D.C.’s mysterious tunnel-builder

In 1924, a truck sank into a hole in the ground, exposing a set of expertly constructed tunnels. A Smithsonian entomologist was the key to the mystery.

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A 1912 photo of the Red Star Line ship SS Finland, which transported the U.S. Olympic team to the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm. In the summer of 1915, Dr. Harrison Dyar and his purported mistress, Wellesca Pollock, a D.C. kindergarten teacher, and her sons traveled on the same ship from New York to San Francisco.

/ Library of Congress

In 1924, a truck making a delivery behind a house at 1512 21st St. NW in the District opened a hole in the ground, exposing a set of expertly constructed tunnels.

Library of Congress

The tunnels in the multilevel catacomb were faced in brick with gently arched ceilings. Who had made them?

Library of Congress

The tunnels were the work of Harrison G. Dyar, who lived with his family in the house from about 1900 to 1914. Dyar (1866-1929) was an entomologist at the United States National Museum at the Smithsonian from 1897 until his death in 1929. For much of that time, he was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and served as an honorary curator at the National Museum. Dyar focused his work on limacodid moths and mosquitoes. He is perhaps best known for his hobby of digging tunnels behind his two homes and the fact that he was a bigamist.

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Pictured are the house fronts at 1510 (on left) and 1512 21st St. NW in which Harrison Dyar and his family lived. Dyar said tunnel building was a way for him to get exercise. He dug them between 1906 to 1914. The two houses he owned still stand at the same location on the west side of the street. Dyar and his family lived in 1512, and he had an office in 1510. They are now divided into apartments.

Astrid Riecken / For The Washington Post

The house he owned on 21st Street NW near Dupont Circle remains. Dyar achieved notoriety not only for the tunnels but also for the secret affair he carried on with a local kindergarten teacher.

Astrid Riecken / For The Washington Post

The tunnels were periodically rediscovered, including in 1958, when the children of the house's then-owner posed for a photo. (From left to right) Chippy Curd, 6, Donna, 3, and Ricky, 2, explore a tunnel discovered under their property by their father, Lewis H. Curd.

Frank Hoy / The Washington Post

Dyar worked as the custodian of Lepidoptera — butterflies and moths — at the National Museum, the building on the Mall we know today as Arts & Industries. This photo was taken circa 1900-1906.

Library of Congress

Dyar was a man of many interests. In 1900, he started taking his family to summer at Skyland, a Blue Ridge resort run by George Freeman Pollock, who woke guests each morning with a blast on his bugle. Pollock's sister Wellesca met Dyar at Skyland and embarked on an affair with him.

National Park Service

Pollock envisioned Skyland as a resort for well-to-do Easterners. Though it was financially unsuccessful, he was pleased to see Skyland become part of a new national park: Shenandoah. Pollock lived for a while with his wife in Massanutten Lodge at Skyland.

Library of Congress

Besides the great outdoors, Harrison G. Dyar experienced something else at Skyland: He fell in love with Pollock's sister, Wellesca, pictured here. Their relationship scandalized Washington.

Shenandoah National Park

Abdul Baha was the son of the founder of the Baha'i faith, and Wellesca Pollock — the mistress of Harrison G. Dyar — visited him in the Middle East in 1907. She became an adherent of the faith and helped spread it in Washington.

U.S. Baha'i National Center

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