l8o WRIGHT 



Up to 1876 the Federal Government had expended in the 

 District of Columbia for public and private purposes, exclusive 

 of salaries, a little over $92,000,000; since the creation of the 

 new government it has expended about $110,000,000 — that is, 

 in about 22 years it expended more than in the 76 years prior 

 thereto. People found here a pleasant residence for the winter 

 months. They erected handsome buildings — palaces, in fact, 

 — and helped to beautify the city. Values appreciated rapidly. 

 As an instance, the land in the vicinity of the British Embassy 

 was sold in 1870 or 1871 for from 70 to 90 cents a square foot; 

 it rapidly appreciated after 1878 to $4 and $5 per foot. Land 

 on G street, in the vicinity of business enterprises, which sold 

 for $1.50 in 1873 was sold in 1889 at $15 a foot. This was due 

 to some extent to the removal of many of the business houses 

 from Pennsylvania Avenue to F and G streets, and along F 

 street property which prior to the stable conditions fixed by Con- 

 gress was worth $2 or $3 a foot, and maybe more at times, has 

 been sold for as high as $40 per foot. Extension of streets under 

 the present liberal policy of Congress and the able administra- 

 tion of the District government have caused values in the sub- 

 urban districts to appreciate rapidly. Of course, the reverse has 

 taken place in the central portions of the city, where values are 

 more stationary, and will be until some reaction takes place. 



These movements for the improvement of the city have given 

 some wag the opportunity to say that the population of Wash- 

 ington is divided into two classes — real estate agents and those 

 who are not — but the usual facetious remark about real estate 

 agents is offset, and more than offset, by the fact that they have 

 been instrumental in a very large degree in carrying on the im- 

 provements that make the present city of Washington. They 

 formed the Board of Trade, and the Board of Trade has exerted 

 its influence always in the interest of the prosperity of Washing- 

 ton. They have been courageous in taking great risks and in 

 demonstrating that Washington as a place of residence cannot 

 be excelled. Some of them have profited by their courage and 

 their risks ; others, too conservative, have lost. On the whole, 

 however, it is not too much to say that Washington owes a 

 debt to what it likes to call sometimes the " speculators in real 

 estate." 



