Introduction
In May 1 86 1 a Union so ldier named Theodore Winthrop sat writing near the site of today’s Cardozo High School. His company occupied an estate called “Mount Pleasant,” which, he noted, sat “upon the pretty terrace commanding the plain of Washington.” Columbian College, farms, and estates—often used as Civil War barracks and hospitals—dominated the landscape. About 7 0 years earlier planner Peter C. L’Enfant had laid out the capital on the coastal plain where the Potomac and Anacostia rivers met. He ended the city at the foot of the steep hill below Win- throp’s “pretty terrace.” Boundary Street (today’s Florida Avenue) separated Washington City from Washington County. In the early 1 8 00 s farmers drove their horse- drawn produce wagons down the hill to city markets. City folks made their way up the hill to bet on horses at John Tayloe’s racetrack, located near today’s 1 4th Street and Columbia Road. Columbian College (George Washington University’s prede-cessor) opened to educate young men, giving the area the nickname “College Hill.”
William James Howard, circled, Wayland Seminary, class of 1886, later pastored Zion Baptist Church and co-founded Stoddard Baptist Home.
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