Widow's Mite and George Truesdell's Washington Heights Subdivision
After George Truesdell built his cottage “Managasset,” fronting on Columbia Road on Widow's Mite, he subdivided the remaining part of this land in 1887 as “Truesdell’s Addition to Washington Heights.” At the same time, he had begun developing the neighborhood of Eckington in Northeast Washington, DC near Glenwood Cemetery, where he built his winter home.
During the 1890s, in a time before the phrase “conflict of interest” seemed to have no meaning in business or politics, Truesdell served as a District commissioner while the commission itself was considering routing the extension of Connecticut Avenue through his own property (now Ashmead Place), which would have made him a very wealthy man. Although Connecticut Avenue was eventually chartered to run next to and not through Truesdell’s property, he would still eventually profit from it.
In the 1890s, Truesdell began subdividing and selling off parts of his own estate in Widow’s Mit…
