THOMAS JEFFERSON ANNOUNCES A BUILDING CODE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

dc-jeff-proc-mh.jpgThe President declares that, “that the outer and party walls of all Houses in the said City, shall be built of Brick or Stone….”

Also, the citizens of the Indiana Territory petition Congress (via Governor William Henry Harrison) to “extinguish” the Indian lands in order to provide more territory for white settlement!! Full front page printing of the “LETTER FROM WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.”

National Intelligencer, Washington, DC
Monday, February 21, 1803

President Jefferson lays out the new building code for the District of Columbia proclaiming that all new houses should be built of brick or stone, and “….that the wall of no house shall be higher than 40 feet to the roof in any part of the City, nor shall any be lower than 35 feet on any of the Avenues.” Present day D.C. has changed little from this original code–there are no tall buildings in the city other than the Washington Monument. The President’s Proclamation appears on page one of the National Intelligencer, Washington’s premier newspaper.

4 pp., very fine condition. The early Washington advertisements and sales of houses alone give a real “feel” to life in the Nation’s Capital when it was but three years old!

$225

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Posted by mmitchell | Filed Under All Historic Newspapers, Early America