Everything about List Of Mayors Of Washington D C totally explained
The structure of Washington, D.C. city government has changed several times since the city was officially incorporated on
May 3,
1802, leading to several different chief executive offices. From 1802 to 1812, a
mayor was appointed by the
President. Mayors were then elected by the city council between 1812 and 1820, and popularly elected from 1820 to 1871. (Georgetown and
Washington County, although part of the
District of Columbia, were separate entities from the city of Washington and were therefore governed separately.)
In 1871, all 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 to administer the city. The President of the Board of Commissioners was then the highest executive office in D.C. until the popularly elected mayoralty was restored in 1975 — this time given authority over the entire District of Columbia, which had been annexed by the city of Washington.
Currently, the mayor of Washington, D.C. is popularly elected to a four-year term with no term limits. The mayor can be thought of as analogous to the city mayors of other cities in the
United States, but in some manners can also be thought of as analogous to head executive of a county and
governors of other states.
As of 2008, the incumbent mayor of Washington is
Adrian M. Fenty.
The lists on this page include all of the District of Columbia's chief executives in their various forms.
Mayors of Washington (1802 - 1871)
The persons listed below were Mayors of Washington City, which didn't encompass the entire District of Columbia. The boundaries of the old City were (roughly) Rock Creek on the west, Florida Avenue on the north, and the Anacostia River on the east and south. Georgetown City lay to the west of Washington. The remainder of today's District of Columbia constituted the County of Washington, which was governed separately from the City.
The mayor at the time had authority over city services, appointments, and small local tax assessments, but the office generally consisted of requesting appropriations of federal money from Congress to finance the city. The first mayor,
Robert Brent, was appointed annually from 1802 until 1812. From 1812 to 1820 they were elected by the city council, then were popularly elected from 1820 to 1869, when the mayoralty again became an annual appointment.
Both the City and County governments were abolished by Congress in 1871.
Mayors of Georgetown (1790 - 1871)
Georgetown was a town in
Maryland until the official incorporation of the District of Columbia in 1802, when it became a municipal entry of the District (part of D.C., but separate from Washington City). From 1802 until 1871, mayors of Georgetown were elected by its citizens to one-year terms, with no term limit. Like Washington and Washington County, Georgetown's local government ceased to exist in 1871 when Congress merged the three entities into the single territorial government of the District of Columbia.
Governors of the District of Columbia (1871 - 1874)
In 1871, after major economic crises and at the behest of the its population, the
District of Columbia was administered by a
territorial government, which was headed by a Governor. All offices including governor were appointed by the President to a four-year term; however, owing to widespread corruption and mismanagement, the territorial government was discontinued in 1874.
Presidents of the Board of Commissioners (1874-1975)
From 1874 to 1974, the District was administered by a Board of Commissioners that was appointed by the
President of the United States. 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 a president from amongst themselves. This list features the Presidents of the Board of Commissioners, not quite analogous to a Mayor but the most proximal figure as the city's Chief Executive.
| President |
Term Began |
Term Ended |
Commission Seat |
| William Dennison |
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 |
Engineer |
| 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 Kent |
1920 |
1920 |
| Cuno Hugo Rudolph |
1920 |
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 |
| Walter Washington |
1967 |
1975 |
Mayors of Washington, D.C. (1975 - present day)
Since 1975, the District, given home rule, has been administered by a popularly elected
mayor and
city council.
Although Washington City had previously had elected mayors, at the time Washington formed only a part of the District of Columbia. Washington didn't become coterminous with the entire District until 1878, during which time the Board of Commissioners oversaw city government.
Thus, while Walter Washington was the 22nd mayor of Washington, he was the first mayor of the entire D.C.
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