy analyst for a number of years before turning her hand to art and writing. She’s a mother, wife, and Dido to her granddaughter Zara. She lives in the District of Columbia with her husband. She enjoyed her home across from Georgetown’s Rose Park and now lives near the MLK Library and Portrait Gallery. She’s 72 years-old — old to some and young to others.
Oak Hill cemetery with Belle (Diane and Steve’s dog, on doggie visit day) in front of their grave. Photo courtesy Diane Murdock.
Diane Murdock with her husband Steve. Photo courtesy of Diane Murdock.
Thank you for the time and effort and love that you devoted to creating and sharing this with us, Diane. Your personal love story brings such breadth and width to all of our experiences of connectedness to Georgetown.
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To learn more about the Mapping Georgetown project see https://georgetowner.com/articles/2021/07/19/marilyn-butlers-vision-for-mapping-georgetown/.
To submit your Georgetown recollections to Mapping Georgetown go to www.mappinggeorgetown.com or visit the Georgetown Public Library to pick up a physical map-story form to fill out.
Marilyn Butler can be reached at marilyn.butler@gmail.com.
