Topic

1790s

Washington was barely a city in the 1790s. The decade opened with L’Enfant laying out his grand plan for the federal capital and closed with the government finally picking up stakes from Philadelphia and moving in. These posts cover the founding years, from the placement of the boundary stones to the earliest buildings that defined the city.

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Detail of the 1932 map around Washington, Alexandria, Mount Vernon, Baltimore and Annapolis, with red routes and Roman numerals

Map of George Washington’s Travels: National Geographic, 19322 min read

A 1932 National Geographic map letters every town George Washington visited in red, from Savannah, Georgia, to Kittery, Maine. Here is how to read it.

Why Is There No J Street in Washington, DC?7 min readBest OfEpisode

Washington’s streets run H, I, K. The John Jay grudge story is a modern myth. The first engraved map already skipped J in 1792, and nobody wrote down why.

David Burnes cottage, the farmhouse of one of the original proprietors of Washington, with the Washington Monument behind it, photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston

Who Owned the Land That Became Washington, DC?12 min readBest OfEpisode

In March 1791, George Washington talked the Maryland farmers and planters who owned the future capital into signing their land over in trust.

1906 map showing the original boundary milestones of the District of Columbia

Washington DC Boundary Stones: The 40 Original Markers Ellicott and Banneker Set in 179110 min readBest Of

The 40 sandstone markers Ellicott and Banneker planted in 1791 and 1792 still stand at the original corners of Washington, D.C. Here is where to find them.

Photo shows historic boarding house, also called Eastern Branch Hotel, on the south side of Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. (Source: Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1904, v. 7, p. 79)

Tunnicliff’s Tavern: The Real Story of Washington D.C.’s First Hotel7 min read

In 1796 an Englishman named William Tunnicliff opened the first hotel in Washington, D.C., a brick house on Pennsylvania Avenue SE that survived for 135 years. The place we call Tunnicliff’s Tavern today on 7th Street SE borrows the name. The original is something else entirely.

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1860s photograph of the US Capitol with the Washington City Canal in the foreground

Before It Was Washington, D.C., This Land Was Called Rome4 min readBest Of

The land beneath Washington, DC was once a Maryland plantation called Rome, owned by a man named Francis Pope.

Truxton Circle: DC’s Lost Traffic Circle and Its Naval Hero7 min read

Truxton Circle lost its namesake traffic roundabout in 1947, but the story of how it got that name reaches back to the founding of the U.S. Navy and Commodore Thomas Truxtun, one of the most celebrated officers of the early republic.

View of Washington from Georgetown in 1801

A Foreigner’s Impressions of Washington in 18014 min readBest Of

Cows in the streets and woods all around. Traveler John Davis saw Washington in March 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was sworn in at the half-built Capitol.

How Centreville, Virginia, Got Its Name2 min read

Before it was Centreville, the village was called Newgate. Its new name reflected its location among Northern Virginia’s towns.

Monument ("Washington Monument"), Washington, D.C. Rendered perspective

Washington Monument Almost Built As Pyramid1 min read

What if the Washington Monument was built as a pyramid instead of an obelisk? It could have been if this design came to fruition.

Arlington County Map From the 18th Century1 min read

How cool is this? A Library of Congress map showing Arlington County as it looked in the 18th century, plus a link on why it’s named Arlington.

Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t[he] United States : projected agreeable to the direction of the President of the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed on the sixteenth day of July, MDCCXC, "establishing the permanent seat on the bank of the Potowmac"

A Plan for the Federal City on the Potomac1 min read

This map lays out the proposed federal city under the act of Congress establishing a permanent capital on the Potomac.

Cadastral survey map of Charles Carroll Jr.'s land in central Washington D.C. in 1793

1793 Map of Carroll Family Land in Washington1 min read

What did the land in and around Washington look like at the end of the 18th century? This map shows the Carroll family land in what would grow into DC.

Territory of Columbia on an Early Map of Maryland1 min read

The Territory of Columbia and City of Washington, surrounded by Maryland, on a map dated June 20th, 1794, engraved by J. Thackara & J. Vallance.

Message of President John Adams nominating George Washington to be Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of the Armies raised or to be raised in the United States

President John Adams’ Letter Naming George Washington Lieutenant General1 min read

President John Adams’ letter nominating George Washington of Mount Vernon as Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of All the Armies of the United States.

1801 view of Georgetown and the new Federal City of Washington on the Potomac

Why Is It Called the District of Columbia?3 min readBest Of

On September 9, 1791, three commissioners named the federal district the Territory of Columbia, for Columbus, and the federal city the City of Washington.

A 1795 Plan of the City of Washington1 min read

The map follows Andrew Ellicott’s earlier official plan for the capital.

View of the suburbs of the city of Washington

George Isham Parkyns’s Views of Washington in the 1790s1 min read

Prints by George Isham Parkyns show Washington’s outskirts and the Potomac in the mid-1790s.

President's Palace design by John Collins

How the White House Got Its Name2 min read

The presidential residence carried several names before “White House” became official during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

Digital reconstruction showing the Capitol’s two wings and low connecting building amid open land.

The Capitol in 1814: What It Looked Like Before the British Burned It1 min read

UMBC’s Imaging Research Center produced a visualization of what the Capitol looked like in 1814, just before the British burned it.

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