Georgetown

By Canden Schwantes

The images in this collection capture the diverse history of Georgetown.

Georgetown, a thriving neighborhood in the nation's capital, was established in 1751 as an independent city. As the land to its east was being developed into Washington, DC, the once sleepy river town grew and evolved. George Washington's adopted descendants lived down the street from where Kennedy lived before Camelot; Julia Child walked past the home of Robert Todd Lincoln; and a successful community of free black Americans was built around the corner from what had previously been a slave market. Georgetown depicts the history of a community whose roots span far beyond the prestigious university and upper-class neighborhood for which it is known. The images capture mansions and slums, thriving businesses and crumbling facades, an industrial revolution, and the closing of the C&O Canal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439648315

Canden Schwantes

Canden Schwantes (now Arciniega) has been a historian and tour guide in Washington, D.C., for more than a decade. She has published three other books about D.C. history, as well as numerous articles. She has been featured on the Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, BBC, NPR and local news discussing D.C. history and tourism. Her company, Free Tours by Foot, operates worldwide, but her home and heart is in D.C.

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INTRODUCTION

Georgetown has a varied history of successful industries and wealthy residents, from its founding as a tobacco inspection port to its days in the mid-20th century filled with the downtrodden and slums.

Before the arrival of Europeans in the area, the Anacostian tribe lived here, along the Potomac River near Rock Creek in the town of Tohoga. One of the first persons to document these natives and the landscape was Capt. John Smith, of the incorrectly attributed Pocahontas fame, who sailed down the Potomac River. The fertile soil he noted was ideal for the settlement of the New World, and many Scottish and German immigrants claimed this as home.

There was already a tobacco trade and warehouses along the river in what became the town of George. Founded in 1751, the small port town’s original boundaries only extended north from the river a few blocks to Gay Street, now N Street NW. In fact, one of the original boundary stones can still be found in the backyard of the Laird-Dunlop House, on N Street NW. The western and eastern boundaries have remained static. The heights, where the university stands, marks the western edge, and, in the east, Georgetown is bounded by Rock Creek.

These limited boundaries had little effect on the colloquial naming of neighborhoods. Historic records seem to vary on where Georgetown was exactly. Homes that are currently on Georgetown lots were labeled as Tennellytown on maps, even when they were not at all near what is now considered Tenleytown today. During the Civil War, even Meridian Hill Park, north of the White House, was considered part of Georgetown Heights. When the town was in its prime, the outskirts claimed the name.

There is not a historical consensus regarding for which George the town was named. It may have been to honor King George II of England, since Maryland was still a colony at the time. Alternatively, the two previous owners of the land were George Gordon and George Beall. Beall did not necessarily support the development of a government-sponsored tobacco inspection port or its community commandeering his property. Since he had little choice in the matter, perhaps the prospect of financial compensation, a plot of land in the new town, and the honor of naming the city were considered fair consolation. The properties of the two George’s were originally deeded as Knave’s Disappointment and the Rock of Dumbarton. Georgetown was a much better-suited name to coexist with all the Williamsburgs and Jamestowns along the East Coast.

When the government was looking for a new place to settle after the Revolutionary War, Georgetown was an ideal place to begin. It had an established community, complete with taverns and boardinghouses for the commissioners to stay in as the district plans were laid out. As an added benefit for George Washington, who was given no money by Congress to fund the development of DC, Georgetown had expendable income. Supported by deep pockets, Georgetown residents invested in this new symbol of American independence on the condition that their community be included. What is now the District of Columbia, along the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch (Anacostia River), was originally the shape of a diamond to include both port towns of Georgetown and Alexandria. Each was able to keep its independence and operated autonomously apart from the newly built city of Washington.

As the tobacco industry continued to prosper, so did the residents, resulting in grander homes and an expanding town as the successful merchants carried Georgetown into its heyday. Like most of the cities at the time, Georgetown’s grand mansions were often built on the backs, literally and figuratively, of slaves. It was not long after the charter was written that a slave trade was opened in the area. A century later, at the time of the abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia, in 1862, Georgetown had a sizeable black American population of both slaves and freedmen. The northwest corner of Georgetown, known as Herring Hill, became an established community of freedmen with its own shops, lawyers, and schools.

The tobacco industry continued to grow until it was stunted by a continuously silted Potomac River. The trade relied on the river, and without the ability to navigate it, a creative solution was found in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The canal connected Georgetown to Cumberland, Maryland, allowing coal, salt, and, of course, tobacco to be carted in and out of the city. The canal was a staple of the community, and it even formed its own when families began to move into houseboats on the water. The business venture of the C&O Canal was never prosperous as a whole. It did, however, have a sizeable effect on continuing Georgetown’s trade, especially considering that the Potomac River was no longer a viable option. Though beneficial for the area, the advent of the railroad and the connection of Georgetown to DC via the Q