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The Formation of the District of Columbia and its Shifting Boundaries

In 1789, Congress authorized President George Washington to select a location for the new National Capital. In 1790, the site was selected. The original District was a 10-mile square, created from land ceded by the states of Maryland and Virginia. The flag of the District of Columbia was based upon George Washington's ancestors' coat of arms.

Before the Federal City was built, the Washington DC area was sparsely populated, consisting primarily of large agricultural holdings, forests, meadows and marshland. Contrary to popular belief, Washington was not a swamp, although there were many swampy and marshy areas.

"Alexandria, D.C." -- 1791-1846

The portion ceded by Maryland is the current District of Columbia. The Virginia portion was "retroceded" to Virginia in 1846. This included what is currently Arlington County and the older part of the City of Alexandria. Before the District of Columbia was created, these areas were in Fairfax County (before Fairfax County was created, it was part of Prince William County.) Alexandria was founded in 1748 by the sons of area landowner John Alexander, along with several other trustees of English descent, including Lawrence Washington. Alexandria became the major town in Fairfax County, and was the county seat until the town became absorbed by the Federal District in 1791.

Alexandria residents had played a prominent role in getting the Federal City located here. In 1789, a committee of ten men from Alexandria and Georgetown published a broadside listing the commercial advantages of the Potomac River region. The legislation creating the "Columbian District" passed Congress on July 10, 1790. Initially, it did not include Alexandria, but the Act was subsequently amended in February 1791. The first boundary stone of the District of Columbia was laid in Alexandria, at Jones Point, in a grandiose ceremony attended by the mayor and leading citizens of Alexandria.

Although Alexandria had managed to get its way by being included in the Federal District in the 1791 amendments to the Act, the compromise struck by Congress specifically prohibited Federal public buildings from being built on the south side of the Potomac. This stifled development on the south bank, causing Alexandria to look more toward Virginia for its trading relationships, and eventually leading to the area's retrocession to Virginia in 1846.

If you are looking for ancestors who lived in Alexandria or Arlington, you will not find them in the Virginia census for 1790-1840. Look in the DC census instead. By the same token, if you find ancestors in "Alexandria, DC" and are seeking to trace them back beyond 1791, you should look first in the public records of Fairfax County..

"Georgetown, Maryland" -- 1751-1790

Before the District was created in 1790, the Maryland portion (what is now DC) was in Montgomery County, MD from 1776 - 1790. Prior to 1776, it was in Frederick County, MD. Until the Federal City was built, the port of Georgetown was the only major town within the current DC boundaries, with the port of Alexandria on the other side of the Potomac. The Town of George was founded in 1751 by George Beall and George Gordon. Although the town of Frederick was the county seat of Frederick County, Georgetown rapidly grew to rival and surpass it in size. When Montgomery County was created, Georgetown became the county seat.

Georgetown was a thriving tobacco port, attracting new settlers from around the region and from overseas. In the early days, Rock Creek was navigable to a certain extent and there were wharves on either side of its mouth, as well as along the river front area, named "Wapping" after the London Docklands. Residents living in what now constitutes DC were either living in Georgetown, or in various small hamlets scattered around the area, or on large farms. Early landowners included the Beall Family, the Carroll family, and David Byrnes, whose farm was located on the land which was to become the area around the White House.

Anyone researching Georgetown relatives prior to 1790 should look in the records of Montgomery County, and before 1776, in the records of Frederick County. This can cause confusion, as modern-day Frederick County is rather far from Washington. For example, I had originally assumed that an late 18th-early 19th century resident of Georgetown must have moved to the town from either the town of Frederick, Maryland, or the rural areas surrounding it, as I found him on the Frederick County, Maryland muster rolls for the Revolutionary War. It turned out HE had not moved, the county boundaries had. He was already comfortably ensconced in Georgetown!

Apart from Georgetown, the rest of the modern-day District was sparsely populated in early days. The area that comprises most of today's DC was farmland, with a handful of large estates owned by major landowners such as the Carroll's of "Duddington," a large landholding that occupied what is now Capitol Hill. There were several small settlements and villages, such as the one in the environs of Rock Creek Cemetery, where St. Paul's Episcopal church was built in the 1770's on the site of a previous church built in 1712.

From 1790-1871, Georgetown was an independent city within the District of Columbia, styled as Georgetown, D.C., (as distinct from Washington, D.C. or Alexandria., D.C.) In that year, Georgetown was absorbed by the City of Washington. For several years, Georgetown continued to retain the original street names of the old tobacco port, but these were eventually changed to harmonize with L'Enfant's plan of numbered streets running perpendicular to the river, lettered streets running parallel to the river, and broad avenues named after the states radiating from a series of circles and running at diagonals. Thus, Bridge and Falls Streets became M St., Water and High Streets became Wisconsin Ave., and the like.