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If Walls Could Talk

When Hecht’s Opened Parkington, 60,000 Shoppers Showed Up

On November 2, 1951, an estimated 60,000 people turned out for Arlington’s new Hecht’s, the store at the heart of a shopping center named for its parking garage.

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Twelve-year-old Linda Bowman looks out her kitchen window near Fairfax Station at the farm field chosen for a Nike missile launching site in 1954.The Nike Missiles of Fairfax CountyNov 3Tongsun 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 26

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1881 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 WashingtonBefore shooting President Garfield in 1881, Charles Guiteau spent years in Washington as a failed lawyer demanding a consulship he believed he was owed.Washington Post map of new suburban subdivisions around Washington in 1961Washington’s New Suburbs in 1961: 57 Subdivisions on One MapA bull shark swimming, the species responsible for shark sightings in the Potomac RiverSharks in the Potomac River: Bull Sharks and the 1911 ScareRobert Todd Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial Dedication, 1922Row of historic brick and clapboard buildings along Fairfax Street in Alexandria, Virginia, photographed between 1910 and 1920.The 1910 Plan to Take Alexandria Back from Virginia

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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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