Melvin Hazen

Melvin C. Hazen
Melvin Hazen in 1905
Born	Virginia
Died	July 15, 1941(1941-07-15) (aged 73–74) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	American
Known for	Board of Commissioners, Washington, D.C.

Melvin Colvin Hazen (1867-July 15, 1941) was President of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, effectively its mayor, between 1933 and 1941. Hazen was born in Catlett, Virginia in 1867 and graduated from the University of Maryland in 1886.^[1] In 1889, he joined the surveying corps of the District of Columbia, laying out the street grid beyond the L'Enfant-Ellicott Plan laid out in 1792. Starting at the entry level position of axeman, responsible for clearing brush on survey teams, he rose through the ranks of the D.C. Government. In 1908, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia appointed him Surveyor of the District of Columbia, responsible for all cadastral measurements, street layout, and enforcement of building setbacks. ^[2]

As the Surveyor was responsible for extensions of the street grid and recording the location of public lands, he served as the principal figure involved in urban planning decades before D.C. had such an office. During this time, he spoke out on matters in the nascent field of planning, and in support of the McMillan Plan. As Surveyor, he was tasked with enforcing a 1914 act that called for the slum clearance of Washington's inhabited alleys. The alleys were streets, often wide, that broke up the often large blocks of Washington's original street plan. The residents of alleys were primarily working-class and African American. Hazen supported the clearances but raised concerns about the process.^[3]

In 1933, with the support of his friend Cary T. Grayson, he was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia.^[3] This panel served as city managers for the District of Columbia between 1876 and 1967, when D.C. was governed by the United States Congress directly. Press coverage suggests he was affable and extremely popular among some segments of the citizenry. He was reappointed two more times by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, before dying at his desk in July, 1941.^[2] Constance McLaughlin Green, in her history of the District of Columbia, Washington: Capital City, 1879–1950, considered him emblematic of the pleasant but business-friendly and ineffectual caretakers who oversaw DC during its unelected government. Melvin C. Hazen Park, a wooded valley around a tributary of Rock Creek between Cleveland Park and Van Ness was named in his honor.

During his time as Surveyor, he advocated for the clearance of the largely African American community of Reno for a park and schools. He first advocated for the demolition in a report in 1914 and returned to the topic in the early 1920s. Hazen prepared a plan for the park in 1924. In 1926, he testified in support of the clearance before the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, when a bill to fund the plan was proposed.^[1] This plan was eventually enacted by others between 1926 and the 1950s, creating Fort Reno Park and .^[2]

In November 2020, the neighborhood council that represents Melvin C. Hazen Park requested that the National Park Service, the federal agency that manages the park, change its name, citing his importance in the clearance of Reno.^[3] On February 24th, 2021, D.C. Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton called on the NPS to change the name.^[4]

Notes[]