McKeon & McGrann


Company Names, addresses, dates1:
        Listed Under Mineral Water
  P. McKean, South side B North between 2nd and 3rd West (1853)
  John McKeon, 293 B (1855)
        Listed Under Tavern or Saloon Owners
  James McGrann, North side Pa Ave, between 2nd and 3rd West (1850)
  James McGrann, 179 Pa Ave (1862-1867)
  James McGrann, 1704 Pa Ave NW (1874-1885)

Notes:
There are 2 other related bottles listed in our club book2. One is embossed with "McKEON" and the other with "JOHN McKEON". So I suspect that the McKeon listed on the bottle below is John McKeon. There is a "J. M. McKeon" (b. 1820 in Ireland) listed as a DC resident in the 1860 census, although his occupation at that time was "disabled soldier", so I'm not sure if he's the guy listed on the bottle.
I suspect that the directory listing for "P. McKean" is a misprint, and that "McKean" should be "McKeon", and maybe the "P" should be a "J" as well. Old directories had lots of typos. The reason the 1853 directory address above seems so cryptic is because Washington DC didn't seem to have numbered addresses back then, so building addresses were just descriptions of where the building was relative to the surrounding streets. Note the 1853 McKean mineral-water address is across the street from the 1850 McGrann Tavern address - or it could be a typo and they were at the same address.
The 1880 census says James McGrann was a restaurant keeper, born about 1819 in Ireland. I beleive he is the McGrann listed on my bottle.


Bottles:

mckeon_1 (enlarge) This is my oldest and most prized Washington DC bottle. It is a blue 7" torpedo marked:
front: McKEON & McGRANN
back: WASHINGTON DC


1 Boyd's Directory for the District of Columbia (various years)
2 Antique Bottles from the Washington DC Area by Potomac Bottle Collectors, 4th edition



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This page last updated on March 28, 2008.