Evening star., 1909-04-27
HELPED LAY OUT WASHINGTON
MAJ. ELLICOTT ASSISTED IN
L'ENFANT'S PLANS.
Entitled to Large Share Of Credit for
the Work-Celebration
Here Tomorrow.

BALTIMORE. April 27-It was Maj.
Andrew Ellicott, a collateral ancestor of
William M. Ellicott, to whom a large
part of the credit Of laying out Washing
ton as the National capital Is due, accord
Ing to official documents quoted in BIZ
ography Of Maj. Ellicott. which are in the
possession Of Mr.. Ellicott.
Mr.. Ellicott, as a recognition of the
prominent part his ancestor played, has
been appointed by the President as the
delegate from Baltimore Of the Ameri-
can Institute of Architects to attend the
celebration to be held in Maj. LEnfant's
honor in Washington tomorrow.
According to the statements made in
the biography, after President Washing
ton had chosen the site on the Potomac
and had been empowered by Congress
July 16. 1880, to make the final selection
Of a tract ten miles square. including
Georgetown, Md. and Alexandria. Va,
Maj. LEnfant was chosen to lay out the
proposed Capital city.
Requested to Begin Survey.
"The survey of the ten miles square
being the most immediate necessity, Feb
ruary /, 1901, Maj. Ellicott was requested
by Mr.. Jefferson, at Gen. Washington's 8
suggestion, to go Immediately to George
town and commence the survey the BIZ
ography says. MIR. Jefferson's letter in
forms Maj. Ellicott that he is desired
to proceed by the first stage to the fed
erai territory on the Potomac for the pur-
pose of making survey of it With his
accustomed promptness Maj. Ellicott set
out at once"
The Importance Of the part which Maj
following quotation from letter from
Mr.. Jefferson to Maj. L'Enfant:
Proceed to Georgetown, where you will
find Mr.. Ellicott employed In making a
survey and map of the federal territory.
The special object in asking your
aid Is to have drawings Of the particular
grounds most likely to be approved for
the site of the federal town and the build
ings. You will, therefore, be pleased to
begin on the Eastern branch and proceed
ing the whole with certain fixed points on
the map Mr.. Ellicott is preparing"
OF Uncommon Talents.
When the trouble between Maj Len
FAINT and the commissioners appointed by
the President reached climax President
Washington wrote that he had heard
with degree of surprise and con-
Germ that Maj. L'Enfant had refused the
map Of the federal city when it was re-
quested by the commissioners 1t
is much to be regretted, however common
the case, that men who possess talents
which fit them for peculiar purposes
should almost invariably be under the inf1u-
ence Of an untoward disposition. :
But I did not expect to have met with
such perverseness in Maj. L'Enfant as his
late conduct exhibited.
In this same letter Gen. Washington
characterizes Mai. Ellicott as "a man of
uncommon talents and Of a more
placid temper" It.was in March of this
year that LEnfant was dismissed, and
the brunt Of the work fell upon Mai
Ellicott
One of the last papers quoted in the
chapter Of Maj. Ellicott's life Is that Of
Gen. Washington, who wrote:
Altered L'Enfant's Plans.
"That many alterations have been made
from L'Enfant's plan by Maj. Ellicott,
with the appreciation of the executive is
not to be denied. That some were
deemed essential Is avowed, and had it
not been for the material which he hap
pened to possess it Is probable that no
engraving from LEnfants drafts ever
would have been exhibited to the public
for after the disagreement took place be-
tween him and the commissioners his
obstinacy threw every difficulty In the
way of its accomplishment. Mr.. Davidson
is mistaken If he supposes that the trans
mission Of L L'Enfants plan to Congress
was the completion thereof; so far from
1t, 1t was only given as a matter of in
formation to show what state the busi-
ness was in.''
'1t Is not necessary to seek to detract
in any way from the originality and ac-
knowledged brilliance of Mai LEnfant's
plan In order to prove of what paramount
importance Maj. Ellicott's completion of
1t was toward the accomplishment of the