Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-21
TESS WILL SPEAK
ON WASHINGTON
Association of Oldest Inhab-
itants to Honor First
President Tomorrow.

The Association Of Oldest Inhabi.
tantS of the District of Columbia will
hold. it's annual Washington Birth
day celebration tomorrow morning
when the organization will meet in
the sunday school room of the First
congregational Church. Tenth and q
streets. at 1890 o clock
There Will be Il business meeting
of the members, and at las o'clock
the regular exercises appropriate to
the day will begin. Theodore W.
Moves, president of the association,
will preside.
The feature Of the exercises will be
the patriotic address of Senator Fess
of Ohio. who will speak promptly a.
noon, or "a few minutes before.
Chairman Washington Topham OF
the entertainment committee has ar.
ranged an interesting program. in.
GLIDING musical numbers.
Washington Foresight
The Oldest Inhabitants have for
years furnished notable feature OF
the Washington birthday annual
celebrations, particularly appropriate
In view of the first Presidents in
innate association with the founding
of the National Capital in Washing
ton President Washington visuaIizcd
the United States as a great and
pcpuinus country of the future, and
vlsuallZcd Washington City. as d
metropolis OF "a magnitude inferior
to foN others in Europe" He chose
"a lulmlle square out of the wide range
of wilderness along the upper Potomac
which Congress had originally au-
thoriZed, and this mile-square site
selected WAS drawn diagonally so
that both sides of the Potomac River
from Alexandria to a point above
Georgetown were included as we'll as
the Eastern branch almost TO Bladens
burg
Washington took a very earnest in.
terest in safeguarding the future de
velopment of the Capital. planning it
on a scale and in such careful design
as TO permit the city to expand
Washington prevailed over all the
scUiferS of those days. who in some
instances regarded the plans as
era ndiose for a skeleton town whose
main street was largely of mudholeS.
whose Congress house had unsiehtlv
surroundings and whose President s
house was isolated and uninposinG.
Agreement for Land.
Under the guiding hand of the
First President. to honor whom the
association solemnly gathers every
twenty second Of February and pays
homage to him as the greatest Amer
lean, an effective method of securing
control of the entire area of the Dis
trict of Columbia was adopted by en-
tering into an agreement with the ~
proprietors Of the land which lie OK.
pected To use.
Under this arrangement the land
proprietors agreed to convey in trust
to the President or TO the Commits
sioners all of their land which the
President might think proper to in
clude within the boundaries OF the
Federal City.
They agreed that the President
should have sole power of directing
the Federal City as he pleased. OF re
tanning any number OF squares he
thought proper for any public i'm
provements or any other public uses
For the streets the proprietors were
to receive no compensation, but for
the squares or lands in any form TAX
en- for public buildings. or any kind
of public Improvements or uses, the
proprletors were to receive at the
rate of s25 per acre to be paid by the
public"