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Lost History

Conduit Road Roadhouses: DC’s Vice Strip Over the Line

Gambling houses, speakeasies and Sunday crowds lined Conduit Road just past the District line, and Montgomery County spent three decades trying to shut them down.

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Councilman Marion Barry lying in a hospital bed with a bandage and monitor leads on his chest, gesturing as he speaks.The 1977 Hanafi Siege: 39 Hours That Held Washington HostageOct 22Entrance of the Tabard Inn at 1739 N Street NW under its "Hotel Tabard Inn" marquee, photographed by Theodor HorydczakTabard Inn History: Sold in 1927, Bought Back in 1930Oct 21A D.C. streetcar crosses the Foundry Branch trestle with Georgetown University spires behind, 1948Foundry Branch Trestle: DC’s Last Streetcar BridgeOct 20EpisodeElla Watson stands before an American flag holding a broom and mop, Gordon Parks, 1942Ella Watson’s Home: The House Behind American GothicOct 19Washington Daily News front page of October 13, 1926, headlined Ace of D.C. Detectives Slain on Wedding Day, with a portrait of Detective Arthur B. ScrivenerArthur Scrivener: Murder or Suicide in a Georgetown Alley, 1926Oct 18Engraving of the interior of the Northern Liberty Market in 1875, a vast hall under arched iron roof trusses with rows of market stalls and crowds of shoppersNorthern Liberty Market and Boss Shepherd’s 1872 RaidOct 17
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Washington's Last Streetcar Bridge Is Held Up by Vines

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Swampoodle HousesSwampoodle: The Lost Irish Neighborhood Union Station ErasedA rough, all-Irish neighborhood called Swampoodle once stood where Union Station is now. The railroad cleared it, and DC forgot.Abraham Lincoln colorized (1865)Colorized Photo of Abraham Lincoln, 1865Storefronts of the 800 block of 14th Street NW in the early 1980s: the Californian Steak House, Benny's, the Cocoon, the Butterfly and the Gold Rush, with the Parkside Hotel behindThe Night Benny’s Died: How 1980s Developers Erased D.C.’s Red-Light DistrictThe Story of Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s MansionAI illustration imagining L'Enfant Plaza as planned in 1962Fedlandia Emerges from L’Enfant Plaza: From Southwest DC Neighborhood to the Future

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The Beatles at Washington Coliseum - Feb. 11th, 1964The Beatles’ First US Concert Was at Washington Coliseum (Feb 11, 1964)Updated Oct 22EpisodeCaptain John Smith map - full size (1612)Why Is It Named Anacostia? The Native American Origins of DC’s Historic NeighborhoodUpdated Oct 17Raven Grill storefront on Mount Pleasant Street NW with the vintage neon Cocktails sign in the windowThe Raven Grill: 91 Years on Mount Pleasant StreetUpdated Aug 25Cairo Flats circa 1890The Cairo Hotel: How One Apartment Tower Wrote DC’s Skyline LawUpdated Aug 25

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