Posts the Ghosts of DC editors hand-pick from the archive. The strange, the vivid, and the ones worth pulling back to the front page after a few years buried.
Own a home at River Place in Rosslyn and you don’t own the land beneath it. In 2052, the 99-year lease on the old Arlington Towers runs out. Inside the history of Rosslyn’s brick towers, from a diplomats’ training garage to Arlington’s cheapest river view.
In 1807, two brothers named Andrew and George Way opened a glass factory on the Potomac, where the Lincoln Memorial stands today.
In June 1966, the Pagans and Avengers shot it out in broad daylight at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center in Arlington. Eleven bikers went to prison.
In 1910, Taft, Hannis Taylor, and Washington’s Board of Trade tried to undo the 1846 Alexandria retrocession. Virginia and a lame-duck clock stopped them
Harry Crandall’s Metropolitan Theater opened at 9th and E NW in 1918, hosted DC’s first talkie, and was demolished in 1968. Here’s its story.
Discover a pivotal moment in history with Mathew Brady’s stunning photo of Washington, D.C. in 1865, capturing the end of the Civil War era.
Part of the building at 20th and P St. near Dupont Circle came crashing down during construction in 1908. Two workmen were killed and several more came close to meeting a horrific end.
There used to be an airport where the Pentagon stands today. Washington-Hoover Airport operated from 1933 to 1941, replaced by National Airport.
Before it was Russia House, this Connecticut Avenue mansion flew the flag of the brand-new Irish Free State. A 1925 photo shows it in its diplomatic prime.
