From the Richmond Examiner, 2/3/1866, p. 3, c. 4

EVACUATION OF THE OLD UNITED STATES HOTEL. – Yesterday was evacuation day at the old United States Hotel, corner of Main and Nineteenth streets, and the fountain from whence flowed many good items has “dried up.” Mr. J. L. Taylor, the agent of the property, issued peremptory writs of ejectment upon the inmates, who were notified to pack at once, positively and without delay. In a few minutes a looker-on would have judged the house was on fire, from the way bed and bedding, bag and baggage came tumbling into the street, followed by the disheveled females in dishabille. The “Free Concert Saloon” had “shut up” and gone before, with the “pretty waiter girls.” Last night the old hotel was as still and deserted as Tara’s Hall, and naught disturbed the silence by the sighing of the wind through the paneless windows, and the screech of the rats and mice that raced from hole to hole, pursued by the ghosts of lost virtue and morality.

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