Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302280156
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium
BOAT REVEALS HISTORY OF RIVER'S WATERFRONT
Workers who thought they were razing a dilapidated shack instead discovered a relic of the Potomac River waterfront's seamier side, a small houseboat like those commonly used for gambling and prostitution in the first half of the century.The boat is the only known example of the more than 1,000 houseboats that once floated along the river, said Pete Hall, head of the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. The group plans to restore the boat.
The boat, called an ark, was sitting on dry land and obscured by brush and a wooden addition. A backhoe ripped a gaping hole in the boat's side last October before workers realized what it was and called city officials.
"These were very common all along the waterfront, but they all disappeared sometime after World War II," Hall said. "It's terrific to find one, because we thought they were all completely gone."
The non-profit Seaport Foundation hopes eventually to display the boat along with other pieces of Alexandria's maritime past in a museum proposed for a disused section of waterfront.
"There is so much history here, but people tend to concentrate on the old buildings instead of the water. People forget that Alexandria was once the third-largest port in the United States," Hall said.
By the 1920s, more than 1,000 arks were moored along a few miles of Virginia shoreline in Alexandria and Fairfax and Arlington counties, said T. Michael Miller, research historian at the Alexandria Library.
The arks often housed floating brothels and gambling dens frequented by seamen from the port at Alexandria. They also served as cheap housing for the poor, Hall said.
"The gambling and prostitution was done on the water because Virginia law could not touch them," Miller said.
Technically, boats docked on the Virginia side are under the jurisdiction either of Maryland or the District of Columbia. Maryland and the district didn't enforce the law on the Virginia side of the river, Miller said.
The floating brothels typically contained one or two rooms and were painted red or blue, according to "This Was Potomac River," by the late Alexandria historian Frederick C. Tilp.
The most infamous ark was called The Dream, a two-story boat that housed four prostitutes, Tilp wrote. The boat made headlines in 1905 when it slipped from its moorings in Alexandria during a storm and floated a mile down river.
Fishermen rescued the boat and its customers and towed them to the Maryland shore.
The arks also were used as speakeasies during Prohibition, according to Tilp.
Their numbers dwindled in the 1930s, in part because of complaints from motorists using the newly built George Washington Memorial Parkway between Arlington and Mount Vernon.
"They didn't want to look at a flotilla," of unsightly houseboats, Miller said.
The arks had a brief revival during World War II, when the Washington area's already tight housing market was overrun with workers coming to help with the war effort.
"The arks are remembered more for the more illicit side of things, but they were also just basic housing for people caught in the huge housing shortage in Washington," Hall said.
The newly discovered ark will be restored as a simple houseboat, with one room and a small stove, Hall said.
Historians don't know anything about this particular boat, but speculate it dates to about 1903, based on the kind of materials and construction methods used, Hall said. It is small, only about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, with a low ceiling.
"It was not luxurious living," Hall said.
The ark will be moved next month so restorers can begin work, Hall said. The restored boat should be ready for display by next fall, Hall said.