Who was there first? Or, what was the original name of "Washington, District of Columbia"?
In the first half of the Eighteenth Century, German immigrants settled in the area which is now Georgetown (in Washington, DC). They established a harbor on the Potomac River in 1751 at the head of the navigable waters. The Old Stone House on M Street in Georgetown was built in 1765 by Christopher and Rachel Lehmann. This is the only pre-Revolutionary structure still standing in the present bounds of Washington, DC.
Then, in 1768, German immigrant Jacob Funck laid out a town, in what was then Prince George County in the province of Maryland. The more exact location was where Goose Creek (also known as Tiber Creek) meets the Potomac. Funck called his town Hamburgh. Funck sold most of his 233 lots to fellow Germans, who set aside two lots for a church, today's German Lutheran Church on Wisconsin Avenue, and a log church on Volta Place in Georgetown.
When Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant laid out the new town of Washington, he erased Funck's plans for Hamburgh (or Funckstown). The name Hamburgh was used into the Nineteenth Century, though. In 1791, George Washington was determined to locate the President's House "on the high ground near Hamburg". Thomas Jefferson preferred a location near today's 20th and E Streets in the N.W., in the heart of Hamburgh.
Jacob Funck went west and founded another Funkstown which still exists today near Hagerstown, Maryland.
On 1 December 1800, the seat of the Federal government was transferred from Philadelphia to Washington, and President John Adams became the first resident in the White House.
The above information comes from Robert and Barbara Selig (in "
German Life
"), who credit Gary C. Grassl of the
German-American Heritage Society of Greater Washington
for his assistance. Even earlier, I had heard of the German settlements along the Potomac, just below the falls, from Andreas Mielke.
(12 May 04)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.