Rumor Has it This Fence Is Made of Old Gun Barrels

According to local lore, two historic homes on P Street in Georgetown are surrounded by a fence constructed from hundreds of old gun barrels.

As the legend goes, the original owner of the homes, Reuben Daw, lent emergency war funds to the government in 1814, but when it came time to repay, the War Department did not have funds to match their debts. As a result, the department offered surplus military gear for repayment, and according to a story published in a 1911 issue of Popular Mechanics, debtors were told to go to a navy yard and take what they wanted.

“Reuben Daw took advantage of this opportunity and asked for a consignment of antiquated flintlock muskets which were rusting in a neglected pile in an old warehouse,” the article said. “He received permission to remove them and took them to Georgetown.”

Daw then had a grand fence erected from the scrap barrels, or so the story goes.

Although the story could – or could not – be true, two details seem to support the lore. Some of the one-inch posts bear what appears to be old iron sights. Additionally, the decorative points at the top of the posts are clearly a second piece inserted into the posts, rather than one, uniform piece.

[ Atlas Obscura ]

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