Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington

Here’s a cool advertisement for Budweiser in the Washington Times. This is from 1917 and what’s interesting, of course, is that the sale of alcoholic beverages would be banned the following year with the beginning of Prohibition. Luckily, we don’t live in such bleak times and you can now drink your beer from a Ghosts of DC stein or pint ... Read More »

The Chevy Chase post last week was quite popular, so I’ll add another one for the neighborhood. I came across an article in the Washington Times from December 14th, 1918, only a month after Armistice Day was celebrated in the District. Fulton R. Gordon — we focused on his Columbia Heights development a while back — had acquired a large ... Read More »

This is an odd story from the Washington Times. The paper reported on August 11th, 1908 the arrest of a young five-year-old. Yes, a little kid was arrested and it’s a bizarre story. Not only was he taken in by the police, but they had to do so in front of the young boys dog. Poor Nellie. Seated on his ... Read More »

Admittedly, I do not focus enough east of the river. I was doing a little digging around the Library of Congress archives and came across this gem. This is an advertisement for homes in Congress Heights, published on May 17th, 1902 in the Washington Times. Read through the whole thing. It’s amazing. Related articles Move to Cathedral Highlands: An Unobstructed ... Read More »

Obviously I have an obsession with this blog, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this. But do you love the blog? If you do, you should get a shirt, a hoodie, a coffee mug or a pint glass. Then, when you take your sweet vacation to China, you can take a picture on the Great Wall wearing the shirt and we’ll ... Read More »

I am a self avowed history nerd. And I love Washington … I think that is abundantly clear. Recently, at the Historical Society of Washington, Knight Kiplinger remarked that Washington, DC was the nation’s capital before it was a city. Since the 6th United States Congress arrived more than two hundred and eleven years ago DC has gone from wilderness ... Read More »

Here’s an advertisement I found in the Washington Post. It’s from the mid 1920s and row houses were being sold throughout Brookland. Check out today’s view of the sample homes from the ad. The address is 2902 10th St. NE. Related articles Thanks For the Encouragement (ghostsofdc.org) Move to Cathedral Highlands: An Unobstructed View of the Entire Surrounding Country (ghostsofdc.org) Read More »

Here’s a cool ad for homes in Glover Park in the late 1920s. The sample home was at 3833 Beecher St. NW, but the photo in the advertisement appears to be 3837 Beecher St. (according to Google Street View). Take a look yourself. Related articles If Walls Could Talk: Plain Old Pearson’s in Glover Park (ghostsofdc.org) If Walls Could Talk: ... Read More »

Initially, this was going to be part of the previous post about Cathedral Highlands, but it was too good. This deserves it’s own post. Trust me when I say this is crazy. We learned from the advertisement in the previous post that Matteson worked in the Colorado Building on G St. Side note … Thomas F. Walsh struck gold in ... Read More »

It’s been a little while since we’ve done a “Reader’s Choice” post, so this one is for GoDCer Samantha, who tweeted the request to do something on Cathedral Heights. I also haven’t really done anything about that area, so this works out well. Let me start with a quick fact … Cathedral Heights started out as Cathedral Highlands. The neighborhoods of ... Read More »

This one’s cool … not as cool as Abe Lincoln, but pretty cool. Thanks Shorpy! This is a photograph (colorized) of Jessie Hoover of the Department of Agriculture. She was a milk utilization specialist and pushed a national campaign to educate Americans that milk was nutritional with the slogan “better food, less expense.” Miss Hoover lived at 1819 G. St NW, ... Read More »

In Washington, late into the evening of December 6th, reporters worked their normal, likely frantic, hours and submitted their articles in time to be published the following morning. War had been raging in Europe now for two years, but it was still very distant for Americans and those living in Washington. It was the thing they read about in the ... Read More »

We haven’t done a “Three Things…” post in a while, so let’s go to the far reaches of the District, up to the Maryland line, and talk about some things you didn’t know happened there long ago. 1. The tragic suicide of a local tailor There’s always a macabre story when doing one of these posts … and this is ... Read More »

So, this is a really crazy story. I came across the following headline in the Washington Post from August 15th, 1903. Okay, you piqued my macabre interest. I have to read this one. Edward M. Fossler, aged eighteen years, an elevator conductor at the New Willard Hotel, was killed at 4 o’clock yesterday by being caught between the elevator and ... Read More »

This one is a little spooky with the way he’s looking at you. This is a photo of Harlan Randall of the Washington Opera and it appears as if he’s looking right through you. Creepy. When Harlan wasn’t singing with the Washington Opera, he spent time as a music instructor at the University of Maryland. He also spent time staring ... Read More »