William Beckett: From Linnaean Hill to the Library of Congress

The Friends of Peirce Mill and the National Park Service initiated the William Beckett Project in 2023 to learn more about the remarkable life of a man who was once the enslaved manager of Joshua Peirce’s nursery business on Linnaean Hill, now Rock Creek Park headquarters. The project began after the discovery of  compelling new evidence that Beckett was also Peirce’s son.

With funding from HumanitiesDC, we researched William Beckett’s life before and after emancipation, and through a long and prominent career as a DC business owner, presidential coachman, church and community leader, and doorkeeper at the Library of Congress.

William Beckett: From Linnaean Hill to the Library of Congress will be on view through Sunday, May 5, near Klingle Mansion, 3545 Williamsburg Lane NW, Rock Creek Park. There is limited parking near Klingle Mansion; please note that the building is not open to the public.
The mansion, once known as Linnaean Hill, can be reached by the Western Ridge or Multi-Purpose Trails from Picnic Grove #1, which is across the street from Peirce Mill, 2401 Tilden Street NW. Follow the signs from the picnic shelter, or refer to this Rock Creek Park trail map. 

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Old black and white photograph of a man with bushy whiskers in a bowler hat.

A profile of William Beckett, published by The Colored American Magazine in 1902, features this portrait of Beckett, along with new information about his life and relationship to Joshua Peirce.