Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia
About
Date: 1791
Historic Designation: National Register of Historic Places, Jan. 28, 1991
The boundary markers of the original District of Columbia are located within Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church, spaced at more or less regular intervals of one mile.
In the summer of 1787, the framers of the U.S. Constitution confronted a long list of issues, ideas, problems and solutions concerning the new government, including the location of the new United States capital.
Many sites had been proposed as the new capital city even before the first Congress began its deliberations. President George Washington had the final decision on the location of the exact 10-mile square to be designated. The square he designated included the port of Alexandria as well as its wharfs, and the southern boundary was only four miles from Mount Vernon.
The first stone was placed at Jones Point on April 15, 1791. The 14 boundary markers on the Virginia side of the Potomac River were also placed that year. In 1846, the U.S. government retroceded to the State of Virginia that portion of the original District of Columbia on the Virginia side and the stones ceased to serve as the boundary between the federal territory and Virginia. However, the stones were used to establish the boundaries of present-day Arlington County, Fairfax County, and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Starting in 1915, fences were erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution to protect the stones.
Architectural Features
Boundary Marker locations:
- Northwest No. 1 Boundary Marker: 3607 North Powhatan Street
- Northwest No. 2 Boundary Marker: 5145 North 38th Street
- Northwest No. 3 Boundary Marker: 4013 North Tazewell Street
- Southwest No. 4 Boundary Marker: King Street north of junction with South Wakefield Street
- Southwest No. 5 Boundary Marker: Northeast of King Street and South Walter Reed Drive junction
- Southwest No. 6 Boundary Marker: South Jefferson Street south of Columbia Pike junction
- Southwest No. 7 Boundary Marker: Behind 3101 South Manchester Street
- Southwest No. 8 Boundary Marker: Junction of Wilson Boulevard and McKinley Road
- West Cornerstone: West side of Meridian Street, south of Williamsburg Boulevard junction
- Benjamin Banneker SW 9 Intermediate Boundary Stone: North 18th & North Van Buren Streets
Significant People
Major Pierre L’Enfant was chosen to lay out the proposed city.
Major Andrew Ellicott was assigned to survey the boundaries of the new capital. Ellicott was born in 1754. He was a professional surveyor and a member of the American Philosophical Society, and owned what have been described as the finest surveying instruments in the country at the time. He conducted a number of important surveys including boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania, the west boundary of Pennsylvania, and the first accurate measurement of the entire length of the Niagara River and its falls. Ellicott was a mathematics professor at West Point from 1812 until his death in 1820. He is buried at West Point.
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