Admittedly, I do not focus enough east of the river. I was doing a little digging around the Library of Congress archives and came across this gem.
This is an advertisement for homes in Congress Heights, published on May 17th, 1902 in the Washington Times. Read through the whole thing. It’s amazing.
Do you have any idea of exactly where the Randle Park development was? Also, is this A.E. Randle the same Randle of both Randle Heights and Randle Highlands?
The characterizations of executive branch agencies are imaginative and sweetly whimsical. Treasury is dressed as an accountant and Interior as a Civil War veteran. The Post Office Department is a letter carrier — his trousers have the same stripe today, but his headgear looks more like the billed pillbox hats worn by baseball players in the late 19th century. The War Department figure is clearly a Rough Rider, and the young government woman representing the Ag Department presumably refers to its role then-contemporary in food safety, nutrition, and home economics