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Lost History

The Nike Missiles of Fairfax County

In May 1954, a carpenter on Pope’s Head Road shrugged at the Nike missile battery going up next door. At least, he said, folks would know where the road was.

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Tongsun Park, in glasses and a paisley tie, raises his right hand to be sworn in, with the Great Seal of the United States behind him.Koreagate’s Clubhouse: Tongsun Park’s George Town ClubNov 2Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. in Halloween costumes with President Kennedy in the Oval Office, 1963Washington Used to Trick-or-Treat a Night EarlyOct 30Original 1973 theatrical poster for The Exorcist: a man with a hat and bag silhouetted under a streetlamp in front of a lit houseBehind The Exorcist: The 1949 Boy and the Wrong HouseOct 29EpisodeA packed lawn of concertgoers at dusk facing the lit Merriweather Post Pavilion stage, with trees behind.Merriweather vs. Wolf Trap: The Fight Over the Symphony’s Summer HomeOct 27FBI agent Gene Harding standing in the front doorway of 4407 W Street NW talking with a reporter in February 1980The Abscam House: How the FBI Secretly Rented a Post Reporter’s Home on W Street NWOct 26Rock Spring Club, a three-story frame clubhouse with striped awnings on Conduit Road, about 1897Conduit Road Roadhouses: DC’s Vice Strip Over the LineOct 23

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A hatchet photographed in 2004 that a Wikimedia Commons contributor identified as the one thrown in the 1970 Bunny Man incidentIs the Bunny Man Real? The 1970 Story and Bunny Man BridgeJust after midnight on October 18, 1970, a man in a white bunny suit threw a hatchet through a parked car’s window on Guinea Road in Fairfax County.A bull shark swimming, the species responsible for shark sightings in the Potomac RiverSharks in the Potomac River: Bull Sharks and the 1911 Scare1881 political cartoon showing Guiteau holding a gun and a note that says "An office or your life!" The caption for the cartoon reads "Model Office Seeker." (Wikipedia)President Garfield’s Assassin: Charles Guiteau’s Time in WashingtonTwo Red Line trains arrive at Metro Center station beneath downtown Washington, the iconic Harry Weese coffered vault overhead, photographed in 1980.When Did Metro Open in D.C.?Au Pied De Cochon in 1980 with two payphonesAu Pied de Cochon: Georgetown’s All-Night Bistro, 1976–2004

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Tivoli Theater (photo by Flickr user dbking)The Tivoli Theater in 1924: Crandall’s “Temple of the Arts”Nov 2Kids playing with guns at Woodrow Wilson High School (1943)Children Playing with Toy Guns at Wilson High in 1943Nov 2Saving Daylight! postcard (1918)Daylight Saving Time and a Cigar Company’s 1918 CampaignNov 2Popular Lieutenant Sprinkle of the 5th precinct (1914)Officer Sprinkle: Captured Geronimo, Accused Bootlegger, and Bodyguard to President WilsonNov 2

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