Evening star., 1925-10-25

I'D you ever think of the
names OF the various sec
tions of the city and Won
- der who named them and
when? Strangers frequently
comment on the place names OF the
District of Columbia and speculate as
to their origin, while residents here
use them daily without pausing to
realize how much of the history and
progress of the District they repre-
sent. Yet az one learns the deriva-
tions of the names of the localities
and streets here the whole develop
ment and growth of the city IS un
rolled.
First are seen the earliest explorers,
adventurers like Capt. John Smith
and Capt. Henry Fleet. In 1908 Smith
came up the Potomac and visited
the Indian village of 'Nacotchtant"
just below the Eastern Branch. This
Indian word is believed to mean
trading place" Capt. Henry Fleet
Jesuits later slightly latinized it tc
"Anacostia,' which name has been
applied to the settlement across the
Eastern Branch of the river for three
hundred years.
Gradually the country hereabouts
was occupied by the Europeans and
patents covering lands were taken
out. In Maryland in those days each
! man applying for a land patent not
only gave a description of the land
but also filed a name by which it was
entered on the records. These names
We're chosen by the patentee at will,
and some are most amusing. Many
of these names have been, with the
passing years. completely obliterated
from common recollection but others
are still in use.
~f,-..
Hospital for the Insane. on the hills
beyond Anacostia, is so called because
located on est. Elizabeth's", under
which name that tract was patented
in 1868. "Giesborough" (as the old
spelling has it,, where ordnance sup
plies were manufactured during the
last war, was granted in 1868 also,
while Blue Plains dates to 1862
The most familiar of the old land
patent names is that of Mount Pleas
ant which was given to this locality
when an older grant was re-surveyed
soon after 100. Probably few resi-
dents of that tranquil section of homes
at the end of the Mount Plea SAINT" car
line realize that the name of their 10
cality antedates by nearly hundred
years that Of the City of Washington,
which has now engulfed it.
Other grants We're Friendship" to
/
in 1713; and Rock of Dumbarton," in
1701 to Ninian Beall. The former
name is used not only as a designa-
tion of the suburb near the District
! line on the Rockville road, but is also
the name of Edward McLeans beauti-
! full estate on Wisconsin avenue.
/ y x X
THERE is considerable dispute as to
| who should have the honor Of
being the godfather of Georgetown.
| 1t was organized as a town in 1751,
during the reign Of George II, and
laid out on the lands Of George Cor
don and George Beall, whose father
| had settled on the site of the Indian
village of Tohogae in 1903. 1t is fire.
| quently stated that it was named for
His Royal Majesty George, second of
the House of Hanover on the throne of
| England, but it seems more probable
that 1T was for the two Georges, Beall
and Gordon, who actually founded it..
Until very recent years the name
| was always spelled "George-Town.' %
| Georgetown remained separate
municipality until 1871. when it was
| taken into and became part of
Washington.
| In 1871 President Washington ap-
pointed as the commissioners to lay
out the new Federal City, Cen
Thomas Johnson, the first Governor
/ of Maryland, who had been a close
associate of Washington in the Revo-
luton and on certain exploring expe-
| ditions; DIR. David Stuart, a practic-
ing physician of Alexandria. who had
married the widow of Maj. John
Parke Custis, stepson Of Washington,
and Daniel Carroll, a man OF much