USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 21
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In 1805 this office was abolished and its duties transferred to an officer called the High Constable. The latter office was abolished in 1807 and its duties conferred upon the four Ward Commissioners. In 1808 the city was divided into two Police Districts, each presided over by a Police Officer. The latter office was abolished in 1811 and its duties transferred back to the Ward Commissioners and to constables appointed under the Act of 1807. The constables were legislated out of office in 1820 and were restored in 1821.
By an act approved August 23, 1842, Congress provided for a police establishment known as the Auxiliary Watch, or Auxiliary Guard. As first constituted that force consisted of a Captain and fifteen officers. In 1851 Congress increased the number of officers by fifteen. This force had the same functions as the police force of the city; it was subject to the Mayor's orders and was controlled by a set of regulations established by a board consisting of the Mayor, the United States District Attorney and the Corporation Attorney ; it availed itself of the use of the headquarters of the city force at the City Hall; it was required to co-operate with and assist the city police force, and for all practical purposes was an integral part of the city police system, though receiving its pay from Congress. This dual police system continued in effect until the creation by Con- gress of the Metropolitan Police District in 1861.
By act of August 6, 1861, Congress created the Metropolitan Police District comprising the corporations of Washington and Georgetown and the County of Washington. By this act the President of the United States was authorized to appoint five commissioners; three from Washington, one from Georgetown and one from the part of the District of Columbia lying outside
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of those corporations. These Commissioners, with the Mayors of Washington and Georgetown, constituted the Board of Police, which was empowered to divide the District of Columbia into not more than ten precincts, establish stations, assign sergeants and patrolmen to exercise general supervision over licensed vendors, hackmen, cartmen, second hand dealers, intelligence offices, auctioneers of watches and jewelry, suspected private banking houses, "and other doubtful establishments."
By the act of July 23, 1866, an additional force was pro- vided for and the offices of Mayor, Captain, Lieutenant, and Sergeant established. By act of March 2, 1867, previous service in the Army or Navy of the United States was made a condition of employment on the force, but this prerequisite was later revoked by court decision. The Board of Metropolitan Police continued in existence until the establishment of the permanent form of government for the District under the act of Congress approved June 11, 1878, when its functions were transferred to the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia.
The disastrous fires in the two department buildings which occurred shortly after the removal of the Government to Wash- ington, resulted in early action by the City Councils looking to provision for the prevention and extinguishment of fires. On January 10, 1803, an ordinance was passed requiring every pro- prietor of a dwelling or business house to provide as many leather two and one-half gallon fire buckets as there were stories to his house, and imposing other duties upon citizens in connec- tion with the prevention and extinguishment of fires.
On July 24, 1804, the city was divided into four fire wards and provision made for the organization of a volunteer fire company in each ward. In 1815 the sum of one hundred and seventy-five dollars was appropriated for the purchase of ladders, fire hooks, axes, crow-bars and buckets. In 1817 an annual appropriation of twenty-five dollars was provided for the upkeep of the several engines in the city. All citizens were made subject to service at the requirement of the commanders of the fire companies who were distinguished by a white wand five feet long and a speaking trumpet.
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In 1853, provision was made for an Inspector of Fire Appa- ratus who was required to make monthly inspections of the apparatus of each company in the city which was expected to be found at all times to be of the value of at least five hundred dollars. By the same ordinance an annual appropriation of one hundred dollars was made payable to each company of not less than fifty members which in the opinion of the Mayor possessed an efficient organization. The governing body of the department consisted of the presidents of the several fire companies. Rivalry and friction between the fire companies was such a source of disorder that in 1857 the Mayor, to prevent conflicts, was author- ized to prescribe limits beyond which it was unlawful for the apparatus of the several companies to be run.
On October 6, 1862, the fire companies were organized under the name of The Washington Fire Department. The governing body of the department consisted of five delegates from each company.
In 1865, the city purchased three steam fire engines and in 1867 added two more. The United States Government had pre- viously acquired three steam engines for the protection of its property and these had commonly been used in co-operation with the city fire department. The Government disbanded its fire department in 1864.
The first measure relating to the public health appears to have been an ordinance approved May 1, 1811, making it punish- able with a fine of one hundred dollars to voluntarily introduce or propagate smallpox in the city, and requiring the person in whose family it should be accidentally introduced to forthwith notify the Mayor under penalty of twenty dollars fine.
By ordinance of August 14, 1819, the Mayor was required to appoint a discreet and prudent citizen, being a member of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, to be Health Officer of the City.
This officer was required to report nuisances, sources of disease, epidemics and contagious diseases, with his opinion as to means for restraining and preventing them and to keep a register of deaths and their causes upon weekly reports from the
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sextons of cemeteries based upon certificates of undertakers or personal inquiry.
On March 30, 1822, the office of Health Officer was abolished and a Board of Health created, to consist of one physician and one layman from each ward in addition to the physician attend- ing the Washington Asylum. The powers and functions of the Board of Health were enlarged from time to time by numerous ordinances. On January 17, 1856, the office of Commissioner of Health who should be ex officio Secretary of the Board, was created with functions so extensive as to practically make that officer supersede the Board which was, however, still continued in existence.
The water supply of the city in its early years was drawn entirely from wells and springs. By an ordinance passed in 1812, the Mayor was authorized to sink wells upon petition of two-thirds of the residents of any neighborhood and assess the cost against the property thought by the ward assessors to be benefitted by the improvement. In 1818 similar provision was made for the construction of concrete reservoirs at the sites of hydrants.
The most prominent spring in or near the city was that located on the farm of J. A. Smith just north of the present pumping plant on North Capitol Street. This was one of the sources of Tiber Creek. In 1831 its waters were conducted in iron pipes from a reservoir which was created on the site of the spring to two basins, one on the east front of the Capitol and the other on the west front. This pipe still furnishes the water for the gold fish basin at the foot of the west front of the Capitol. A line of pipe from this spring was carried up Pennsylvania Avenue nearly as far as Fifteenth Street.
A spring in City Hall Park, about fifty feet west of the building supplied a line of pipe on Second Street and another on Louisiana Avenue as far as Seventh Street.
On C Street between Four-and-a-Half and Sixth Streets was another well known spring. Another at the site of the Masonic Temple supplied a line of pipe on F Street and down Ninth and Tenth Streets. There was a spring in Franklin Square and
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another just outside the square. At the intersection of New Jer- sey and New York Avenues was the Carroll Spring. A spring on P Street near Rock Creek for many years furnished water to the Metropolitan street car stables in Georgetown by means of a pipe under the bridge. On Virginia Avenue between Twenty- sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets was a large spring. The Gib- son spring at Fifteenth and C Streets, northeast, now utilized by the Hygienic Ice Company, was mentioned in a former chapter as having played a part in determining the location of the city boundary line at that point.
The desirability of procuring a more generous supply of water than was furnished by springs, was early recognized. In 1830 the subject was broached by Mr. Robert Mills, an engineer and architect, who suggested a system to be drawn either from the sources of Tiber Creek or from Rock Creek. Nothing was done, however, towards the establishment of a general water system until 1850 when Congress appropriated $500 for a pre- liminary investigation. In 1852 Congress appropriated $5,000 for a survey. In 1853 General Joseph G. Totten made a report to the Secretary of War as to the relative cost and feasability of three alternative schemes; one to obtain the water from Rock Creek; another to obtain it from the Potomac River at the Little Falls, and a third to obtain it from the river at Great Falls. The latter plan was adopted. The work of construction was placed in charge of Captain Montgomery C. Meigs of the Engin- eer Corps of the Army.
The ceremony of ground breaking for this work on November 8, 1853, was quite elaborate. President Pierce attended with his cabinet at the scene near Great Falls, and turned the first spadeful of earth. Others who participated were Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, Senator Douglas, Mayor John W. Maury, and Ex-Mayor W. W. Seaton.
The completion of the work occupied about nine years, and involved an expenditure up to June, 1862, of $2,675,832.53. Most of the work was done under the supervision of Captain-after- wards General-M. C. Meigs.
The length of the conduit from its beginning at Great Falls
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to the north end of the Georgetown aqueduct is fourteen miles. Its construction involved the construction of Cabin John Bridge, famous as one of the longest single span arches in the world.
In 1859 Congress empowered the corporations of Washing- ton and Georgetown to regulate the distribution of water within their respective limits and authorized Georgetown to borrow $50,000 and Washington $150,000 for the construction of mains.
Following the passage of that act the Washington City Councils created the offices of Water Registrar and Water Pur- veyor, directed the construction under the direction of the latter, of a system of mains, and established a water code for the city. The water system received no material extension from that time until after the establishment of the permanent Commission gov- ernment in 1878.
As early as January 12, 1803, an ordinance was passed directing the Mayor to cause lamps to be placed on the most public avenues and streets, to supply them with oil and to employ persons to attend to lighting them and keeping them in order. In 1830 it was ordered, in the interest of economy, that the lamps should be lighted only from the first day of December to the thirtieth day of April each year.
The lighting of the city with gas was provided for in 1853. An ordinance passed June 3 of that year directed the Mayor to erect lamp posts upon the application of the owners of more than half the property in any portion of a street not less than a square, the cost to be borne by the property fronting on that portion of the street.
The chief works of a public character in the early years of the city consisted in the completion of the Washington Canal and the reclamation of the low grounds lying between the canal and Pennsylvania Avenue.
The canal which had been partially cut for drainage pur- poses by the original Commissioners was deepened and widened so as to permit of navigation, by the Washington Canal Com- pany, a corporation authorized by an act of Congress approved February 16, 1809. The caral was operated by this company
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until 1831 when in anticipation of the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal it was purchased by the city for $50,000. The city greatly improved it by widening and deepen- ing, and by walling it with stone for the cost of which the city was reimbursed $150,000 by Congress.
The reclamation of the low lands adjoining the canal on the north commenced in 1816 when $2,000 was voted by the Councils for filling between Pennsylvania Avenue and the Canal from 7th to 12 Streets, the cost being assessed against the "squares which were overflowed by the tides." This canal began at a basin at 17th and B Streets, northwest, at the mouth of Tiber Creek, and extended thence east along B Street, north, to a point midway between 6th and 7th Streets, west; thence south to the center line of the Mall; thence east to 3rd Street west ; thence south to Maryland Avenue; thence southeast to the center of South Capitol Street; thence south to a point midway between F and G Streets, south; thence southeast to near 2nd and K Streets, southeast, and thence to the Anacostia River or Eastern Branch. It was filled from Rock Creek to 17th Street and converted into a sewer from 17th Street to 3rd Street west, by the Board of Public Works. The remaining portions between 3rd Street west and the Anacostia River were filled by the Board of Commissioners at a cost of $70,000 which was appro- priated by Congress in 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1881 to give employment to laborers in the periods of industrial depression which then prevailed.
In 1822 Congress authorized the city to sell certain public squares to raise funds for filling the low grounds on the borders of the Canal, and a board of four commissioners was provided for by ordinance to carry this law into effect. In 1823 the city appropriated $3,000 "for removing the nuisance which exists by the stagnant water and other sources of disease in that por- tion of the city lying between 7th and 12 Streets, west, and C Street north of the Canal," and $2,500 for filling the Center Market Square and forming a basin for the Canal at that point.
In 1820 the construction of the City Hall-the present Court House-at the head of Four-and-a-Half Street was com-
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menced. The plans were drawn by George Hadfield, who had been one of the superintendents in charge of the construction of the Capitol under the original Commissioners. Hadfield's first plan was rejected as involving too great a cost, but he modified it so that on July 14, 1820, proposals were called for with the idea of constructing so much of the building as the commissioners in charge of the work might deem expedient. The cornerstone was laid on the 24th day of August, 1820, with elaborate ceremonies. The cost of the building was originally expected to be $100,000, and it was proposed to raise this sum by lottery. The affair was known as the National or Gillespie lottery, and is referred to elsewhere. It proved very disastrous to the city, owing to the defalcation of one of the managers. In 1823, when the building was partly finished, Congress appro- priated $10,000 to complete a portion of it for the accommodation of the United States Circuit Court, and the Clerk, Marshal, records and juries connected therewith. The total cost of the building was $148,451.29, of which sum about $105,000 was reimbursed to the city by Congress in various ways, largely through the eventual purchase in 1873 of the building as a whole for the use of the United States Courts and appurtenant officials.
The first attempt at street improvement under municipal control was an appropriation of $200 on November 19, 1802, for clearing and rendering passable Fourteenth Street from north F Street to the northern extremity thereof. The first cover for both carriageways and sidewalks was gravel. Later it became the practice to pave the gutters.
About 1814 the municipality began the use of curbstones and foot pavements, with paving brick and stone cross-walks at intersections.
In 1832 the United States Government macadamized Penn- sylvania Avenue between First Street and 15th Street under a contract with Hugh Stewart. This pavement remained until replaced by wooden blocks in 1870.
The first paving of the carriageways appears to have been Seventh Street west from the south side of Virginia Avenue to
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H Street north, under an act of the Councils of April 23, 1845, and in accordance with the general ordinances of the Councils of April 17, 1845, for paving with stone blocks not more than four inches square, under which the cost of such improve- ments was paid wholly by the abutting property, except at the intersection of streets and at alley openings where the cost was borne by the ward funds.
Under an appropriation made in the civil and diplomatic appropriation law of August 31, 1852 (10 Stat. 94) and other laws, the carriageway of Pennsylvania Avenue from 17th Street to Rock Creek was paved with "round-stone."
By an ordinance of June 5, 1863, establishing a general rule for paving carriageways, the abutting property on each side of a street was taxed with only one-third of the cost of paving carriageways.
An ordinance approved May 7, 1869, legalized the "Smith and Burlew concrete (bituminous) pavement" for paving streets and sidewalks in the City of Washington whenever citi- zens preferred it to brick or stone as then provided by law.
Under an ordinance approved September 7, 1869, the carriageway of Vermont Avenue between H and I Streets, northwest, was paved with coal tar concrete by George Scharff under his patent, at the sole cost of abutting property. This pavement was as good and lasting as any bituminous roadway of any patent or material ever laid in the District.
Indiana Avenue for two or three blocks west of First Street west was paved in 1870 by the City of Washington with irregular blocks of Seneca sandstone, a sort of reddish stone from the shore of the Potomac a few miles above Great Falls.
In 1870, Pennsylvania Avenue from First Street to Fifteenth was paved with various kinds of wooden blocks. This pavement, with frequent repairs, continued until 1876. In 1876 and 1877 Pennsylvania Avenue was repaved by a commission appointed under Act of Congress, July 19th, 1876, consisting of two officers of the Engineer Corps of the Army and the Architect of the Capitol. The cost was divided among the
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United States, District of Columbia, private property, and the street railroad whose tracks were upon it.
The beginning of the sewer system of the city consisted of a twenty-two inch main on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue from Four-and-a-Half Street to Second Street, west, for which the sum of one thousand dollars was appropriated in 1829, the cost of the sewer being assessed against the property fronting on that portion of Pennsylvania Avenue. This and a number of other small sewers which were created from time to time emptied into the Tiber Canal. No comprehensive sewer system was attempted until the establishment of the Territorial Govern- ment in 1871.
The early financial arrangements of the city included two interesting features, namely, a system of municipal lotteries, and a system of municipal due bills; both of which were long ago discontinued and have almost passed into oblivion.
Lotteries with the approval of the President "for the effect- ing of important improvements in the city which the ordinary revenue thereof will not accomplish" were authorized in amounts of not exceeding $10,000 in any one year by the charters of 1812 and 1820.
On November 23, 1812, a resolution was adopted by the City Councils to the effect that it was deemed expedient to raise $10,000 by lottery for building, establishing and endowing two public school houses on the Lancastrian system. On August 3, 1814, a similar lottery to raise funds for the erection of a work- house and on May 10, 1815, one to raise funds for building a city hall were recommended. In 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820 and 1821, resolutions were adopted recommending the holding of lotteries to raise $10,000 for the purposes of building, estab- lishing and endowing public schools, building a penitentiary or workhouse, and building a town house or city hall.
By act of July 24, 1815, John Davidson, T. H. Gillis, A. Way, Jr., Moses Young, William Brent, Daniel Rapine and Samuel N. Smallwood were appointed managers of the three lotteries authorized up to that time for raising a total sum of thirty thousand dollars. On November 17, 1818, an ordinance
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was passed authorizing the Mayor to appoint seven citizens to manage a lottery to raise a total sum of forty thousand dollars as provided for by the resolutions of 1816, 1817 and 1818. On January 4, 1827, an ordinance authorized the sale of the three pending lotteries, as well as any future ones to be authorized under the charter provision, the purchasers to assume the entire responsibility for the payment of the prizes.
It was under this ordinance that the management of the lotteries was taken over by David Gillespie and others. Gillespie defaulted with the main prize of $100,000, and other amounts, and, the managers being unable to pay the prizes, the city was subjected to judgments aggregating upwards of $198,000. No further attempts were made to raise money by this method.
The use of due bills as a medium of exchange grew out of the dearth of small change, to remedy which two ordinances were passed in 1814 authorizing the Mayor to issue due bills for sums of not less than one cent nor more than fifty cents in a total amount of not to exceed ten thousand dollars, redeemable in sums of not less than five dollars. In 1819 an issue of ten thousand dollars and in 1821 an issue of twelve thousand dollars in due bills in denominations of fifty cents, one dollar and two dollars, was authorized. In 1824, a measure was adopted pro- viding for the use of this medium for raising fourteen thousand dollars largely to be used in public improvements and in 1832 an issue of fifteen thousand dollars was authorized to raise money for the general fund.
The indebtedness of the city was chiefly represented by registered certificates commonly termed "stock," which were in the nature of unsecured bonds.
In 1827 the city subscribed for one million dollars of the stock of the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and Georgetown and Alexandria each subscribed $125,000. The following year these three corporations authorized Richard Rush, who in addition to numerous other important offices had recently held that of Secretary of the Treasury, to negotiate a loan in Europe for paying up their subscriptions. Mr. Rush obtained a loan from the firm of Daniel Crommelin and Sons of
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Amsterdam in 1829. The loan was bottomed upon the property of the city which by an act of Congress had been made subject to a tax for repaying it. The approaching maturity of this loan in 1835 threatened the city with bankruptcy and resulted in an appeal to Congress for aid. The report of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia in connection with this appeal, signed by Senator Samuel Southard, of New Jersey, its chair- man, furnishes a graphic description of the financial situation of the city at the time. Mr. Southard says:
"The city is involved in pecuniary obligations, from which it is utterly impossible that it can be relieved by any means within its own control, or by any exertions which it may make, unaided by Congressional legislation. Its actual debts now amount to the enormous sum of $1,806,442.59. * * So perfectly exhausted have its resources become that it will very probably in a short time be driven to the surrender of its charter by neglecting to elect its corporate officers, and thus be left upon the hands of Congress to dispose of, govern, and sustain as may best suit their own views of what is proper for the capital of the Union. * * A part of the engagements of the city, in relation to the stock which it holds in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, it is known to Congress, are of a kind which must be promptly satisfied or the property of the inhabitants exposed to sale in a few months under the orders of the Executive of the United States, and its creditors, who are foreign bankers, in all probability will become the owners of a great propor-
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