Benjamin Franklin Gilbert (1841-1907), an American real estate developer, was the founder of Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and the city's first mayor. After founding the city in 1883, he purchased most of its land himself, approximately 1000 acres, and was elected mayor upon the city's incorporation in 1890.

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  • 1841-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
dbpedia-owl:Person/deathDate
  • 1907-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • B. F. Gilbert
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  • 1841-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • 1907-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • B. F. Gilbert
dbpprop:abstract
  • Benjamin Franklin Gilbert (1841-1907), an American real estate developer, was the founder of Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and the city's first mayor. After founding the city in 1883, he purchased most of its land himself, approximately 1000 acres, and was elected mayor upon the city's incorporation in 1890. He dreamed of creating "a fashionable suburb for Washington bureaucrats and a sylvan resort community where Washington's wealthiest families could escape the unhealthy summer air in the capital. " Selling lots for five cents a square foot, Gilbert emphasized the beauty and peacefulness of the local environment, and was especially proud of the pure waters of the local Sligo Creek, which he thought would bring health benefits to residents. He declined to seek reelection as mayor in 1894. His daughter, Margaret Gilbert Jamison, wrote of him: Although he made a great deal of money in early and middle life, he was essentially an idealist rather than a cold, calculating money grabber. He devoted a great deal more of his time and energy to persuading people with children to buy a lot and build a home in a pleasant place like Takoma Park than he did in trying to persuade wealthier people to invest their money in his subdivisions. He suffered from a stroke in 1901 and spent the rest of his life gravely ill. He died in 1907.
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  • Portrait of B. F. Gilbert
dbpprop:dateOfBirth
  • 1841 (xsd:integer)
dbpprop:dateOfDeath
  • 1907 (xsd:integer)
dbpprop:knownFor
dbpprop:name
  • Benjamin Franklin Gilbert
dbpprop:nationality
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dbpprop:otherNames
  • B. F. Gilbert
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  • Benjamin Franklin Gilbert (1841-1907), an American real estate developer, was the founder of Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and the city's first mayor. After founding the city in 1883, he purchased most of its land himself, approximately 1000 acres, and was elected mayor upon the city's incorporation in 1890.
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  • Benjamin Franklin Gilbert
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  • Benjamin Franklin Gilbert
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