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R Dana's avatar

"Its origin goes back a decade earlier—to 1749"

It's so long ago that I no longer remember the source, but I recall that land speculation was a major source of wealth, especially for those with investment capital (eg, Washington), for several centuries in American history (even before the railroad). And land speculation usually didn't take the form of, "buy several thousand acres of forest and wait for timber prices to rise" - there was plenty of other forest, labor was expensive, and there was probably no cost-efficient way to get that timber to the European market even if you cut it.

No, land speculation meant: buy 100 acres and lay out a town, then try to sell building lots for houses. If the town takes off, land you bought for cents/acre could you up a hundredfold (just stabbing at numbers here). Often, a group of investors would go in together. The fact that surveyor was a common profession for well-to-do young men was no accident; it was driven by land marketing schemes.

Classic example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Company. For a later example of this phenomenon, see "Sons of the Profits", and note that much of the drive to develop Seattle was in order to increase the land value so that the original founders would make more when they sold it in small pieces.

Of course, the frequent success of these attempts was driven by America's explosive growth in population, thanks to immigration. Selling off bits of this country to newcomers for high prices is a storied part of our history.

I don't know specifics of Culpeper, but it would be interesting to see who owned the property in 1759 - was it Thomas Fairfax? - and how the vote in the House of Burgesses was influenced.

Point being: historical urbanism is about investment, growth, and profit. The creation of cities and towns is often intentional and driven by fundamental human desires and economic forces.

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Gigi's avatar

I recently visited Culpeper for a wedding, and I was charmed by its downtown. I didn't realize it had such historical roots and it's more akin to a city than not. Interesting piece!

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