The Whole Country About Them Was Little More Than A Prairie:
A History of St. Aloysius Parish in Washington

A history of St. Aloysius Parish necessarily requires a substantial prehistory because the none of the usual factors such as the founding of a new city, massive in-migration of Catholics or the necessity of splitting an overcrowded parish fully explain the decision to create a Jesuit parish north of the U.S. Capitol. The City of Washington was even after seventy years little more than a collection of dispersed communities. Once established the parish has lived through three major epochs of nearly equal length influenced by the changing city nation and neighborhood.
The city of Washington, while intended to project high principles grew from hard-nosed political deals reflecting nation divisions and personal agendas. United by the Constitution and George Washington’s force of personality, states and citizens held opposing views of the power of the federal government, rooted in regional colonial experience religion and economics. A capital born in the midst of slavery could only find enough friends if it promised to revive a drooping economy. Promoters oversold the value of land to Congress and undersold the lots to debt burdened speculators, leaving the city unfinished and its finances and those of its promoters in ruins.