Robert Askins, 1938 DC Cyanide Killer: A Four-Decade Arc
On December 28, 1938, in a small alley off 6th Street NW, a 31-year-old woman named Ruth McDonald accepted a drink from a young chemistry student and was dead within the hour.
Lost History
Washington, DC neighborhoods and buildings that aren’t there anymore. Murder Bay, the old Center Market, brownstones erased for federal office blocks.
The Bishop Family Murders: A Bethesda Home, a Foggy Bottom Memo, and a 48-Year Manhunt
On March 1, 1976, a Foreign Service officer killed his family in their Carderock Springs home and vanished into a 48-year manhunt that is still open.
The Crazy Horse: The Wild Life of 3259 M Street, Georgetown
Walk into the Everlane store at 3259 M Street NW today, all blond wood and folded denim, and you are standing in what used to be the rowdiest room in Georgetown. For about a quarter of a century, this three-story building was the Crazy Horse, a beer-and-boogie nightclub the neighborhood spent years trying to shut … Read more
Dr. Dremo’s, Bardo Rodeo, and the Oldsmobile Showroom at 2000 Wilson Blvd
How a Court House Oldsmobile dealership became the Plymouth-in-the-wall brewpub Bardo Rodeo, then Dr. Dremo’s Taphouse, then a condo tower.
Tom Sarris’ Orleans House: Rosslyn’s New Orleans Steakhouse
For 43 years, Tom Sarris’ Orleans House held the corner of Wilson and Lynn in Rosslyn, complete with iron balconies and a steamboat salad bar.
Inside The Big Hunt: How a 1928 Dupont Storefront Became DC’s Weirdest Bar
The Big Hunt opened in 1992 inside a 1928 storefront at 1345 Connecticut Avenue NW and closed for good in 2020. Inside Dupont Circle’s three-story dive bar with the safari kitsch, the hidden patio, and the Hell’s Kitchen basement.
Erol’s Video Club: The DC Empire Before Blockbuster
Before Blockbuster, the DC area had Erol’s Video Club. Turkish immigrant Erol Onaran arrived in 1960 with $16, opened a Georgetown TV shop in 1963, started renting tapes in 1980, and built the largest privately owned video chain in America before selling to Blockbuster for $40 million in 1990.
The Time Baseball Almost Landed in Arlington (Not Washington)
For most of the 1990s, Arlington was the favorite to land the Montreal Expos. There was an HKS rendering on the Potomac, a governor in support, and three candidate sites in Pentagon City. Then in eighteen months it all collapsed, and the rejected block eventually became Amazon HQ2.
Hechinger Started as a Demolition Company in 1911
The Hechinger hardware empire began in 1911 as a Southwest DC wrecking crew. The story of Sidney Hechinger, the navy-blue H, and the bankruptcy that ended it in 1999.