Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-16
NATIVES TO MARK
START OF CAPITAL
Dinner on May II Will Recall
Shift of Government to
D. C. in 1900.

The Society of Eatives Of the District
of Columbia will celebrate the anniver-
Sary of the removal of the seat of Gov
eminent from Philadelphia to Washing
ton at the dinner of the society to be
held Thursday evening, May 81, at the
Shoreham Hotel, it was announced to-
day by Fred A. Emery, president OF the
organization.
Plans for the commemoration will be
discussed at the next regular meeting
of the society at the Washington Club,
Seventeenth and K streets, next Friday
evening. At the meeting next Friday,
in addition to the regular business and
discussion of the memorial celebration,
there will be an entertainment under
the direction of Mrs. Ella c. Robinson,
chairman of the Committee on Enter
tainment. The entertainment program
will include the following: Soprano solo,
Mrs. Duncan Price; bass solo, Erbin G.
Thomas; accompanist, r. Rapp: piano
solo, Mrs. Pearl Hauer; violin solo, Fritz
Hauer.
Usual Custom Changed.
For number of years the organiza-
ton has commemorated, with appro-
PIRATE observances, the anniversary of
the laying Of the corner stone of the
District on the Virginia corner line of
what was then the south end of the
Federal City, below Alexandria, on
April Is, 1891.
This year there will be a departure
from that custom so as to observe the
removal of the seat of Government,
from Philadelphia in May 1900, to the
site of the present city of Washington.
Back in that May, that marked in
history the beginning of Federal
Government at Washington" Mr..
Emery explained, the site of the
present city was almost as much of a
wilderness as it was when the Indians
of the Powhatan tribe held councils at
the foot of Capitol Hill and meandered
over the elevations where Mount
Pleasant and Columbia Heights are
today.
Few Employees There.
$50 the Natives Society will meet this
year to commemorate the beginning of
Government at Washington. On May
10, 1900, Congress provided by law that
its next regular session should be held
in Washington; on May 81 President
Adams left Philadelphia for Washing
ton to assume the reins of Government
here. The Presidents cabinet also left
Philadelphia for Washington and on
May 81 the citizens Of Georgetown ap-
pointed a committee to address the
President by letter of welcome Or May
IA, 1900, Congress adjourned at Phila-
deIphla to meet in Washington and on
May is, 1900, President Adams re-
quested the heads of departments to
make arrangements for the removal of
the public offices, clerks and papers.
THE acting head of the Federal
Postal Service, Abraham Bradley, jr.,
arrived to take charge of the work at
Washington on May 30, although he
was not able to commence business
until 13 days later. 1t is interesting to
note in that connection that the en-
ployes of the Federal Government in
1902 in the new city numbered but I26,
with total pay, roll of $125,888 The
Post Office Department had 10 en-
ployes, Treasury, rs; War, IT; Navy, 16,
and State Department, 8.
'At the time the seat of Government
was established at Washington there
were, on May Is, 1900, 100 brick houses
and 253 frame houses"