It seems that John J. Pershing and Elisabeth Mills Reid knew each other well, since he resided in her brother's pied-à-terre at 73 rue de Varenne in Paris. In his September 10, 1917 letter, thanking Reid for the field outfit she had sent him, Pershing also mentions his Paris living quarters:
"Shortly after you left Paris a new atmosphere came over seventy three rue Varenne. There was a general house-cleaning after your departure; beautiful paintings appeared and furniture that seemed new, and there was a homelike air to the whole place. So much so that I was loath to leave it and hung on two or three days after my staff left for the front. I shall not give up the place, however, but as I told you, shall hold on to it for my own use until the end of the war, unless your brother wants it for another purpose."