MS (MHi); on verso: “Honbl Thomas Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ: “Conrad mr.”

Conrad and McMunn’s boarding house, belonging to the local proprietary Thomas Law, was at the corner of New Jersey Avenue and C Street, convenient to the Capitol. TJ leased a bedroom as well as a parlor or reception room, but took his meals at the common table. He lodged here from his arrival in Washington on 27 Nov. until after his inauguration, when he moved into the President’s House on 19 Mch. 1801 (Malone, Jefferson, description begins Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, Boston, 1948–81, 6 vols. description ends 3:491–2; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1031, 1032, 1034, 1035; Samuel Clagett Busey, “The Centennial of the First Inauguration of a President at the Permanent Seat of the Government,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 5 [1902], 99; Bryan, National Capital, description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan, A History of the National Capital From Its Foundation Through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act, New York, 1914–16, 2 vols. description ends 1:379–80).

TJ received a statement of account for his expenses at Conrad & McMunn’s for 1–31 Jan. 1801: “To board, rooms &c. &c. from 1st. inst. ’till this day both days included in 4 weeks & 3 days @ $48 50/100 per Week” for £80.10.7 ½ and “To keeping a horse 4 weeks & 3 days @ $4 per W.” for £6.12.9. Also recorded are charges of 6/7 per day for 24 days for alcoholic beverages, including a bottle of porter at 3/9 and wine at 2/10. TJ’s expenses also covered an occasional stage hire at 7/6 as well as 16/10 ½ for three friends who dined with him on 31 Jan. His total bill with Conrad & McMunn’s for the month was £97.6.3, which TJ calculated to be $259.50 (MS in MHi; in unknown hand, with total figure in dollars and cents in TJ’s hand written adjacent to total; endorsed by TJ in ink on verso).