Faces & Places of Yesterday

This beautiful image shows Center Market back in 1921. It was located on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th until 1931.

This lovely old image shows Lord & Taylor way back in 1959. Check out the beautiful old cars and the lousy parking jobs.

Young Evelyn Wadsworth was the daughter of the senator from New York and the granddaughter of John Hay, former personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln.

This great old photo shows the JCC at 16th and Q back when it opened in 1926.

Check this out … what a fascinating old stereographic photo of the Old Executive Office Building, then known as the State, War, and Navy Building, adjacent to the White House. John DeFerrari posted a great history of the building on...

We’re all cooped up consuming an inordinate amount of negative news staring at the tube. How about some cool photos and imagery of days gone by to take your mind off of what’s happening, even if just for a minute....

Need something to take your mind off what’s happening? How about some great old photos of downtown Washington 100 years ago? Here’s a terrific old image showing the Woodward & Lothrop Building, which still stands today. What a beautiful old...

This shows a snowy street in D.C. back in the early 1890s. You’re looking at Maryland Ave. Southwest near 7th St. Source: D.C. Library

Where is this? We dug this up on Shorpy and want to figure out where it was in the District. Source: Shorpy

You're looking at a cool old photo from 1926, showing the DCJCC at 16th and Q St.

This lovely old photo of Washington shows the Petworth neighorhood from the air in the 1930s. Any idea where this is in Petworth? Also, for those in Petworth who thumb their nose at the suburban dwellers or Washington, living in...

Take a look here at Garfinckel’s at 14th and F St. NW near the Treasury Building. The building still stands and is where The Hamilton is today.

Congratulations to the Class of 2019. Now you’re ready for the rest of your lives! Take a little inspiration from this lovely historic photo showing your predecessors graduating in the late spring of 1925. Actually, I believe it was July...

Back then it was called Western High School. Washington had that school north of Georgetown, Eastern High School near Capitol Hill and Central High School just north of U St.

Film footage of Washington shows how different things were. Listen to some of the narrative, including the past about George Washington’s slaves “living happily in their quarters.” Yes, that was really said.

This is from the Georgetown University archives showing a group of young men gathered in a dorm room in 1913.

A herdic cab is a type of horse-drawn carriage, used as an omnibus, invented by Peter Herdic of Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in 1881.

Take a look at this remarkable view down Pennsylvania Avenue in about 1921. So stunning.

This amazing old photograph shows the intersection of 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., where the Willard Hotel sits. It has some amazing details so click OK it to see them.

This is a great old map of Georgetown. Click on it for greater details. Source: Library of Congress

This crazy old photos shows Georgetown’s flooding and the Potomac in 1918. Here’s another good piece about it at The Georgetown Metropolitan.

This lovely painting shows Georgetown in the distance as it looked in 1855. Source: Library of Congress

This lovely old image shows the site of the National Archives early in the construction process. It was taken on July 1st, 1932.

This lovely old photo was taken in 1941. You're looking at the old terminal (then the only terminal) at National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

Okay GoDCers! This is a photo shared by a fellow reader Eric. He sent it in quite a while ago, so I’m a bit late on sharing this with the group. But, I promised to crowd-source the investigation with the...

Take a look at the building below. This is the Federal Aviation Administration’s headquarters on Independence Ave. SW. It obviously didn’t always look like this. Now look below at what the block looked like in 1941, on the eve of...

Can you even believe this photo. This dude is just sitting on what appears to be a low stone wall on the south side of the White House. This would be E St. today and if you even came close...

This photo was posted by the National Archives and labeled as “negro laborers, near coal wharf.” This beautiful old photo shows the faces of regular African-Americans in the 1860s, living and working around Alexandria. Photos like this really make you...

Here’s a great old photo of Washington back in the 1920s. You’re looking down 11th St. NW from L St. Source: National Archives And here is what it looks like today on Google Street View. You can still see the...

We’ve looked for a high resolution image of Griffith Stadium for quite some time. We finally dug one up at the National Archives. Check it out below. Source: National Archives Here’s another great one we found.