Working Title: Diver and Copeland family papers, 1867-1927 (MS 0789)
Content: The collection includes deeds, mortgages, title searches, plats, property tax assessments and receipts, correspondence, photographs, a will and other papers. The papers relate primarily to Jerome B. Diver (1835-1909) and his wife Lucy H. Diver (1840-1911), regarding properties at 222 C St., SE; 436 Kentucky Ave., SE; Lot 54, Square 872, North Carolina Ave., SE, as well as in the Meridian Hill (Square 2565) and Barry Farm neighborhoods and in Takoma Park, Maryland. Other family papers include Jerome B. Diver’s will, pension form letters (including dates served in the Civil War), and a certificate from Bryant Stratton & Co. Business College.
Status: Currently being processed by volunteer Walter Albano.
Background: The donor, a photographer who has maintained the papers since his grandmother deeded them along, is downsizing, buying a van and heading out across the country with his wife. In the midst of cleaning house, a neighbor suggested he contact the Society to see if we’d be interested in the collection. We’d like to thank that neighbor!
What first caught our eye was the image at the top of this post: the dapper gentlemen posing in front of the family’s awning store at 409 11th Street NW. When the donor came in to the Kiplinger Research Library to officially transfer the material, he was thrilled to see the following advertisement in the 1889 Boyd’s City Directory:
The donor provided the documents to the Society in a safe deposit box; his grandmother, Clare Copeland Jones, maintained the family’s property records in this box at the Security Storage building at 1140 15th Street. (The Security Storage building was immortalized by Lily Spandorf in her Washington Never More Collection; the painting is part of the Society’s art collection).
Check out those folds: many if not all of the documents spent nearly a century in this small box.
The bulk of the collection comprises documents relating to property. Along with the documents, the donation included family photographs, relating mostly to the family of Arthur Copeland, his wife, Lucy Newland Diver Copeland, and the Martin G. Copeland Awning Co.