This the second guest post by GoDC contributor Andrea Pawley. Material for this blog is derived in part from Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee edited by Virginia Jeans Laas and published in 1991. Abraham Lincoln died from an assassin’s bullet on April 15, 1865. For a week afterward, the women closest to Mary Lincoln supported her as ... Read More »
This guest post was written by Canden Schwantes and is an excerpt from her book Wicked Georgetown: Scoundrels, Sinners and Spies. William Orton Williams and Walter Gibson “Gip” Peter were cousins and as part of the Peter family were descendents of George Washington’s step-granddaughter. They both grew up at Tudor Place in Georgetown, home of the Peter family from its ... Read More »
This is a cross post by Douglas Barclay, originally posted here. One of the major joys of going to school in Washington DC is the cities unrelenting exposure to history, both large and small. I am sure that most students at Catholic know that the old Fords Theatre, located only seconds from Forever 21 and H&M in Chinatown was the ... Read More »
With DC Beer Festival taking over Nationals’ Park last weekend (March 23-24), it provides a timely reminder of how closely intertwined baseball and beer are with one another. Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a New York Yankee homerun was “a Ballantine blast” in Mel Allen’s famous calls. Up in New England, it was Curt Gowdy greeting viewers with “High ... Read More »
Yesterday Tom shared a somewhat jarring photo of the Capitol dome — colored red. It wasn’t something we had seen before, dating roughly to the late 1950s. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have much information. After a bit of digging, we now know that the Capitol’s re-painting (and temporary red coloring) happened in April 1960. The photo spotted on Twitter came ... Read More »
This is a first guest post by new GoDC contributor Andrea Pawley, a resident of Washington, D.C. history. Much of this post is based on Washington Arsenal Explosion: Civil War Disaster in the Capital by Brian Bergin, edited by Erin Bergin Vorheis (The History Press, 2012). Friday, June 17th, 1864, was hot, especially for the women of the Washington Arsenal ... Read More »
More than 50 years later, the names still evoke magical and majestic memories for long-time DC basketball fans. The Archbishop John Carroll Lions of the late 1950’s arguably still reign as this city’s best-ever high school hoopsters. They reeled off a 55-game winning streak against high school competition and totally dominated over a three-year period from 1958 through 1960. Most ... Read More »
This is our first “If Walls Could Talk” guest post. Marty wrote a great bit on one of the incredible mansions on Mass Ave. The stately mansion at 2020 Massachusetts Ave NW surely must be one of DC’s greatest real estate bargains ever. The Indonesian government bought it back in 1951 for $335,000, less than half of what it cost ... Read More »
An atheltic-themed statue outside of the State Department is marked with few words — but it has an interesting history. Discobolus is a bronze copy of a fifth century B.C. Greek sculpture by Myron. You’ll see similar copies around the world. Adolf Hitler even acquired one. And that’s where the story gets interesting. Washington’s version of the ancient discus-throwing jock arrived ... Read More »
Our buddy and early GoDCer John has an excellent book out on Frederick Douglass. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. He’s an excellent writer and he was kind enough to share an excerpt with the GoDC community. There is no record of a lynching having ever occurred within today’s city limits of Washington, D.C. If the malediction ... Read More »
This is the first guest post by GoDCer Tim. Given that we have “ghosts” in our name and with today being Halloween, it’s appropriate to have a post about the paranormal. Also, don’t forget to check out Tim’s recently released book on Amazon about haunted Capitol Hill. On Capitol Hill a few blocks from the Eastern Market Metro Station is ... Read More »
Here’s a weird image from the early archives of WMATA. It depicts “Halloween In Washington” but clearly stretches the bounds of reality — and Metro’s rules. Let’s face it… there’s no way a guy riding a giraffe could ever board a Metro train. We really don’t know much about this image. It was included among dozens of unlabeled pages of ... Read More »
On the morning of President Nixon’s 1969 inauguration, several local businesses ran newspaper ads congratulating the new chief executive. Furniture stores, department stores, grocers… few are immune to inaugural excitement. But one local business had — in hindsight — a remarkable ad in the Washington Poston January 20, 1969. Check out this ad placed by the Watergate complex. (You can ... Read More »
The final regular season game of the 2012 regular season was a little bittersweet. Sure, Teddy finally won a president’s race (with some timely assistance from a faux Phillie Phanatic) and the Nationals chalked up the most wins of any team in Major League Baseball with a 5-1 victory over the loathsome Phillies. A crowd of more than 37,000 gave ... Read More »
A Washington doctor with an interesting name was among the first to suggest a link between mosquitos and malaria. Meet Albert Freeman Africanus King. Dr. A.F.A. King was a professor of obstetrics at Columbian University, precursor to the present-day George Washington University. The malaria-mosquito connection was his top scientific acheivement. But history remembers his presence at another key American moment ... Read More »
Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington