Bladensburg’s
location as a port at the highest navigable point on the Anacostia River
(Eastern Branch), created a natural spot for people to gather for business and
other purposes. Ships brought European
goods in exchange for tobacco. Later,
the local economy diversified, but Bladensburg remained a center for commerce
and industry. At the time of its founding, the river was the
most important transportation link, but as the first fordable point, the head
of the Eastern Branch also was a place where east-west travelers would find
their fastest land route from Annapolis or Upper Marlboro to the regional port
towns emerging at Alexandria and Georgetown and points farther west. In addition, Bladensburg was a node on the
north-south road, connecting the Virginia tidewater region with Philadelphia
and fast-growing Baltimore. As a
crossroads, Bladensburg also became a regional economic center with businesses
and services.
Commercial
Operations. Stores, warehouses, wharves,
grist mills, gunpowder mills, a blanket factory, tannery, forges, manufacturing
locations and smaller service businesses provided by carpenters, shoe makers, saddlers,
tailors, etc. These were places where
the buying and selling of tangible goods occurred; locations where products
were processed or made. The post office
often was located at a commercial site, and the mails were the way newspapers
were distributed; hence, post offices were a key locus drawing people
interested in timely information. Some
of these operations were quite extensive, as suggested by this 1820 description
of a tannery on the river, “51 layaway vats, 4 limes, 3 trendlers, 2 pools, 2
bates, 4 latches, a complete bark mill, with machinery to grind the bark by
water, team and bark houses, a large and convenient currying shop, newly
erected, new mill for grinding Spanish hides, lofts for hides, hair, wool, and
horns, a comfortable dwelling house, with a good garden attached, suitable
either for the owner or manager. The
whole yard is supplied with the best water and hydrants which convey the
water..." [1]
Taverns
& Hotels. Licensed ordinaries appear
almost as soon as Bladensburg was laid out and remained a constant feature of
the crossroads town. Taverns usually
were the location of the stagecoach stop.
In addition to food and drink, taverns usually provided overnight
accommodations. Hotels eventually
emerged as an alternative to drinking establishments. Performances (dramatic, musical) and other
entertainments (prize fights, cock fighting, balloon ascensions, prostitution) sometimes
occurred in or near taverns and hotels. Many
business transactions occurred at taverns, such as sales of real estate and property,
including slaves. Taverns were one
enterprise where women thrived. In
Bladensburg tavern licenses were held by Jane Martin, Elizabeth Prather, Mary
B. Scott, Catherine Wirt, and Margaret Adams.
Adams was an African American, whose tavern was patronized by Charles
Willson Peale and Thomas Lee Shippen.
Spa Spring. Early travelers through Bladensburg noted the
presence of a mineral spring and its potential to become a spa. Over time, a spa did emerge in a park like
setting. It was the site of both
organized events and casual visitation. One local tavern keeper, William Ross, saw the
spa as a potential inducement for visiting his establishment in this
advertisement from 1804, “The subscriber respectfully informs his friends and
the public generally, that he has opened a House of Entertainment in Bladensburg...Such
persons as feel disposed to visit the spa, during the season, can be
comfortably accommodated...” [2]
Educational
& Professional Services.
Professionals such as medical doctors and lawyers, also ministers,
school masters, artists, dance and music instructors, midwives, bookbinders,
etc. The Bladensburg Academy was
established with the support of some of the leading businessmen in the
town. A published account of a public performance
of a poem written by the school master, Samuel Knox, preserves the names of
some of the students at the school: Thomas Dick, O.H. Williams, William Stuart,
John Howitt, Thomas Contee Bowie, and George Ponsonby. [3] Their teacher went on to publish several
treatises on the need for a system of higher education in the United
States. Knox’s ideas were said to have
influenced Thomas Jefferson’s plans for the University of Virginia.
By Doug
McElrath, May 27, 2013.
[1] Daily National Intelligencer, 11/18/1820. Repeated in Nov and Dec. "Valuable Tannery in Bladensburg For Sale."
[2] Washington Federalist, 6/8/1804
[3] American Museum, April 1789
