National Capital Parks - East ⓘ

From the first settlers to the American Civil War and through the twentieth century the area known today as Shepherd Parkway has a rich and fascinating history. Along the Anacostia River stood the Native American trading center of the Anacostan Indians, then called Nacotchtank or "at the trading town". The Anacostans seem to have been part of the Algonquin civilization. For over 500 hundred years before the English arrived the they grew corn, squash, beans, and potatoes on small cleared areas. They hunted turkey, quail, geese, ducks, deer, and bear among the sweet gum, hickory, maple, tulip popular, and oak forest. They caught fish and shellfish in the tidal streams and rivers. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Captain John Smith recorded in his journals that he sailed up the Petomek River (now called the Anacostia) in 1608 in his search for the main branch of the Potomac River and was well received by these Native Americans. From John Smith and other colonists' accounts historians have been able to piece together details on the local Anacostan culture. Nacotchtank was also the residence of the chief of the Anacostans. The relationship between the Anacostans and English settlers was based on trade, especially beaver pelts. In 1622, a group of colonists from Jamestown and other nearby tribes ransacked and burned Nacotchtank. In the following year the Jamestown colonists returned to the area and attempted to trade with the Anascostan but were ambushed. It appears that the Anacostans join with the Piscataway. After only 40 years of contact with the Europeans, the population of the local American Indians was only one-quarter of those that lived in the region prior to 1608. While many the Nacotchtanks joined other tribes others died from diseases introduced by the Europeans and in wars. While no evidence of Nacotchank has ever been recorded in modern time, two ossuaries (burial grounds) were discovered in Bolling Air Force Base. Historians have found a series of archaeology sites, apparently corresponding to small groups of households, extending from Giesboro Point on the Potomac River to Bladensburg, MD.

Concentrations of broken pottery, stone tools, and ceremonial items from the Anacostan occupations have mostly been found in the streams heading into the Anacostia River. In the late seventeenth century the English crown made large land grants to their citizens and by 1700 frontiersmen had moved into the area around Rock Creek, pushing the Indians living along the Anacostia River out.

The area was not regularly occupied until it became the nation's capital on July 16th, 1790. The land was still predominately agrarian and was organized around the large land grants from the English crown. These settlements were 1,000 acres and larger.

The most important crop was tobacco, which was shipped to European markets for sale. Shepherd Parkway originally was part of the Gisbrough (later Giesborough and now Giesboro) land tract patented by Thomas Dent.

In 1833 the land was purchased by George Washington Young. Mr. Young managed many farms and was most notable as the largest slave holder in the District of Columbia. According to the 1850 US census G.W. Young owned 91 slaves. Among Mr. Young's land holdings was the 624 acre Giesborough (now Giesboro) plot as well as many other surrounding land tracts. The Young family grew a variety of crops, maintained livestock, harvested trees (mostly on the unimproved Saint Elizabeth plot for construction of the Federal Hospital for the insane in 1852) and due to the Young's land holdings along the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch River (now Anacostia River) the family was able to ship their goods to market from their family wharf at Giesborough point.

Shepherd Parkway during the American Civil War, 1860-1865 At the onset of the American Civil War in 1861 George Washington Young offered to sell his property to the Government $100,000, the offered was declined. Instead, the Union army rented the land for $6,000 per year. During the following year G.W. Young freed his slaves, when the DC Compensated Emancipation Law was enacted. During the war Washington became the staging ground for the entire Union Army. 68 fortifications were built to defend the Nation's Capital from Confederate attack. The city doubled in population, soldiers marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, oxen were used to transport military weapons from one fort to another, livestock grazed on the National Mall and Shepherd Parkway was used for fortifications, military roads, a cavalry depot, a cavalry camp (called Camp Stoneman after General George Stoneman, Chief of the Cavalry Bureau), and hospital buildings (Saint Elizabeth being one and the another near Fort Carroll).

Fort Carroll and Fort Greble Named after Major General Samuel Sprigg Carroll, a native Washingtonian and West Point graduate, Ft. Carroll was established on the ridge southeast of Giesboro Point. It was irregular in shape but had a relatively large perimeter, at 340 yards this fort became a hub for officers and soldiers garrisoned east of the Anacostia River. The fort and its battery were initially built to protect the cavalry depot and prevent attacks on the Washington Arsenal and Navy Yard. As the war went on into its third year more buildings were built. The stockade could house more than 30,000 horses, several hospital and administration builds were erected, barracks, and Camp Stoneman, to the northwest, served home to thousands of cavalry soldiers.

Fort Greble was named in honor of Lieutenant John T. Greble who was killed at the battle of Big Bethel on July 10, 1861. The fort was an irregular, 327 yard perimeter earthwork structure that occupied the southern end of the ridge in Shepherd Parkway. In conjunction with forts in Alexandria, VA the fort protected the Potomac River. Its guns commanded the ravines along Oxen Run and Piscataway Road (now called Martin Luther King Avenue), which headed downtown. Most Sunday mornings a parade of soldiers could be seen marching from Ft. Greble to the Regimental Headquarters at Ft. Carroll for religious services.

Although these forts never saw any major action, Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia were aware of their strength, this is perhaps why General Jubal Early decided to attack from the north in 1864 in the battle of Ft. Stevens. They did however provide training ground for soldiers preparing for combat. The most interesting story about these forts may not be about the soldiers who protected them instead about the civilians who maintained them.

As the war progressed fugitive slaves sought refuge and entered the city's boundaries providing an available labor force to help finish and then maintain the forts. These fugitive slaves were referred to as contraband. Contrabands who worked for the forts created camps nearby. Through a loop-hole method the Federal Government could maintain their status in the Union by considering them as "contraband of war".

When the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlaws slavery, was enacted and former slaves were granted freedom many of them stayed nearby. By the end of the nineteenth century the area had become home to many African Americans communities.

The end of the Civil War saw major changes to the area. The Freedmen's Bureau purchased the Barry Farm to the north of St. Elizabeths Hospital and divided the land into 1 acre plots. While the area remained farm land these plots were sold to former slaves and within two years 500 families owned property.

The Government disassembled the cavalry depot and returned the Giesborough land to George Washington Young. Young's attempt to sell his buildings and property were unsuccessful and after his death in 1867 the deeds went to his heirs, who slowly sold off the property. Even though the area was still very much rural a river resort, called Buena Vista, was established at Giesborough point. Ft. Carroll was transferred over to the Signal Corps. Ft. Greble was dismantled and it materials, excluding the armament, sold at auction.

Downtown went through major changes as well. The city was in shambles, while the population doubled in size from 1860-1865 the infrastructure had not kept up. In 1871 Pierre L'Enfant's plan was just that, a plan, and many politicians wanted to move the Nation's Capital west.

The Organic Act of 1871 repealed the individual charters of Georgetown and the City of Washington to combine them with the surrounding Washington County, creating a new charter. This was the first step towards a municipal governorship for the entire territory.

While not the first Governor of Washington, Alexander Robey Shepherd was the second and most notable. Shepherd was a native Washingtonian, a Civil War veteran and a wealthy businessman, who made his money in the plumbing and gas fitting industry.

As the Governor he implemented many new city improvements, including paving roads and creating a sewage system. Shepherd Parkway is perhaps named after Shepherd himself who encouraged the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to extend their tracks through the Giesborough land track south and cut over the Potomac River, eventually meeting up with the City of Alexandria.

Building on Alexander Shepherd's vision, Senator James McMillian too saw the need for improvements in the city. The McMillian Plan was created to develop a system of parks in the District, including a parkway connecting the former ring of forts.

So on April 11, 1927, the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission acquired Shepherd Parkway as the first property for the Fort Drive. Unfortunately, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in before the plan was enacted. In 1933, New Deal legislation transferred control of the land to the National Park Service.

Although much of the land was purchased for the parkway, the roadway was never constructed. During the Second World War the parks were used for anti-aircraft artillery and barracks for soldiers. Today Shepherd Parkway is 205 acres of mature trees along the same ridge that once was used to secure the Nation's Capital.