Craftsmen and entrepreneurs: Builders in late nineteenth-century Washington, D.C.

While there have been studies of the development of specific cities and general surveys of the industrialization of building in America, no one has undertaken a systematic analysis of who designed, financed, and constructed the building in a 19th-century American city. In order to do so, this study focuses on the builders of 19th-century Washington, using municipal building permits to identify these men and illuminate their roles. The careers of individual builders are also examined. It was found that men who had been trained and had worked as building tradesmen were responsible for most of the building constructed in the city throughout the 19th century. Many building tradesmen continued to work for themselves and not for speculative owners, and thus continued not only to design and erect but also to finance a substantial number of buildings. While it has been asserted that tradesmen were replaced by entrepreneurs, this generalization does not hold true for Washington. Historically, one stage of building did not replace another. Rather, building entrepreneurs appeared and coexisted with an earlier tradition. Although industrialization of the building process was uneven and varied between locales, the essential changes documented in other cities and towns occurred in Washington as well. Businesses with large numbers of employees and access to great amounts of capital appeared, and competition between builders grew intense. While building tradesmen as a group were responsible for most of the buildings, individual craftsmen did not stay in business long enough to build many units, as they generally could not survive the competition of large-scale enterpreneurs and speculators. Although at the individual level this was a time of uncertainty and many businesses failed, builders as a group remained an important part of the industry, responding to the changes in their trade in creative ways. They found workable solutions to the problems and possibilities brought by the rapid growth of the city, new technology, and changing tastes. They combined traditional and fashionable elements to construct houses they could sell, and in the process they left an indelible mark on the physical character of the city.