The following year, the commissioners built housing for additional workers. 7 In 1792, a carpenter’s workshop was built in the middle of the area, near the location of today’s Andrew Jackson equestrian statue. He also built huts in the park to house enslaved workers. In 1791, prior to his removal, L’Enfant ordered the excavation of the cellar, carried out by enslaved African Americans. Work accelerated the following spring, continuing for the next eight years. While Davidson battled over the future of the land with President Washington and the commissioners, White House construction began with the laying of the cornerstone on October 13, 1792. Ultimately, there are still unanswered questions about Davidson’s ownership and use of the square in front of the White House, and the matter appears not to have been settled until after his death in 1810. Davidson was ultimately unsuccessful despite directly petitioning President George Washington and arguing with the commissioners “at this day there is no real fixed plan for the City of Washington.” 5 Like other property owners that deeded their land to the federal government in 1791, he was disappointed in his investment and continued to quarrel with the commissioners and President Washington, urging them to follow the L’Enfant design. 4 Although he had several opportunities to sell the property during the 1790s, none of the sales went through. After raising his grievances with the three commissioners overseeing city construction, they agreed to auction the square in front of the White House as one large block, which Davidson then bought for $5,440 dollars to ensure that no one else could develop the land while he advocated for L’Enfant’s original design. 3 Samuel Davidson balked when he discovered the divergence from the L’Enfant plan because the new plan divided his land into fewer lots, which meant less money from selling the tracts. 2Ī 1794 engraving by surveyor Andrew Ellicott instead depicted the space in front of the White House as an open common, surrounded by city lots to be sold and developed. After repeated instances of insubordination, L’Enfant was dismissed in February 1792, and his plans were altered. Davidson believed the land would become part of L’Enfant’s grand ceremonial entrance. Davidson had agreed to deed the tract of land, originally part of a plantation called Port Royal, to the government, after purchasing the land from a man named John Pearce, whose family had owned the land for several generations. In response, a local landowner and entrepreneur named Samuel Davidson disputed his deeded land transfer. When L’Enfant’s palace plans were abandoned, the three-avenue approach was also eliminated. According to French-born engineer Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for the capital city, a presidential palace would be constructed featuring a grand ceremonial entrance with three approaching avenues culminating in a “semicircular forecourt.” 1 However, this plan never came to fruition, and the plans for a large presidential palace were scrapped in favor of a smaller President’s House. In 1791, a group of local landowners agreed to deed their land to the government for the creation of this new capital. Following the passage of the Residence Act in 1790, plans were made for a new capital city along the banks of the Potomac River.
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