WASHINGTON, 1810-1815
An interesting account of Washington during this period is given
by David Baillie Warden in his book entitled “A Description of the
District of Columbia,” published in Paris in 1816, and dedicated to
Mrs. George Washington Parke Custis. He states:
It is scarcely possible to imagine a situation more beautiful,
healthy and convenient than of Washington. The gentle undulated
surface throws the water into such various directions, as affords
the most agreeable assemblage. The rising hills, on each side of the
Potomac, are truly picturesque; and as the river admits the largest
frigates, their sails, gliding through the majestic trees which adorn
its banks, complete the scenery.
The city extends from northwest to southeast about four miles and a
half, and from northeast to southwest about two miles and a half. The
public buildings occupy the most elevated and convenient situations,
to which the waters of the Tiber Creek may be easily conducted, as
well as to every other part of the city, not already watered by
springs.
The streets run from north to south, and from east to west, crossing
each other at right angles, with the exception of fifteen, that point
to the State of which each bears the name. The capitol commands the
streets called the Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania avenues;
the President’s House, those of Vermont, New York, and Connecticut;
and all these different intersections form eleven hundred and fifty
squares. The Pennsylvania Street, or avenue, which stretches in a
direct line from the President’s house to the capitol, is a mile
in length, and a hundred and sixty feet in breadth. That of the
narrowest streets is from ninety to a hundred feet, which will give
a fine appearance to the city; but in a region where the summer sun
is so intensely hot, and the winter winds so severely cold, narrow
streets, affording shade and shelter, would be of great utility.
The plan of the city of which we have prefixed an engraving (There is
a plan by Major L’Enfant, engraved at the expence of the Government,
on the scale of a hundred poles to an inch), is universally admired.
The most eligible places have been selected for public squares and
public buildings. The capitol is situated on a rising ground, which
is elevated about eighty feet above the tide-water of the Potomac.
This edifice will present a front of six hundred and fifty feet, with
a colonade of two hundred and sixty feet, and sixteen Corinthian
columns thirty-one feet and a half in height. The elevation of the
dome is a hundred and fifty feet * * *.
The President’s house consists of two stories, and is a hundred and
seventy feet in length, and eighty-five feet in breadth. It resembles
Leinster-House in Dublin. * * * The view from the windows fronting
the river is extremely beautiful.
The Public Offices, the Treasury, Department of State, and of War,
are situated in a line with, and at the distance of four hundred
and fifty feet from the President’s House. These buildings, of two
stories, have a hundred and twenty feet in front, sixty in breadth,
and sixteen feet in height, and are ornamented with a white stone
basement, which rises six or seven feet above the surface. It was
originally proposed to form a communication between these offices and
the house of the president, a plan which was afterwards abandoned.
The Jail consists of two stories, and is a hundred by twenty-one feet.
The Infirmary is a neat building.
There are three commodious Market-places built at the expence of the
corporation.
The public buildings at the Navy Yard are the barracks, a work-shop,
and three large brick buildings for the reception of naval stores.
The Barracks, constructed of brick, are six hundred feet in
length, fifty in breadth, and twenty in height. At the head of the
Barrack-yard is the Colonel’s house, which is neat and commodious.
The Workshop, planned by Latrobe, is nine hundred feet in length.
The Patent Office, constructed according to the plan of J. Hoban,
esquire (who gained the prize for that of the President’s house)
consists of three stories, and is a hundred and twenty feet long,
and sixty feet wide. It is ornamented with a pediment, and six Ionic
pilasters. From the eminence (This eminence has the shape of a
tortoise-shell) on which it stands, the richly-wooded hills rise on
every side, and form a scenery of unequaled beauty. It was erected by
Mr. Blodgett to serve as a public hotel * * *. In 1810 this edifice
was purchased by the government.--Dr. Thornton, director.
In the summer of 1814 this metropolis was taken possession of by
an English naval and land force, which set fire to the Capitol,
President’s house, Public Offices, and Navy Yard. The loss sustained
was $1,215,111.
Two of the luxuries of life, pine-apples and ice, are found at
Washington at a cheap rate. The former, imported from the West
Indies, are sold at twenty-five cents each. The latter article is
purchased, throughout the summer, at half a dollar per bushel. * * *
It is deeply to be regretted, that the government or corporation did
not employ some means for the preservation of the trees which grew
on places destined for the public walks. How agreeable would have
been their shade along the Pennsylvania Avenue where the dust so
often annoys, and the summer sun, reflected from the sandy soil, is
so oppressive. The Lombardy poplar, which now supplies their place,
serves more for ornament than shelter.
Water may be distributed to any part of Washington from several fine
springs, and also from the Tiber Creek, the source of which is 236
feet above the level of the tide in the same stream. * * *
The canal, which runs through the centre of the city, commencing at
the mouth of Tiber Creek, and connecting the Potomac with its eastern
branch, is nearly completed. Mr. Law (Brother to Lord Ellenborough)
the chief promoter of this undertaking, proposes to establish
packet-boats to run between the Tiber Creek and the Navy-Yard--a
conveyance which may be rendered more economical and comfortable than
the hackney-coach. This canal is to be navigable for boats drawing
three feet of water.
The population of the territory of Columbia, in 1810, amounted
to 24,023. That of the city was 8,208; of Georgetown, 4,948; of
Alexandria, 7,227.
On August 24, 1814, the British arrived in Washington at about 6
o’clock in the evening. That night they burned the Capitol, the
President’s House, the Treasury, State and Navy Department Buildings,
and a number of private houses on Capitol Hill. The flames could
be seen from the Francis Scott Key mansion at Georgetown. Several
wagonloads of valuable documents had been taken a few days previously
from the State Department to Leesburg, Va., 35 miles northwest of
Washington, to a place of safety.
The British also intended to burn the Patent Office, but Commissioner
Thornton met them boldly, saying: “Are you Englishmen or Goths and
vandals? This is the Patent Office, the depository of the ingenuity of
the American Nation, in which the whole civilized world is interested.
Would you destroy it? If so, fire away and let the charge pass through
my body.” The British allowed it to remain and withdrew.
Mrs. Dolly Madison, having secured such property from the White House
as could be carried, including the Gilbert Stuart portrait of General
Washington, which she cut from the frame, went through Georgetown and
that night slept in a camp of soldiers with a guard about her tent.
Later the President, who had taken refuge in a tavern near McLean,
in Virginia, joined Mrs. Madison. The southwest end of the bridge
over which they had crossed the Potomac--it was then a pile bridge 1
mile long--was burned, and they were thereupon required to make their
return to Washington by boat. The residence of the President was then
established at the Octagon House at Eighteenth Street and New York
Avenue. In 1815 the residence of the President was removed to the
“Seven Buildings,” at the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and
Nineteenth Street, one of the early homes of the Department of State.
Here it remained until the Executive Mansion was restored, March, 1817.
After the withdrawal of the British the Blodgett Hotel building,
acquired for the use of the Patent Office, was for a time occupied by
Congress for its sessions. Later Congress moved into a building at
First and A Streets NE., known later as the Old Capitol Building and
used during the Civil War as a military prison.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON, FROM THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, 1830]
[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND, LATER KNOWN AS
“CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY”
SHOWING CENOTAPHS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IN EARLY
DAYS]