Lost Capitol Hill: Thomas Holt’s Public Garden

The future of Reservation 13 is far from clear, and it is even uncertain when the future might become clearer. I will stick to discussing its past, as I have done many times already, whether about its jail, crematorium, or almshouse. Long before the site became a dumping ground for any buildings the good citizens of the city wished to keep far from them, it was the site of a much happier location.

In contrast to these newer, less savory, uses, it was originally a far more lighthearted destination. Sadly, extremely little information exists about this chapter in its history. In fact, the only source facts seem to come from an article in the Proceedings of the Columbia Historical Society in 1909. In an article about the Abraham Young mansion – which was located on what is today Congressional Cemetery – Allen C. Clark writes:

Lost to local history is the item, that on the reservation for a marine hospital was established by Thomas Holt in 1797 a popular public garden; that to this retreat on the banks of the Anacostia, the inhabitants of the city repaired for recreation until the death of the proprietor, fifteen years later.

Sadly, that is all that Clark has to say. The ‘reservation for a marine hospital’ is clearly reservation 13, which was marked for use as a hospital from the earliest days of the city, and as of 1818 was eyed for a marine hospital. In fact, an 1802 map of the city lists reservation 13 as ‘Hospital Sq.’ This particular plan never got off the ground, and about 50 years later was finally brought to fruition in the form of the Naval Hospital at 9^th and Pennsylvania.

The same 1802 map shows Abraham Young’s house next to what is today Barney Circle, as well as another house just west of ‘Hospital Sq.’ There is no way to tell if this was the site of Holt’s establishment – though it would hardly have been ‘on the banks of the Anacostia.’ Furthermore, even here the reservation is quite clearly marked, and thus not obviously available for the sort of activities Holt was to be providing for – not that it is clear what, exactly, the point of a garden well outside the confines of the city was, or how people would actually manage to ‘repair’ there for their ‘recreation.’

It thus remains nothing more than an intriguing mystery, though as the plans for Reservation 13 finally get past the discussion and on to the planning stage, maybe someone will see fit to emulate Holt and create some kind of recreational facility on the banks of the Anacostia.