List of mayors of Washington, D.C.
The list of mayors of Washington, D.C. is a reflection of the changing structure of its local government. Until 1871, three separate municipalities were located within the District of Columbia and each was governed separately: the City of Washington, Georgetown, and unincorporated territory known as Washington County. With the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871, the three municipalities within the District of Columbia were abolished in favor of a single District government, whose chief executive was a territorial Governor. This office was abolished in 1874, and replaced with a three-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the President. This system existed until 1975 when the District of Columbia Home Rule Act allowed for District residents to elect their own mayor.
Currently, the Mayor of the District of Columbia is popularly elected to a four-year term with no term limits. Even though Washington, D.C. is not in a state, the city government also has certain state-level responsibilities, making some of the mayor's duties analogous to those of United States governors. The current mayor of Washington, D.C. is Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat, who has served in the role since January 2, 2011.
The lists on this page include all of the chief executives of the District of Columbia in their various forms.
Contents |
[edit] Mayors of the City of Washington (1802–1871)
The persons listed below are the mayors of the now-defunct City of Washington, which was officially granted a formal government in 1802. The Mayor of Washington had authority over city services, appointments, and local tax assessments; however, the duties of the mayor mostly consisted of requesting appropriations from Congress to finance the city. From 1802 to 1812, the mayor was appointed by the President of the United States. Between 1812 and 1820, the city's mayors were then selected by a city council. From 1820 to 1871 the mayor was popularly elected. The present-day boundaries of the "Old City" were Rock Creek to the west, Florida Avenue to the north, and the Anacostia River to the east and south.
| Mayor[1] | Term Began | Term Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Brent | 1802 | 1812 |
| Daniel Rapine | 1812 | 1813 |
| James H. Blake | 1813 | 1817 |
| Benjamin G. Orr | 1817 | 1819 |
| Samuel N. Smallwood | 1819 | 1822 |
| Thomas Carbery | 1822 | 1824 |
| Samuel N. Smallwood | 1824 | 1824 |
| Roger C. Weightman | 1824 | 1827 |
| Joseph Gales, Jr. | 1827 | 1830 |
| John P. Van Ness | 1830 | 1834 |
| William A. Bradley | 1834 | 1836 |
| Peter Force | 1836 | 1840 |
| William Winston Seaton | 1840 | 1850 |
| Walter Lenox | 1850 | 1852 |
| John Walker Maury | 1852 | 1854 |
| John Thomas Towers | 1854 | 1856 |
| William B. Magruder | 1856 | 1858 |
| James G. Berret | 1858 | 1861 |
| Richard Wallach | 1861 | 1868 |
| Sayles J. Bowen | 1868 | 1870 |
| Matthew Gault Emery[2] | 1870 | 1871 |
[edit] Mayors of Georgetown (1790–1871)
Georgetown was a town in Maryland until 1801, when it became a municipality within the District of Columbia. From 1802 until 1871, mayors of Georgetown were elected to one-year terms, with no term limits.[3] Like the City of Washington and Washington County, Georgetown's local government ceased to exist in 1871, when Congress merged the three entities into the single District government.[4]
| Mayor[1] | Term Began | Term Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Peter | 1790 | 1791 |
| Thomas Beale | 1791 | 1792 |
| Uriah Forrest | 1792 | 1793 |
| John Threlkeld | 1793 | 1794 |
| Peter Casenave | 1794 | 1795 |
| Thomas Turner | 1795 | 1796 |
| Daniel Reintzel | 1796 | 1797 |
| Lloyd Beall | 1797 | 1799 |
| Daniel Reintzel | 1799 | 1804 |
| Thomas Corcoran | 1805 | 1806 |
| Daniel Reintzel | 1806 | 1807 |
| Thomas Corcoran | 1808 | 1810 |
| David Wiley | 1811 | 1812 |
| Thomas Corcoran | 1812 | 1813 |
| John Peter | 1813 | 1818 |
| Henry Foxall | 1819 | 1820 |
| John Peter | 1821 | 1822 |
| John Cox | 1823 | 1845 |
| Henry Addison | 1845 | 1857 |
| Richard R. Crawford | 1857 | 1861 |
| Henry Addison | 1861 | 1867 |
| Charles D. Welch | 1867 | 1869 |
| Henry M. Sweeney | 1869 | 1871 |
[edit] Governors of the District of Columbia (1871–1874)
In 1871, Congress created a territorial government for the entire District of Columbia, which was headed by a governor appointed by the President of the United States to a four-year term. Due to alleged mismanagement and corruption, including allegations of contractors bribing members of the District legislature to receive contracts,[5] the territorial government was discontinued in 1874.
| Governor[1] | Term Began | Term Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Henry D. Cooke | 1871 | 1873 |
| Alexander Robey Shepherd[6] | 1873 | 1874 |
[edit] Presidents of the Board of Commissioners (1874–1975)
From 1874 to 1974, the District was administered by a Board of Commissioners, whose members were appointed by the President. There were three members of the Board: one Democrat, one Republican, and one civil engineer with no specified party. The three Commissioners would then elect one of themselves to be president of the commission. This list features the Presidents of the Board of Commissioners; while not quite analogous to the role of a mayor, the president of the commission was the city's Chief Executive.
| President[7] | Term Began | Term Ended | Political Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Dennison[8] | 1874 | 1878 | Republican |
| Seth Ledyard Phelps | 1878 | 1879 | Republican |
| Josiah Dent | 1879 | 1882 | Democratic |
| Joseph Rodman West | 1882 | 1883 | Republican |
| James Barker Edmonds | 1883 | 1886 | Democratic |
| William Benning Webb | 1886 | 1889 | |
| John Watkinson Douglass | 1889 | 1893 | |
| John Wesley Ross | 1893 | 1898 | |
| John Brewer Wright | 1898 | 1900 | |
| Henry Brown Floyd MacFarland | 1901 | 1909 | |
| Cuno Hugo Rudolph | 1910 | 1913 | |
| Oliver Peck Newman | 1913 | 1917 | |
| Louis Brownlow | 1917 | 1920 | |
| Charles Willauer Kutz (acting) | 1920 | 1920 | |
| John Thilman Hendrick | 1920 | 1921 | |
| Cuno Hugo Rudolph | 1921 | 1926 | |
| Proctor L. Dougherty | 1926 | 1930 | |
| Luther Halsey Reichelderfer | 1930 | 1933 | |
| Melvin Colvin Hazen | 1933 | 1941 | |
| John Russell Young | 1941 | 1952 | |
| F. Joseph Donohue | 1952 | 1953 | |
| Samuel Spencer | 1953 | 1956 | |
| Robert E. McLaughlin | 1956 | 1961 | |
| Walter Nathan Tobriner | 1961 | 1967 | Democratic |
| Walter Washington | 1967 | 1975 | Democratic |
[edit] Mayors of the District of Columbia (1975–present)
Since 1975, the District has been administered by a popularly elected mayor and city council.
| Mayor | Years | Political Party |
|---|---|---|
| Walter Washington | January 2, 1975 – January 2, 1979 | Democratic |
| Marion Barry | January 2, 1979 – January 2, 1991 | Democratic |
| Sharon Pratt Kelly[9] | January 2, 1991 – January 2, 1995 | Democratic |
| Marion Barry | January 2, 1995 – January 2, 1999 | Democratic |
| Anthony A. Williams | January 2, 1999 – January 2, 2007 | Democratic |
| Adrian Fenty | January 2, 2007 – January 2, 2011 | Democratic |
| Vincent C. Gray | January 2, 2011 – present | Democratic |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Larner, John B. (1920). "List of Principal Municipal Authorities of the Cities of Washington, Georgetown, and the District of Columbia". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 23: 180–7. http://books.google.com/books?id=WFW1gSS0MhAC.
- ^ "Washington Election Yesterday". Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser (via Google News). June 7, 1870. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nWxBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t7cMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2447,5459689&dq=washington+emery&hl=en.
- ^ Ecker, Grace Dunlop (1933). A Portrait of Old Georgetown. Garrett & Massie. p. 8.
- ^ "New Government in Columbia". The New York Times. January 21, 1871. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30A15F8385A1B7493C3AB178AD85F458784F9.
- ^ "Bribes Paid by Contractors". The New York Times. March 29, 1974. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F60E13F83B5D1A7493CBAB1788D85F408784F9.
- ^ "The District of Columbia Governorship". The New York Times. September 13, 1873. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F7061EF8395D1A7493C6A81782D85F478784F9.
- ^ Gilmore, Matthew (July 2001). "Who were the Commissioners of the District, 1874-1967?". H-DC. Humanities & Social Sciences Online. http://www.h-net.org/~dclist/engcomm.html. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ "The New District Governors". Associated Press. The New York Times. June 30, 1874. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0E1EFB3F5C137A93C2AA178DD85F408784F9.
- ^ Elected as "Sharon Pratt Dixon," but remarried in December 1991.
