Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-18
NEED OF GEORGETOWN
IRON BRIDGE OVER ROCK CREEK
AT @ STREET
Desirability Of More Suitable APP
proach to Residence Section Shown
In Petition to Congress.

The needs of Georgetown are set forth in
small pamphlet that has been prepared
for distribution. In this pamphlet the his
tory of Georgetown is reviewed and its
needs for improvements are outlined.
This pamphlet was given to the Senate
committee on the District in connection
with the petition for a bridge across Rock
creek at @ street which was presented by
Miss Louisa Rittenhouse last week on the
representation of over 200 women of the
District, signers Of the petition. The pam
phlet is as follows:
when in 1851 the legislature of Maryland
appointed commissioners to lay out town
on the banks Of the Potomac" tho paper
states. they chose the most beautiful site
in what is now the District. There hand
some homes sprang up. and in 1889. when
GEORGETOWN was incorporated and Robert
Peter ESQ.,. appointed mayor. charming
social life was already established and fine
mansions adorned the heights.
"On the 3Oth OF March. 1871. the procla-
nation fixing the seat of government of the
United States was issued from Georgetown,
the concluding paragraph Of which I'm
portant record reads:
In testimony whereof I have caused
the seal of the United States to be affixed
by these present and sign the same with
my hand. Done at Georgetown aforesaid
the 9Oth day of March, in the year OF our
Lord 1871. in the Independence of the United
States the fifteenth.
by the President,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
'.At this time. too, Thomas Twining,
noted Englishman, visited Georgetown and
wrote OF 1t.
His famous prophecy in regard to the
United States has been fully realized, but
takes on new interest in the present devel-
opment The infancy of America was full
of freshness and vigor, ana hao alreaoy
discovered the gigantic proportions of her
future state. The stars Of her constella-
ton had but recently appeared above the
horizon; but, increasing in number, eleva-
ton and splendor. they vii hereafter shine
to the most distant kingdoms of the earth.
1t is country Astounding with genius, en-
ergy and enterprise, whose infant years have
produced O. Washington, a Franklin and
Jefferson: whose Improvement IN the most
important arts of life is advancing with an
impulse unexampled in the history of any
people.
Where the Distinguished Lived.
And it was during this period of infancy
that Georgetown gave friendly shelter to
the builders Of the young republic. The
tract of ten miles square chosen as seat
for the nations capital city included George
town In its boundaries, and Its refined and
distinguished social life made q stable back
ground for the floating society which gov
ment brought after 1900 to Washington
Senators, representatives, secretaries ana
visitors all sought Georgetown as home.
and until the fiat went forth requiring
foreign ministers to reside In the actual
limits Of the governmental city, they were
regularly established In Georgetown. All
sorts of stories cling to various old places.
from these transient residents. Affairs OF
state social sentimental, political, their
name is legion, but they are ghosts of the
past AS the beautiful plan of L'Enfant
for the city of George Washington's dreams
was developed, public improvements con-
Centrated nearer the center and no new
ways of communication were opened to
give vent to the growing needs of the older
section. There for many years houses were
more than streets. gardens and trees a
necessity as setting for homes, but Of late
the trees have been sacrificed to the builder
and picturesque Rock creek to the Scartf-
ca ton of the dump.
Ugly Approaches to Georgetown.
1.-The ugly slovenly approaches to George
town have been endured with more or less
undisguised Impotence for nearly a genera
ticn Taxed at an equal rate with the rest
Of the capital city since 1871, Georgetown
has lost it's corporate responsibility without
gaining the greater advantages of civic de-
Velopment What was once the court end
of the District is now isolated by unsight-
ly means of communication and absolutely
without a park, and the women OF the
District, nine-tenths of them property own
ers, alive to the needs of the rising genera
ton have united to petition from tho hands
over Rock creek connecting Q street, taste
fully parked at Its approaches. its banks
redeemed by. paintings OF laurel and rho
-dodendron sins order to- secure an entranee
from the possibility Of encroaching build