Happy Birthday George!
Working in a university named after our first president, you would think I could spin a couple of yarns about the big guy.
Actually, the Medical Center focuses on the GWU role in the 1981 attempt on President Reagan’s life.
Like old firefighters, the story grows with each telling. Rawhide Down interviews.
Back to George …
Wealthiest President
In 2010 24/7 Wall Street calculated the net worth of every president. George came out on top with $525 million (2010)
His Virginia plantation, “Mount Vernon,” consisted of five separate farms on 8,000 acres of prime farmland, run by over 300 slaves.
His wife, Martha Washington, inherited significant property from her father.
Washington made significantly more than subsequent presidents: his salary was two percent of the total U.S. budget in 1789.
from The Net Worth Of The American Presidents: Washington To Obama
Bequest to Establish a University
The George Washington University grew out of President George Washington’s desire to establish a national institution of higher learning.
Washington believed the nation’s capital was the logical site for such an institution. He left a bequest toward that objective.
Founded by an Act of Congress
Washington died before his vision was carried out.
The Rev. Luther Rice and three friends took up the effort; President James Monroe and 32 members of the U.S. Congress also became involved.
On Feb. 9, 1821, Monroe signed the Act of Congress that created the Columbian College in the District of Columbia, a private, nonsectarian institution.
GW opened its doors in 1821 with three faculty members, one tutor and 30 students in a single building. At that time, Columbian College was located between 14th and 15th Streets, about a 30-minute walk from the Capitol. Its curriculum included English, Latin and Greek, as well as mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, reading, writing, navigation and political law. The first graduates received degrees in December 1824. Shortly after, Columbian College added a medical school and a law school.
DCFD Engine 23 almost lost in campus expansion
The university is the largest non-federal landowner in the city, with most of the apartments and hotels around the campus purchased for student housing.
The original plans for a new library in the early 1970s would have destroyed the 100 year old quarters of Engine 23. The community got the firehouse designated an historic landmark.
Opened on November 25, 1910, Station 23 was the last one in the city to use horses to pull its firefighting equipment.
Oct 2010 Centennial (Elliot J. Goodman)
Michael Barnett (Feb 2, 2004) A night with the firefighters of Engine 23 GW Hatchet
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
Also on FireGeezer…
- Pay phones fade from College Park campus – March 17, 2011
- Stanford University EMS videos – June 16, 2011
- General Washington’s Fire Engine – February 22, 2011
- EMS on the Hill Day – May 5, 2011
