Early history

The Nacotchtank Indians, formerly of what is now Anacostia (in Washington, D.C.), temporarily moved to the island in 1668, giving its first recorded name, "Anacostine". The island was patented in 1682 as Anacostine Island by Captain Randolph Brandt (or Brunett), who left the island to his daughter Margaret Hammersley, upon his death in 1698 or 1699.^[5][6]

Mason, Carter, and Bradley families

The island was acquired by George Mason III in 1724.^[7] George Mason IV (then underage) inherited the island in 1735 upon the death of his father, and a ferry from the Virginia shore across the Potomac to Georgetown (the "Little River" and mouth of Rock Creek) was moved from Awbrey's land to Mason's island in 1748.^[8] His son and executor John Mason, inherited the island as the century ended,^[5] pursuant to a 1773 will presented to the Fairfax County Circuit court in 1792 by his brother George Mason V, who died in 1796 so he and his other living brother, Thomas Mason, succeeded as their father's executors.

The Mason House in the 19th Century

John Mason built a mansion on the island around 1796 and planted crops for sale as well as gardens. The home was built and estate maintained with free black and slave labor. He was an active member of the Agricultural Society of Georgetown and the Columbia Agricultural Society of Washington, and able to manufacture almost everything needed for home consumption (including cotton) on the island.^[9] He also entertained lavishly on the island,^[10] including a 1798 party to honor then-uncrowned Louis Philippe I, and an 1811 fete for his son John Murray Mason before he left to study in Paris.^[11] In 1809 John Mason secured a charter for a turnpike to connect his ferry landing with the Washington-Alexandria turnpike that Congress had chartered the previous year (and which would follow what became U.S. Route 1 and compete with his ferry for traffic).^[12] John Mason also diversified his income-producing activities, operating a ferry between Georgetown and the Virginia shore until construction of the Aqueduct Bridge in 1843 (superseded by the Key Bridge in 1923),^[13][14] as well as from 1817 until 1838 serving as the last president of the Potowmack Company (founded in 1774 with George Washington as its first President and in order to deepen the Potomac's channel and build locks around the principal falls).^[15]

Using federal funds and private funds raised by Georgetown merchants, a causeway from the Virginia shore to the island was constructed after debris from flooding in the winter of 1784 changed the Potomac River's main channel from the island's western side to the eastern side and increased silt which threatened the nearby Georgetown port.^[16][17] Alexandria merchants objected to the causeway and it proved a sticking point in their calls for retrocession of 26 square miles of land Virginia had given to establish the federal city as the century began. The first retrocession attempt was in 1804, and another major failed attempt occurred in 1824.^[18] However, by 1831, water stagnation caused the Mason family to move from the island. (Through his ownership, John Mason, who opposed retrocession, also had a Georgetown residence at the corner of 25th Street, L Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, which became the site of Columbia Hospital in 1932).^[19] In 1842, then elderly John Mason sold the island to John Carter.^[6] Four years later, Congress left retrocession to a referendum, which President James K. Polk authorized and Alexandria voters endorsed by a 763 to 222 vote on September 1, 1846 (despite opposition from the northern areas). After a further year of Congressional and Virginia General Assembly negotiations, the island became part of Alexandria County (the northern portion later separated from the City of Alexandria and was renamed Arlington County).^[20][21] After Carter died in 1851, the island passed to William A. Bradley.^[6] Nonetheless, in 1854, the island again hosted an entertainment, this time given by the late John Mason's daughter Anna Maria (who had married Sydney Smith Lee in 1834) to mark a treaty opening Japan to foreign trade (Captain Lee having served under Commodore Matthew C. Perry on the voyage which resulted in the treaty).^[19]

American Civil War

Union soldiers at Camp Greene on the island in 1861

Contraband Quarters, Camp Greene

In 1861, Alexandria County had about 10,000 residents, three-quarters of whom lived in the city portion, and about half of those in the country portion were enslaved or "free colored".^[22] Union forces occupied the island, Mason's former mansion, and the rest of the formerly retroceded area on the night of May 23–24, hours after Virginia voters ratified secession. Three federal units covered the three major trans-Potomac routes, and soon fortified the county as part of the military defenses of the nation's capital.^[23] Mason's Island soon became a U.S. Army training camp called Camp Greene.^[24] Following President Lincoln's decision to allow African Americans to join the U.S. Army, the 1st United States Colored Infantry used the island to train its soldiers. From 1864 to 1865, the camp housed as many as 1,200 formerly enslaved people, first under the authority of the U.S. Army, and later, the Freedmen's Bureau.^[25] Locals continued to call it "Mason's Island" until the memorial was built.^[26]

Test site and gas light company

Following the declaration of war against Spain in 1898, the island became a test site for a number of private experiments in electrical ignition of the explosives dynamite and joveite led by the chemist Charles Edward Munroe of Columbian University.^[27] Monroe's experiments, which explored the use of the explosives for mining waterways and roadways and preparing ground for rapid entrenchment, were conducted in secret and without alerting the District of Columbia Police Department, which investigated citizens' reports of Spanish spy activity and found the explosives and detonators buried on the island.^[27]

From 1913 to 1931, Washington Gas Light Company owned the island, and allowed vegetation to grow unchecked on the island.^[5]

National memorial

The fountain and the statue in the background

In 1931, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association purchased the island from the gas company with the intention of erecting a memorial honoring Roosevelt.^[5] Congress authorized the memorial on May 21, 1932, but did not appropriate funds for the memorial for almost three decades.

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., a landscape architect known for his wildlife conservation efforts, as well as designs for the National Mall and other areas in the National Capital area (and whom President Theodore Roosevelt had appointed to the McMillan Commission back in 1901), developed a plan for the island.^[28] By 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps had cleared much of the island and pulled down the house's remaining walls; today, only part of the mansion's foundation remains.

Funds were finally designated by Congress in 1960. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the national memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the listing first appeared on October 15, 1966.

The memorial was dedicated on October 27, 1967.^[29] Designed by Eric Gugler, the memorial includes a 17-foot (5.2 m) statue by sculptor Paul Manship, four large stone monoliths with some of Roosevelt's more famous quotations, and two large fountains.