USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
354
History of the City of Washington.
Avenue to a four-story, 150 room hotel occupied by Messrs. Willard; the erection of a five-story 72 room hotel at 12th and the Avenue which was later opened as the Irving House. In that year gas lights were placed around the terrace of the Cap- itol and a gas lantern ninety feet high raised above the Capitol dome; the east wing of the Smithsonian building was completed and the west wing commenced.
For 1848 Mr. Sessford speaks of Mr. Easby's shipyard im- mediately west of the Observatory, at which, he says, many fine vessels had been built. Iron pipes were substituted for the old wooden ones from the spring on 13th Street above I, and from the spring at 3d and Indiana Avenue. The opening of Indiana Avenue provided for by Congress was begun; 4} Street was graded from Maryland Avenue to the Arsenal and the founda- tion for the Washington Monument was within three feet of completion to the base of the shaft.
For 1849 Mr. Sessford gives an excellent idea of the extent to which the improvement of Washington's streets had been pushed. In that year the paving of "the road north of the President's House" and of 15th Street in front of the State and Treasury Department building was completed; also 13th Street from New York Avenue to I Street; 10th from K to N; Vermont Avenue from I to M; Ohio Avenue from 12th to 15th ; New York Avenue from 7th to North Capitol; and H Street from Massa- chusetts Avenue to the turnpike gate. The City Hall which had long stood in a rough state was nearly completed on its south front without the wings; the 7th Street wing of the Patent Office was under construction, and the shaft of the Wash- ington Monument had been raised 35 feet above the base.
The progress of the schools of Washington during the period just covered was substantial but not rapid.
In 1836 Mayor Force endeavored with slight results to arouse interest in this subject. In a message dated June 27 of that year he complained that the support provided for the schools was insufficient, being only that from the interest (and increase) of the $40,000 previously provided by lotteries. "Means from
355
History of the City of Washington.
elsewhere are hardly hoped for," said Mayor Force, "and the city has no revenue to apply to their support. None of the public lots in the city, though liberally granted to Colleges in our vicinity, and to other institutions, could be obtained for the endowment of our schools."
In 1841 Mayor Seaton attempted to make the Aldermen and Councilmen realize the importance of work for education by informing them that of 5,200 children of school age in Washington, only 1,200 were in school-public and private.
The next year he advocated either an extension of the then existing system, or the adoption of the New England plan, whereby citizens were taxed for the support of the schools and all children were entered as free pupils.
Several churches attached schools to their work and appli- cations were made to the city government to give aid to certain churches to enable them to widen the scope of free education.
The indifferent attitude of the City Councils towards the schools of the city caused those interested in the cause of edu- cation to have reports made by the teachers as to the exact conditions of their schools, and these reports published and editorially commented upon, caused some interest to be aroused in citizens and officials hitherto latent. All white children between the ages of six and sixteen years were declared eligible to the schools, "to be admittd on prepayment of a tuition fee not over fifty cents a month, and furnishing their own school books," although the provision was still made that "children of indigent parents may be taught and supplied with books without charge."
The sum of $3,650 was appropriated for the purpose of building two school houses and for renting rooms suitable for such purposes.
From that time the popularity of the schools increased, and as the city's first half century drew to a close, the city councils became more liberal in providing funds for their support. By 1848 ten new primary schools had been authorized, and several
356
History of the City of Washington.
others followed in the next two years, with teachers and assistant teachers for each.
Later all charge for tuition was abolished, and a bill passed for an annual taxation of every male citizen of one dollar, to be used exclusively for the public schools, with the additional provision that the Mayor was authorized, when the school fund proved insufficient, to supply the lack from the General Fund.
The Georgetown schools continued to exist largely by indi- vidual subscriptions; but many of the original subscribers died and the burden became too heavy for those left, so the Corpora- tion finally, December 31, 1842, undertook the entire conduct of public education in its city by passing " An Ordinance establish- ing the Georgetown School."
In 1844, however, need again appears, as parents and guardians of pupils were solicited to make donations to the school.
Funds were so insufficient for the increased demands that it was decided to charge tuition, so that on July 1, 1848, it was resolved that the guardians of the Town School should be directed to charge and receive pay for all scholars whose parents or guardians were in the opinion of a majority of the Board, able to pay not exceeding $1 per month, for the general use of the school.
At the close of this year the School Board came out in debt to the amount of $153.47, which sum was appropriated by the city. The Corporation was also solicited for more ample accom- modations for the schools. This call was responded to August 11, following, by an ordinance providing "That for the purpose of procuring a house of ample dimensions for the future perma- nent accommodation of the Male and Female Free Schools, $1,200 be paid to the Methodist Episcopal Society for their pres- ent church; and that a 'sum not exceeding $800 be devoted to the expense of alteration and proper fitting up for the comfort- able accommodation of said Free Schools.' "
Columbian College had its inception in 1819 with the for- mation of a "Literary Association" which had been started in
357
History of the City of Washington.
1817 by Rev. Luther Rice, a returned Baptist Missionary. A tract of 461/2 acres was purchased at the site of the present 14th and Euclid Streets and in 1820 a building erected at a cost of $35,000. The college was chartered by Congress in February, 1821. Among those who contributed to it financially were William H. Crawford, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams and many members of Congress and residents of Washington, as well as a number of prominent Englishmen. The first President was the Rev. William Staughton, a celebrated English clergyman. The first commencement, which took place on December 15, 1824, was attended by President Monroe, several members of Congress and Cabinet officers and by General Lafayette, who was then on his celebrated visit to America. The medical department was started March 30, 1825, and held its sessions in a building at 10th and E Streets, with the exception of a five years' suspension beginning in 1834, until 1844, when Congress authorized it to use the former jail building on Judiciary Square immediately north of the City Hall which it occupied as a medical school and hospital until the breaking out of the Civil War. The law de- partment was started in February, 1826, with Judge Cranch at its head, but continued only one year and was not revived until after the Civil War.
The medical department of Georgetown University was put in effect on May, 1851.
The Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb was incor- porated on February 16, 1857, and the collegiate department with Professor E. M. Gallaudet as President was organized by Act of Congress in 1864. The site was the former estate of Amos Kendall, known as "Kendall Green."
Although Washington and Georgetown were fortunate dur- ing their early years in having the services of a number of skilled physicians and surgeons, the regulation of the practice of medi- cine does not appear to have been attempted until 1817. On September 26, of that year the Medical Society of the District of Columbia was organized with Dr. Charles Worthington as its first President. On February 16, 1819, Congress granted this society a charter which authorized it to examine and license duly
358
History of the City of Washington.
qualified physicians to practice medicine within the District of Columbia. This charter was revived in 1838. On January 4, 1833, the Washington Medical Association was formed and on June 6, 1848, the name was changed to the Medical Association of the District of Columbia, and physicians of Georgetown were admitted to membership. In 1830 the Washington Medical Institute was formed to give instruction in Medicine and in 1841 the Pathological Society was organized for the purpose of medi- cal discussions.
Homeopathy was introduced in the District of Columbia by Dr. John R. Piper, who located in Washington in 1849, and practiced here thirty years.
By an ordinance passed in 1853 one physician and one apothecary for the poor was provided for from each ward, the physicians being paid by the city.
The commerce of what is now the capital of the nation during the second quarter century of the existence of the capi- tal city, consisted mainly in that enjoyed by Georgetown.
On July 26, 1824, the inspection of tobacco, which had been the chief article of Georgetown's commerce, was removed from Loundes' warehouse to the new warehouse erected by the cor- poration. At the height of the business the shipping of tobacco to Europe from Georgetown attained in some years as much as 5,000 hogsheads. The chief tobacco merchants were the firm of Laird and Son. This firm was dissolved on the death of John Laird on July 11, 1833, and with that event the tobacco trade of the town rapidly died away.
The trade of Georgetown was not entirely confined to to- bacco, however, and it did a large importing and exporting business with every quarter of the globe. From 1815 to 1835 the value of products exported to foreign markets from Georgetown aggregated $4,077,708. From 1826 to 1835 there were shipped from that port to other American cities nearly a million barrels of flour valued at $4,710,540; 5,400 hogsheads of tobacco valued at $300,000, and other products bringing the total for this period to over $5,000,000. Up to the year
359
History of the City of Washington.
1835, goods arriving at Georgetown from both American and foreign ports reached a total valuation of $3,505,000.
Among the prominent ships which came to Georgetown were the Eagle and Shenendoah and later four ships owned by citizens of Georgetown, the Francis Depau, Southerner, Cale- donia and Catherine Jackson. These ships first appeared at Georgetown in 1836, but after several voyages were found too large and were sold.
Previous to the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Georgetown was a distributing point for the upper Maryland territory, but it lost its position with that event and did not regain its commercial prominence until the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal brought with it a large trade in the trans-shipment of Cumberland coal and other products of the upper country. From the time of the completion of this canal, the commercial history of Georgetown is in a large meas- ure identified with that of the canal.
The heavy deposit of silt in the channel of the Potomac River resulting from the cultivation of the country surround- ing the upper portions of the river and its tributaries, made its appearance in the early years of the century, and as early as 1833 it became necessary for the first time to dredge the channel. This work was done under a Congressional appropriation by the corporation of Georgetown under contract with E. and T. P. Ellicott of Baltimore, who executed the work by means of a dredging machine. The channel so cut was 4,000 feet in length, 140 feet wide, 15 feet deep at low tide and 19 feet at high tide. Previous to this excavation, the bar below Georgetown allowed at some places a depth of only 10 feet.
The second quarter century of the history of Washington is practically coterminous with the period occupied in the con- struction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal.
The difficulties incident to the navigation of the upper Potomac convinced the members of the Potomac Company in 1822 that profitable operations could be carried on only by means of a continuous canal. Accordingly, a charter for the
360
History of the City of Washington
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was obtained from the Legislature of Virginia on January 27, 1824, and on May 16, 1825, the stockholders of the Potomac Company consented to the transfer of the property rights and franchises of that com- pany to the new company in exchange for stock of the latter company. Subscription books were opened October 1, 1827. Congress and the city of Washington subscribed one million dollars each, and the cities of Georgetown and Alexandria $125,- 000 each. These with private subscriptions brought the total to $3,090,100. Ground was broken on July 4, 1828, President John Quincy Adams turning the first spadeful of earth and Mayor Gales and many other officials and citizens participating.
On July 4, 1831, the canal was completed to the first feeder at Seneca, a distance of twenty-two miles. The continuation of the work from this place to Point of Rocks was delayed by a legal contest with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad over the question of the right of way to the river bank, but the prior right of the canal company was adjudicated by the Maryland Court of Appeals on May 5, 1831.
From this point on the construction of the canal was made possible almost entirely by the financial assistance rendered by the State of Maryland. In 1835 that State loaned the canal company $2,000,000 in six per cent bonds of the State; in 1836 it made a second loan of $3,000,000 in six per cent bonds, and in 1837 a loan of $1,375,000 in five per cent bonds.
By means of these loans the canal was in 1839 completed to dam No. 6, 134 miles above Georgetown, leaving 50 miles to be completed to carry it to its intended terminus at Cumberland. At this stage the work came to a standstill for several years for lack of funds to complete it. Finally, in 1845, the State of Maryland authorized the company to issue its bonds in the amount of $1,700,000 and in order to make them salable waived the prior lien on the company's property which the State held as security for its own advances. The conditions imposed by the Maryland Legislature upon the issuance of these bonds were very onerous but they were finally negotiated by the contractors,
361
History of the City of Washington.
Messrs. Hunter, Harris and Co., who agreed to take the bonds in payment and who were compelled to suspend work on March 11, 1850, as a result of the excessive discount at which they found it necessary to sell the bonds. The work was at that time nearly completed, however, and was finished by Michael Byrne of Frederick County, Maryland, on February 17, 1851, nearly twenty-three years after its commencement.
By an act of Congress approved May 26, 1830, a charter was granted for the continuation of the canal from Georgetown to Alexandria by means of an aqueduct bridge across the Potomac at Georgetown. The work was commenced in 1833 and water was turned into the aqueduct on July 4, 1843. The cost of the aqueduct bridge was $600,000 of which Congress contributed $400,000. The canal to Alexandria with its locks cost $550,000 - more.
In 1861 the Government took possession of the aqueduct, drew off the water and used the bridge for the transportation of troops. In 1868 the aqueduct was rebuilt by lessees of the own- ing company and in 1886 it was sold to the United States Gov- ernment which replaced it with the present steel bridge constructed upon the original piers.
The census of 1850 showed the city of Washington, after a half-century's existence, with a population of 40,001; an increase of 16,635 during the preceding decade. Of this population 30,- 000 were white; about 2,100 slaves; and 7,900 free colored. Georgetown, with a population of 8,366, showed a gain of slight- ly over 1,000 in the preceding ten years. Trade in slaves in the District of Columbia after January 1, 1851, was prohibited by Act of Congress of September 20, 1850.
A graphic description of conditions in the city at the be- ginning of its second half century is furnished by Mr. James Croggon in the Fiftieth Anniversary Supplement of the Even- ing Star. "At that period," he says, "perhaps one-third of the platted avenues and streets had not been improved, and not one- fourth of the building lots; and of the reservations it may be said they existed only on paper. The lines of the latter had just
362
History of the City of Washington.
then been marked. Then the greater portion of the area was wild waste, and land, which included street beds, was fenced in and cultivated. Rhode Island Avenue was practically unknown, as was also New Hampshire Avenue, north of the "Round Tops," as the neighborhood of Washington Circle was then called. The short cut to Holmead's grave yard was known as the "Road to Holmead's," not as Connecticut Avenuc. Twentieth, 14th and 7th Streets were the only streets cut through to the Boundary, now Florida Avenue. The first was used as a road to Holmead's and Kalorama; the second, to Columbia College, the race course and cockpit; and the third connected with the turnpike to Mont- gomery County, near the old Cross Keys tavern. The entire northeastern portion of the city and much of the Navy Yard section were commons. In the unsettled portions were to be found brick kilns, slaughter houses, grave yards and a few mar- ket gardens, with not infrequently a "horse heaven," where the bodies of dead animals were left unburied to furnish prey to car- rion birds. Two squares northeast of the court house were the brick kilns and yards where had been made the bricks for the Patent Office building and two squares north of the latter were the potteries of Mr. Burnett, and two others were on the line of 7th Street, one at L Street. Milch cows were allowed to run at large, and many old residents kept them with profit, not being obliged to pay anything for their pasturage. The only mark of improvement in these parts, other than those mentioned was to be found by stumbling over, now and then, a cube of stone, mark- ed with a number, at the southeast corner of the square. Just beyond the city limits were to be found the primeval forests bro- ken by farming land. Indeed, few knew where the city ended and country commenced.
The fire companies at this time were the Union, at 19th and H Streets; the Franklin, at 14th and E; the Northern Liberties, at 8th and K; the Perseverance, at 8th and Pennsylvania Ave- nue ; the Columbia, at New Jersey Avenue and B, southeast; and the Anacostia, at 9th and K, southeast.
363
History of the City of Washington.
The city then owned four district school buildings accomo- dating about two thousand pupils. The building of the first district was in a remodeled stable opposite the old Foundry Church at 14th and G Streets; the second district building was a two story brick at 5th and F Streets; the third district build- ing at 3d and D, southeast, and the fourth district building at 6th and D, southwest, were also of brick.
While the public schools during the first half century of the city's existence received appropriations from time to time from the public funds, the establishment of the special school tax au- thorized by the new charter of 1848 was practically contempor- aneous with the beginning of the second half century. It was provided for by act of the City Councils of May 22, 1848 levying a school tax of one dollar upon every free white male citizen of . twenty-one years of age. The Board of School trustees provided for by ordinance of November 12, 1858, consisted of three mem- bers from each of the four school districts and had practically unrestricted powers in the matter of fixing the courses of study and appointing teachers.
Private institutions of learning at that time included the Washington Seminary, now Gonzaga College, located on F Street between 9th and 10th; St. Joseph's Academy for girls, at 9th and F Streets; Rittenhouse Academy on Indiana Avenue near 3d Street ; the Rugby Academy, at 14th and K Streets; the Union Academy at 14th and New York Avenue; McLeod's Academy, on 9th Street between G and H; the Emerson Institute on H be- tween 12th and 13th; the Central Academy at 10th and E and Mrs. Burr's Academy on H near 13th.
Four markets supplied the city with food products, the corner grocery being then little known. The Center or Marsh Market was a small brick building from which two long sheds extended east and west; the Western Market, at Pennsylvania Avenue and 20th Street, had recently been rebuilt of brick ; the Northern Liberty Market was at 7th and K Streets, and the Navy Yard, or Eastern Branch Market, was at 5th and K Streets, southeast.
364
History of the City of Washington.
From Mr. Sessford's annals and other accounts of the times it is to be gathered that a number of machine shops, foundries, and lumber mills were in operation. One of the important in- dustrial plants of the period was the yard for the construction of steam vessels established by George Page in 1851 at the foot of 7th Street. Here were built the Champion, the Jennie Lind, the William Selden and a ferry for the Alexandria run. In September, 1851, Page tested the speed of the Selden in a race with a New York built boat, the George Washington, from Piney Point to the city. The Selden won by ten miles, making the run in five hours and forty-six minutes, a record which would be considered remarkable at this date.
With the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1851, an extensive source of power was available to Georgetown through the utilization of the water of the canal which there had a head 33 feet above the river. This power was employed mainly in the manufacture of flour, the grain being brought to the mills in the boats operating on the canal. The mills of David L. Shoemaker, F. L. Moore, Beall and Shoemaker, Wil- liam H. Tenney & Sons; James S. Welch, George Shoemaker, Ross Ray & Brother and A. H. Herr had an aggregate capacity of from 150 to 300 barrels of flour per day, the shipments from Georgetown sometimes reaching 300,000 barrels per year. The flourishing condition of the Georgetown flour trade and the popularity of the Georgetown brands was largely the result of the intelligent inspection and grading of the product by George Shoemaker, who annually for 49 years was elected flour inspec- tor for the town.
In addition to the flour mills on the canal was Bomford's cotton factory equipped with 100 looms and 3,007 spindles, and employing in the neighborhood of a hundred persons. In 1865 a paper mill was established by George Hill, Jr., at the foot of Potomac Street.
In 1851 the diminutive brick depot of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at 2d Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, with its car shed extending north along the bank of Tiber Creek, which
365
History of the City of Washington.
flowed nearly south at this point, was abandoned, and the new station established at New Jersey Avenue and C Street, an event which necessitated a considerable amount of street grading in the neighborhood of the new depot. In 1855 this depot was connected with the north end of the Long Bridge by tracks on 1st Street and Maryland Avenue. The following year the Wash- ington and Alexandria Railroad was completed from Alexandria to the south end of the Long Bridge, and an omnibus service carrying passengers across the bridge was inaugurated, connect- ing the two lines of railroad.
Passengers and mail for Fredericksburg, Richmond and other southern points were transferred from the 11th Street wharf to the railroad terminus at Aquia Creek by a line of steamers including the Baltimore, Powhatan and Augusta.
Between Washington and Alexandria were at all times two or more steamers making five or six round trips daily, with the fare a "levy" or 121/2 cents. Among the steamers on this run were the Phoenix, Joe Johnson, Tom Collyer, George Page and Union.
The Columbia made weekly trips to Baltimore, stopping at way points, and the Osceola made semi-weekly trips to Norfolk. The Tom Collyer carried excursions to Mount Vernon, and once each week the Columbia took excursions as far as Indian Head. Two small steamers, the G. W. P. Custis and Arlington Belle, carried picnics to Arlington Spring where Mr. Custis had thrown open his grounds to the public.
In September, 1859, the New York and Washington Screw Steamship Company placed the Steamer Mt. Vernon upon a regular run between New York and Washington. This vessel continued to make her trips until the outbreak of the Civil War, when she was sold to the Government.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.