Whitehurst Freeway was envisioned I'm the 1940s to bypass Georgetown traffic. Ultimately opened in 1949, it was named for Captain Herbert C. Whitehurst.

What do you see in this photo of Pennsylvania Avenue? It’s an amazing scene from the early 1900s, where you can see the Willard Hotel prominently positioned, as well as the old Washington Post building and the Treasury Building in the background. Let’s do a little analysis of this old image to see what we […]

A stunning old photo of trucks on parade, going west down Pennsylvania Ave. towards the White House.

It’s been extremely difficult for me to track down any audio recording of the greatest pitcher of all time, Walter Johnson. We have written so much about him, and yet, we have no idea what is voice sounded like … that is, until now. Thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive — one of […]

Constitution Avenue used to be named B Streets. That wasn't impressive enough so Congress had a few options.

On Friday, 50 years ago, The Washington Post printed this article detailing the upcoming state visit of West Germany’s Chancellor, Ludwig Erhard. Washingtonians were reading this in the morning newspaper, the same day Kennedy was in Dallas. This visit never happened. Source: John F. Kennedy Library WEST GERMANY’S new Chancellor, Ludwig Erhard, will arrive at Langley […]

I was doing some research on J.P. Morgan. (Ok, research backstory: In the summer 1919, he was summoned, er, subpoenaed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They wanted to ask him why he had a copy of the draft peace treaty with Germany in 1919 before it had been released to the public. I found […]

Where was the last farm in Washington, DC? It was located in Congress Heights, in southeast and was gone by 1939.

Warren Buffett, Ben Feldman, and Patch Adams were all from the Washington DC area.

Today, 2461 18th St. NW is one of the more popular late-night destinations in the rowdy Adams Morgan neighborhood. Far from it's days as a store where you could buy a crib.

Do you know why it’s named Andrews Air Force Base? Who was Andrews? If you know, before reading this, you are an all-star GoDCer. The base’s military history dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops occupied a church near Camp Springs, Maryland. The church still stands, and is used on the base as […]

Photos like this really captivate us. This is Miriam Auerbach at the age of 12 in 1924. Her father was Joseph Auerbach, clothing store merchant from Germany, who had arrived in the U.S. in 1906. He married her mother Edna, almost 20 years his junior, in 1919. Miriam and her younger brother, Joseph Jr., were […]

This brilliant, money making nuisance was first installed in Oklahoma City in 1935 to help reduce congestion and encourage parking turnover.

This is a tremendously obscure YouTube video, but for any baseball nuts in the GoDC community, you’ll dig this. The video features Buddy Lewis, former Washington Senator and World War II veteran. He played his entire war-interrupted career here in D.C. Buddy was originally from Gastonia, North Carolina, playing a total of 11 years here. […]

This is an interesting article from the Washington Times, dated August 8th, 1914, exactly 98 years ago today. World War I (i.e., the Great War) had been going for roughly two weeks and the paper reported the impact it would have on the local schools. Many school teachers were spending their summers in Europe when […]

What is the history of Washington's famous Old Ebbitt Grill? It was founded in 1856 as the city's first saloon.

Washington Metro cars were almost bright red. Early mockups had the trains looking tomato red.

To satisfy your hunger for more Officer Sprinkle, I took a look into where he lived in 1900. At the time, he was 34 years old, had been married to his wife Teresa for 10 years and had been working for the Washington police force for the same amount of time. The Sprinkle family lived […]

Who doesn’t like a good IPA these days? I found this simple ad for Arnold’s India Pale Ale in the Washington Times. Back in 1906, Charles Jacobsen was the owner of Arlington Bottling Company, located at 27th and K St. NW (right where Whitehurst Freeway now dumps out). Charles was a first generation American, with […]

This is another haunting discover, much like the advertisement I uncovered for the Titanic (also, read about the notable DC resident that went down with that ship). I came across an advertisement in the Washington Post on April 25th, 1915 — exactly 97 years ago today (a good “This Day in History” post) — for […]