Existing comment:
Anacostia:
In the early 1850s, as the central portions of Washington City began to fill in, the land across the Eastern Branch once again became the subject of interest by investors and speculators, Some farmers sold their property in small lots (less than 50 acres) to wealthy families to build summer homes in the area. Other landowners, some of whom worked at the Navy Yard, sold portions of all of their property to developers. They realized that the land was more valuable for housing and residential development than for raising crops. Also, by this time it was clear that the Eastern Branch could not sustain heavy sea-going vessels, and thus could not serve as a major shipping route.
In 1854, Enoch Tucker, who worked at the Navy Yard and had earlier leased his land to sharecroppers, sold 100 acres of his 240-acre property, part of the old Chichester land tract, to the Union Land Association. Controlled by John Van Hook, John Fox, and John Dobler, the association divided Chichester into a grid with 700 rectangular lots 24 feet wide and 130 feet deep. Early advertisement for the newly created Uniontown promoted easy access to downtown Washington and quotes and payment plans affordable to blue collar workers. The association sold lots to white families for as low as $3 per month. White Good Hope and other locations in the area were hilly, Uniontown's flat, even terrain allowed for the maximum amount of development. H.A. Griswold, an Anacostia resident, organized the Anacostia and Potomac River Street Railroad Company, which began operations in 1875. Initial stockholders included John Van Hook and Lewis Douglass, Frederick Douglass's son. The company began with two one-horse cars providing service from the Navy Yard gate to Uniontown.
By the outbreak of the Civil War, however, Uniontown had experience little growth, due to reduced hiring by the Navy Yard and other nearby employers and the sale of low cost properties in Washington City. By the late 1870s, the Union Land Association (by then the Union Land Company) had failed; and the Anacostia and Potomac River Street Railroad Company struggled to survive. John Van Hook was forced to sell his grand home, Cedar Hill, to satisfy his debtors. In 1877, Frederick Douglass bought the Cedar Hill estate and brought his family to live there. |