George Truesdell
George Truesdell (1842–1921) was an American businessman in 19th-century Washington, D.C., who developed several suburbs and two of its earliest streetcar companies.[1]
Born in Fairmount, New York, in 1842,[2] Truesdell was commissioned in the Union Army as a major and a paymaster. He fought in the Civil War and later worked as a civil engineer in New Jersey. In 1872, he moved to Washington, D.C.[3] Between 1894 and 1897, Truesdell served on the DC Board of Commissioners.[4]
Developer
[edit]In the 1880s, Truesdell bought 15 acres of land in Kalorama Triangle, where he sold land and built apartment buildings. "Perhaps no one person had as much influence on the development of Kalorama Triangle as did George Truesdell", wrote local historian Stephen Hansen.[2]
In 1887, Truesdell and his wife Frances bought an 87-acre tract in the District: the estate of Joseph Gales Jr., owner of the National Intelligencer and mayor of Washington from 1827 to 1830. Gales had named his estate Eckington after the village in Derbyshire, England in which he was born, and Truesdell kept the name as he proceeded to subdivide the land and build houses for a new neighborhood. In three years, Truesdell spent $500,000 improving the subdivision: he laid water and sewer pipes, paved streets, and erected a standpipe near the old Gales house. Truesdell erected five "pretty cottages" which, according to an 1888 newspaper account, were "all fitted up as city houses," with steam heat and hot and cold running water. Eckington was wired for electricity in 1889, two years before electricity was installed in the White House.[5] Truesdell placed restrictive covenants in the deeds of Eckington's residential properties that required that each house cost at least $2,000 and be set back 15 feet (4.6 m) from the building line. There was to be no manufacturing. As late as 1930, there were no African American families living in Eckington.
Streetcar executive
[edit]In 1888, Truesdell launched the Eckington and Soldiers' Home Railway, the city's first electric railway.[1]
He later helped found the Rock Creek Railway.[3]
He was an officer of the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company when it was swept into the Washington Traction and Electric Company on June 5, 1899, part of the "great streetcar consolidation".[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b DeFerrari, John (February 12, 2016). "How DC's first electric streetcar helped build Eckington". Greater Greater Washington. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
- ^ a b Hansen, Stephen A. "George Truesdell's Managasset". www.washingtonchronicles.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2025. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
- ^ a b Hansen, Stephen A. (2011). Kalorama Triangle: The History of a Capital Neighborhood. The History Press.
- ^ Hansen, Stephen (September 21, 2014). "George Truesdell's Managasset". www.washingtonchronicles.com. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
- ^ Williams, Kimberly. "Eckington: A Neighborhood History" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
- ^ "Railway Merger". Evening Star. February 5, 1902. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 21, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
External links
[edit]- Map: "Map of George Truesdell's addition to the city of Washington: being a subdivision of a tract of land known as Eckington, which tract is a part of the original tract called Youngsborough", May 1887. District of Columbia. Office of the Surveyor. Held at the Library of Congress.