Map Changes
As you can easily see, the two Ellicott maps are compatible with both the King map and the line map, and would require considerable work to have been derived from Ovason's page 42 example, which we will now take a closer look at. Let's go back to the only specific comment made about the Ellicott changes, "Ellicott changed the alignment of Massachusetts Avenue, eliminated five short radial avenues, added two short radial avenues southeast and southwest of the Capitol, and named the city streets.", which focuses us on Mass. Ave. Looking again at the Philadelphia copy of the Ellicott version of the map, we see that Mass. Ave., which runs through the upper part of the pentagram to the landing on the eastern branch of the Potomac, is virtually straight. Comparing with the other version of the map (which I suggest is the map L'Enfant delivered to Washington at Mt Vernon in June of 1791), we note where the alignment of Massachusetts Avenue has has been altered by moving the position of the "bend" closer to the Capitol Building, while moving both the "upper" (north-west) and the "lower" (south-east) ends to the north a bit. In other words, the avenue was straightened to it's current form, from the one in the map image below. Northwest This is an enlargement of the area north of the White House, from the earlier map. I have highlighted streets that were removed from the later map. You can also see several squares that were subsequently removed. Note that the pentagon IS a part of this early plan, even though we can't know for sure who's idea it was. If you look closely at the map you will see that when Mass Ave was straightened, it did so by pivoting around two points that stayed the same in the new plan. New York Avenue runs to the northeast from the WH and intersects Mass Ave at Mt Vernon Square (8th St), the right most point of the map pentagram. When the map was altered, New York Avenue did not move and Mass Ave pivoted around Mt V Sq; the northwest end of Mass Ave moved to the north, realigning New Hampshire Ave and repositioning Logan and Du Pont Circles, and narrowing the "V" in the map. Scott Circle was moved to the north. Note especially that moving Mass Ave makes it parallel to the section of Penn Ave between the WH and Georgetown, forming a regular rhombus, and adjusts the angle formed by New Hampshire Ave to very close to that of the Great Pyramid. Southeast This is an enlargement of the area south and east of the Capitol Building. Notice how "G" Street intersects the square plaza area (right- red). The upper avenue in red is Massachusetts, and the lower one is Potomac Avenue. On the right is the later version of the planning map. Note that G Street remains the same, while the open area on the river's edge is enlarged and shifted to the north; so that G Street now aligns with the southern edge of that area. Looking at the map, you will see that neither Capitol Street that runs east from the CB nor Lincoln Square also to the east of the CB, were moved, and that Mass Ave pivoted around Lincoln Square. As the point where Mass. Ave intersects the opening was moved up (north), allowing for the straightening of the avenue, Potomac Avenue is likewise realigned, as well as being lengthened. The square on Maryland Avenue moves closer to the CB. Compare The next image shows the new Ellicott map overlaid on the page 42 map, for the sake of comparison. As you can see, the greatest changes take place in the area surrounding the pentagram and the south-east corner of the map, while the positions of The White House, the Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue remain virtually unchanged (except for the extreme north-west end of that - above the WH.) In this image, we add another layer with the purple indicating elements that reamined exactly the same, and with yellow indicating the most radically changed elements, the most noteable of which are Mass. and Potomac Ave's, the landing at the Eastern Branch and the canal, and the three streets north of the White House. Note that Penn Ave between the WH and CB was not altered visably, meaning that the orientation for that was established in the first L'Enfant plan. Virginia Avenue Virginia Avenue is split into two sections by the Tiber Creek. In both maps, the southeast section of V Ave connects the East Branch to the point that is due south of the WH and due west of the CB, the supposed location of the GW monument. The purple rectangle on Virg. Ave south of the CB is the location of the Washingtob DC City Hall planned as by L'Enfant. In the revised map plan the upper segment of Virginia Ave (in yellow above) was also oriented to the monument location. When the monument location was moved, it appears as if the architects may have made an attempt to preserve the alignment with the southeast end of Virginia Avenue. Click to zoom out If you look at the larger image you will see that Maryland, Virginia and the segment of PA between the WH and CB all appear to be running at the same angles. It should now be clear that the changes made to the map, were not made by Ellicott after he replaced L'Enfant in the task of preparing the planning map for printing, but were adjustments that L'Enfant made to an earlier version of his own map. But just to give you a better look at the workings of David Ovason's mind, I would like to direct you to another curious quote from his much quoted book: "Careful examination of the changes made by Ellicott reveals that they are all, without exception, improvements, and are, more often than not, sensible adaptations to accomodate topographical requirements (meaning the lay of the land). This is especially evident in adjustments he made to improve communications with Georgetown, which would surely have suffered had L'Enfant's plan been put into operation." Here again is a section of the comparison map, focused on the Georgetown area, remember that the old map is marked in red, and the new map in blue, but that Ovason is presenting the red map as Ellicott's changed version. Can you tell me how either would not have worked? Ovason ends his discussion of the map changes thusly: "Fortunately, as we are studying zodiacs rather than ancient maps, our own survey of the alterations which Ellicott made to L'Enfant's map can end here. The full genius of Ellicott's minor-seeming changes to Pennsylvania Avenue will become clear later." Please remember that the 'changes' to which he refers are the differences between the Aug 91 line map and the page 42 map, which is actually L'Enfant's first version of the plan. Ovason is claiming that the page 42 version is an improvement over the line drawing. Sacred Geometry of Washington, D.C. Please remember that we have just dealt with two different planning maps by L'Enfant (one being the print that was hand delivered to George Washington on June 22, 1791 and the one that was mailed to him on August 19th of that year; the first is the map that shows the radical bend in Massacheusetts Avenue, and the other the dotted line map), and have shown that the June map does not closely resemble the current map. If you look at page 57 of Nicholas Mann's book The Sacred Geometry of Washington, D/C., you will find that he bases his whole analysis on the June image which he displays on that page with a note reading: "This is probably the plan L'Enfant submitted to the President in August". He asserts that the June "drawing no longer survives". Yikes. What can I say? Continue

Map Changes

As you can easily see, the two Ellicott maps are compatible with both the King map and the line map, and would require considerable work to have been derived from Ovason's page 42 example, which we will now take a closer look at.
Let's go back to the only specific comment made about the Ellicott changes, "Ellicott changed the alignment of Massachusetts Avenue, eliminated five short radial avenues, added two short radial avenues southeast and southwest of the Capitol, and named the city streets.", which focuses us on Mass. Ave.
Looking again at the Philadelphia copy of the Ellicott version of the map, we see that Mass. Ave., which runs through the upper part of the pentagram to the landing on the eastern branch of the Potomac, is virtually straight.

Comparing with the other version of the map (which I suggest is the map L'Enfant delivered to Washington at Mt Vernon in June of 1791), we note where the alignment of Massachusetts Avenue has has been altered by moving the position of the "bend" closer to the Capitol Building, while moving both the "upper" (north-west) and the "lower" (south-east) ends to the north a bit. In other words, the avenue was straightened to it's current form, from the one in the map image below.

Northwest
This is an enlargement of the area north of the White House, from the earlier map. I have highlighted streets that were removed from the later map. You can also see several squares that were subsequently removed. Note that the pentagon IS a part of this early plan, even though we can't know for sure who's idea it was.

If you look closely at the map you will see that when Mass Ave was straightened, it did so by pivoting around two points that stayed the same in the new plan. New York Avenue runs to the northeast from the WH and intersects Mass Ave at Mt Vernon Square (8th St), the right most point of the map pentagram. When the map was altered, New York Avenue did not move and Mass Ave pivoted around Mt V Sq; the northwest end of Mass Ave moved to the north, realigning New Hampshire Ave and repositioning Logan and Du Pont Circles, and narrowing the "V" in the map. Scott Circle was moved to the north.
Note especially that moving Mass Ave makes it parallel to the section of Penn Ave between the WH and Georgetown, forming a regular rhombus, and adjusts the angle formed by New Hampshire Ave to very close to that of the Great Pyramid.

Southeast
This is an enlargement of the area south and east of the Capitol Building. Notice how "G" Street intersects the square plaza area (right- red). The upper avenue in red is Massachusetts, and the lower one is Potomac Avenue.

On the right is the later version of the planning map. Note that G Street remains the same, while the open area on the river's edge is enlarged and shifted to the north; so that G Street now aligns with the southern edge of that area.
Looking at the map, you will see that neither Capitol Street that runs east from the CB nor Lincoln Square also to the east of the CB, were moved, and that Mass Ave pivoted around Lincoln Square. As the point where Mass. Ave intersects the opening was moved up (north), allowing for the straightening of the avenue, Potomac Avenue is likewise realigned, as well as being lengthened. The square on Maryland Avenue moves closer to the CB.

Compare

The next image shows the new Ellicott map overlaid on the page 42 map, for the sake of comparison.

As you can see, the greatest changes take place in the area surrounding the pentagram and the south-east corner of the map, while the positions of The White House, the Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue remain virtually unchanged (except for the extreme north-west end of that - above the WH.)
In this image, we add another layer with the purple indicating elements that reamined exactly the same, and with yellow indicating the most radically changed elements, the most noteable of which are Mass. and Potomac Ave's, the landing at the Eastern Branch and the canal, and the three streets north of the White House. Note that Penn Ave between the WH and CB was not altered visably, meaning that the orientation for that was established in the first L'Enfant plan.

Virginia Avenue
Virginia Avenue is split into two sections by the Tiber Creek. In both maps, the southeast section of V Ave connects the East Branch to the point that is due south of the WH and due west of the CB, the supposed location of the GW monument. The purple rectangle on Virg. Ave south of the CB is the location of the Washingtob DC City Hall planned as by L'Enfant. In the revised map plan the upper segment of Virginia Ave (in yellow above) was also oriented to the monument location.
When the monument location was moved, it appears as if the architects may have made an attempt to preserve the alignment with the southeast end of Virginia Avenue.

Click to zoom out
If you look at the larger image you will see that Maryland, Virginia and the segment of PA between the WH and CB all appear to be running at the same angles.

It should now be clear that the changes made to the map, were not made by Ellicott after he replaced L'Enfant in the task of preparing the planning map for printing, but were adjustments that L'Enfant made to an earlier version of his own map. But just to give you a better look at the workings of David Ovason's mind, I would like to direct you to another curious quote from his much quoted book:
"Careful examination of the changes made by Ellicott reveals that they are all, without exception, improvements, and are, more often than not, sensible adaptations to accomodate topographical requirements (meaning the lay of the land). This is especially evident in adjustments he made to improve communications with Georgetown, which would surely have suffered had L'Enfant's plan been put into operation."
Here again is a section of the comparison map, focused on the Georgetown area, remember that the old map is marked in red, and the new map in blue, but that Ovason is presenting the red map as Ellicott's changed version. Can you tell me how either would not have worked?

Ovason ends his discussion of the map changes thusly:
"Fortunately, as we are studying zodiacs rather than ancient maps, our own survey of the alterations which Ellicott made to L'Enfant's map can end here. The full genius of Ellicott's minor-seeming changes to Pennsylvania Avenue will become clear later."
Please remember that the 'changes' to which he refers are the differences between the Aug 91 line map and the page 42 map, which is actually L'Enfant's first version of the plan. Ovason is claiming that the page 42 version is an improvement over the line drawing.

Sacred Geometry of Washington, D.C.
Please remember that we have just dealt with two different planning maps by L'Enfant (one being the print that was hand delivered to George Washington on June 22, 1791 and the one that was mailed to him on August 19th of that year; the first is the map that shows the radical bend in Massacheusetts Avenue, and the other the dotted line map), and have shown that the June map does not closely resemble the current map.
If you look at page 57 of Nicholas Mann's book The Sacred Geometry of Washington, D/C., you will find that he bases his whole analysis on the June image which he displays on that page with a note reading: "This is probably the plan L'Enfant submitted to the President in August". He asserts that the June "drawing no longer survives". Yikes. What can I say?

Continue