Southwest One

Taking a small camera for picture-making and a canvas bag swung across the shoulders containing maps, compass, and other necessary equipment, and accompanied by either an agreeable friend or a chance acquaintance, the writer has traversed many a weary mile under the warm rays of a midsummer sun or the chilly winds of early autumn, and has garnered with the pictures of the old boundary stones a few items which may not be wholly devoid of interest to others.

-Fred Woodward, “With a Camera Over the Old District Boundary Lines,” 1908.

Mile marker one along the District of Columbia’s original southwest boundary line stands under a tree in the corner of a front yard on a quiet residential street in Alexandria, Virginia.

Approximately 100 years after Ellicott’s team finished its survey of the District’s original boundary line, area residents began taking an interest in the boundary stones’ condition and upkeep. The first known quest to visit each stone and record their condition for the public was undertaken by Marcus Baker, who began searching for them in June 1894 and spent “many delightful hours between four o’clock and sundown” doing so. Baker compiled notes on each stone’s condition between 1894 and 1897, eventually publishing his observations in 1897 in Volume I of the Records of the Columbia Historical Society. He wrote:

...inspection must be made from time to time and the inspection must be in turn followed by repairs and renewal when necessary if permanency is to be secured. The results of the inspection here described make plain the need of renewal in some cases and of repairs in others. The closing years of the century seem an opportune time to draw the attention of the proper authorities to the matter with a view to having this work done.

Baker was perhaps the first to appreciate the stones for their historical rather than utilitarian purpose, and though his 1897 call to preserve these early federal monuments had no immediate impact, the idea itself would be put forward by others who replicated his journey in the ensuing decades.

Baker’s observation of mile marker one (known as Southwest 1 or “SW1” for its position along the southwestern edge of the old District line) was fairly limited and straightforward. He wrote that the stone stood behind the house of Oscar Baggett and appeared “slightly seamed.” A more detailed description of each of the remaining 39 boundary stones was provided a few years later in 1906 by Fred Woodward, who was probably the first person to photograph all of them. Woodward found SW1 in good condition, “not seriously scarred or warn.” According to Woodward, SW1 was uprooted around 1904 or 1905 from its original location in a garden near Baggett's house where Baker had observed it and deposited on its side 225 feet away by a high picket fence at the edge of an open field adjoining Baggett’s property. When he visited it, Woodward had the stone raised upright so he could photograph its several sides, probably the only opportunity he had throughout his entire survey to view a stone in its entirety rather than just the part exposed to the elements.

SW1 (not SW2 as the photo incorrectly implies) as Woodward found it in 1906.

Writing in Volume 11 of the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Woodward notes:

From this picture one gets an accurate idea of the original shape and size of the milestones, the lower half being left rough as it was quarried, while the remaining part of the stone was accurately sawed one foot square, the top being beveled for four inches.

SW1 was sometime after Woodward’s 1906 visit re-set into the ground but placed facing the wrong direction, turned 45 degrees from its original 1791 orientation so that the side denoting Virginia's jurisdiction actually faces in toward what was until 1846 considered the jurisdiction of the federal government.

One anomaly that Woodward noted but did not attempt to explain is the size of the letters on the side of the stone that would have originally faced inward toward the District (and, as seen in his photo above, reads “Jurisdiction of the United States -- 1 mile”) which are of a different size and script than all of the other stones. Edwin Nye, who wrote about SW1 in volume 48 of the Records of the Columbia Historical Society in 1972, surmised that the smaller, shallower, and less artistic script visible on SW1 indicates that it was carved by a different stonecutter than the rest of the boundary markers, leading him to speculate that Ellicott’s team was unhappy with this stonecutter’s work and hired another man to carve the remaining markers.

Aside from being the first to photograph all of the boundary markers, Woodward’s survey was instrumental because it led to increased awareness in the public at large not only of the stones’ existence, but also of their dilapidated and deteriorating states. Echoing Baker’s plea of the previous decade, Woodward recommended that each be surrounded by an iron fence “four or five feet square” so that these monuments would be preserved “for the benefit of those who come after us.”

Woodward’s advocacy on behalf of the stones in 1915 prompted local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)--a lineage-based women’s membership organization dedicated to promoting historic preservation, among other things--to in essence adopt one or several stones, collect funds for their protection, and raise further awareness for their preservation. Arrangements were made with a an iron-worker in late 1915 or 1916 for the creation of suitable iron fences “about 3 feet by 3 feet in size and 5 feet high” to be placed around each stone at a price of $18 each, equivalent in value to about $363 in 2009. According to DAR records, SW1 is the responsibility of the Mount Vernon Chapter--which also oversees the preservation (or lack thereof) of the South Corner Stone at Jones Point. A man who lives a few doors down from SW1 told me that the iron fence surrounding the stone was recently painted by the homeowner on whose property the stone is located, and that the Mount Vernon Chapter had no idea that it existed.

As the warm rays of the midsummer sun give way to the chilly winds of an early autumn, and with camera for picture-making and accompanied by either an agreeable friend or a chance acquaintance, I follow on in Woodward's footsteps (having traded his compass and maps for my GPS), continuing my search for the old District of Columbia boundary stones.

SW1, enclosed in its iron fence at the corner of Wilkes and Payne Streets in Alexandria, VA.

Top view

"1791," the year when Ellicott's survey team placed the boundary marker.

The inscription reads "Jurisdiction of the United States -- 1 mile," noting its position 1 mile from the South Corner Stone at Jones Point. This side would have originally faced inward toward territory that until 1846 was under federal government control. As will be seen, the script carved into the stone here is smaller and of a different style than on all the other stones. Edwin Nye suggests that this indicates Ellicott's survey team hired a different stonecutter from the man who carved SW1 to create the remaining boundary markers.

Close-up view of the above inscription.

"Virginia." Opposite the side that reads "Jurisdiction of the United States," this side would have originally faced out toward the Commonwealth of Virginia, but it was rotated 45 degrees sometime after Fred Woodward found it lying on its side near its present location in 1906.

‘Var.0°30’ W,’ the variation of the compass needle at this place in 1791.

SW1 shenanigans.