This is an interesting article that we came across, published in the Washington Post on February 10th, 1924. A 10-year-old student in high school! She is Sylvia Altman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Altman, 612 Otis place northwest. The girl will not be 11 years old until June, and she entered Central high school February 1. Besides being able ... Read More »
Category Archives: A Personal Story
Feed SubscriptionComplete Biography of Officer Sprinkle
You all have been waiting a long, long time for this. So have we. Thanks to one of our GoDC fans, we have in our possession, the biography of Officer Sprinkle from the 1908 Metropolitan Police Department’s official history book. LIEUTENANT J. L. SPRINKLE Lieutenant J. L. Sprinkle, stationed at No. 2 precinct, was born July 7tgh, 1864, on a ... Read More »
Miriam Grew Up to be a ‘Million Dollar’ Realtor
Photos like this really captivate us. This is Miriam Auerbach at the age of 12 in 1924. Her father was Joseph Auerbach, clothing store merchant from Germany, who had arrived in the U.S. in 1906. He married her mother Edna, almost 20 years his junior, in 1919. Miriam and her younger brother, Joseph Jr., were both born in D.C. and ... Read More »
More on Marjorie Morris, the “Whoopee Party” Girl
I was trying to dig up a photo, or at least some more information on what happened to Marjorie. I was able to find two documents related to her on Ancestry.com. The first one I found was a record of her crossing the Pacific as a passenger on the U.S.S. U.S.A.T. “Thomas”, which departed Manila on September 22nd, 1926 and ... Read More »
The Crazy Family Problems of Real Estate Man William Matteson
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 »
Move to Cathedral Highlands: An Unobstructed View of the Entire Surrounding Country
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 »
100 Years Ago Today: Major Archibald Butt, D.C. Resident, Boards Titanic for Transatlantic Crossing
This post went up at exactly 8 a.m. this morning local time, which is twelve noon Greenwich Mean Time. Exactly 100 years ago at this very moment, on April 12th, 1912, the Titanic set off from Southampton, England, on her tragic maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. On the luxury liner was prominent Washington resident and presidential aide, Major Archibald Butt. Archibald ... Read More »
Pauline Floyd: Youngest Woman to Practice Before the Supreme Court
Pauline Floyd was a pioneer and an excellent role model for women pursing a career in law. Not only did she enter the legal field at a time when female attorneys were rare, she was one of the youngest to practice in the country. Even more impressive was the fact that she was the youngest female lawyer admitted to practice before ... Read More »
Robert H. Muir: Manager of The Cairo
There were a couple of requests a short while back to do a post on The Cairo, the most famous residential building in the city. You can Google it or check it out on Wikipedia, so no need to do the building’s history. I want to dig up the more anonymous stories of people associated with the building. So, here’s ... Read More »
Meet Officer Sprinkle – Captured Geronimo, Bodyguard for Wilson and Prohibition Violator
A couple of reader comments about an Officer Sprinkle in this earlier post piqued my interest in finding out a little more about the guy who has the kind of name you’d give to a cat. An unforgettable name, so hopefully I’ll be able to dig up enough information on this guy to write a post worthy of being “A ... Read More »
Henry Elphinstone Wins the 1911 Laurel to D.C. Marathon
Technically, it wasn’t a full marathon as it was only 20 miles, but young Henry Elphinstone from Baltimore finished first with a time of 2 hours 16 minutes and 40 seconds. This was a full two minutes faster than the second place runner, John Kelley, a member of the same Baltimore Cross Country Club. Read More »
Nick Altrock: A Columbia Heights Major Leaguer
I love D.C. and I am also obsessed with baseball…so fittingly, my first post will merge the two. I was poking around Flickr, looking at photos from the Library of Congress and I came across this guy. I couldn’t resist. Who is this goofy looking guy and what is his story? The man in the photo is Nick Altrock, former ... Read More »
Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington