Ghosts of DCThe lost and untold stories of Washington

Try an address, a neighborhood, a name or a year, like “14th and U” or “1968.”

Not sure where to start?
Best OfThe stories readers come back toAtlasOur stories, on a mapPodcastOur stories, told aloud
The Willard Hotel ballroom with its roof exposed and debris covering the floor after the 1922 fireCalvin Coolidge and the Willard Hotel Fire of 1922Three horses pull a steam fire engine past spectatorsBarney, Gene and Tom: Washington’s Last Fire HorsesCaroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. in Halloween costumes with President Kennedy in the Oval Office, 1963Washington Used to Trick-or-Treat a Night EarlyOriginal 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 HouseEpisode
The daily email

A lost Washington story, every morning.

The newest story, plus a few from the archive.

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

Also in this morning’s emailTWA Boeing 727-231 jet N94314 parked at Washington National Airport in 1989The 1970 Dulles Hijacking: $100 Million Over a $471.78 Tax BillEpisodeStorefronts 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 behind14th Street’s Lost Red Light District: From Combat Zone to Cocktail BarsEpisodeDaytime exterior of Nathans bar at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW in Georgetown, with the dark blue NATHANS awning, The Q and A Cafe subtitle, and pedestrians on the brick sidewalkNathans Georgetown: 40 Years at 3150 M Street, and What’s There Now
The Atlas

Washington’s stories, on the map.

Find what happened on your block.

Explore the map

Readers’ favorites

A few of the stories readers keep coming back to.

See all
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 Washington
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 ScareEpisodeRobert 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