Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington

This is an amazing old photograph with incredible detail. This was dug up in the Library of Congress archives. Read More »

This is a tragic story we came across in the Washington Post, from November 19th, 1912. This is the story of prank gone horribly wrong at Georgetown University. Climbing out on a narrow ledge on the front of the Healey Building at Georgetown University in the dark last evening to play a joke on a classmate, Philip N. Henry, 17 ... Read More »

What a great baseball moment, frozen in time. The photo shows five Georgetown baseball players in 1928. Read More »

Are you getting ready to go back to school? Have you paid your tuition bill yet? In 1911, your tuition bill would have been $100 (not sure if that’s per semester or full year). Damn, that’s 33% more than Catholic University at the time! Rip off. Today, if you’re going to law school, you’re forking over $48,835 (#FML). If you’re ... Read More »

That football bet story, uncovered in the last post, about Marjorie Morris is too good not to look into, and sure enough, there’s an article about it titled “Hilltop Football Victory Wins Bride for Student.” Below is the Washington Post article from November 21st, 1928. When Georgetown’s football team downed the University of West Virginia Saturday, it rang the wedding ... Read More »

Jack, a GoDCer in Poolesville, sent over a series of great story ideas, mostly focused on the ghoulish and ghastly. This is an excellent candidate for best “From the Crazy Vault” post yet. Well done Jack, you dug up some impressively crazy stuff. This is an article from the Washington Post on January 24th, 1883. Charles Shaw was tried and ... Read More »

To close out our week of baseball posts, we are going to highlight an old local baseball hero … one who you might not know. Joe Judge was Washington’s first baseman for almost 18 seasons, starting in 1915 up until 1932 (he played his final seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox). He was a fine ball player, ... Read More »

This might shocking to some of you, but had the outcome of some debates and votes been different, people might have taken their eighth-grade field trips to a different United States capital city. The War of 1812 was disastrous for Washington as the British rampaged through and razed the city. After the British defeated Napoleon in April of 1814, they ... Read More »

The front page of the Washington Times reported a big local signing in December of 1902 for the Washington Senators. They had inked the Georgetown shortstop, Charley Moran, to a contract Read More »