Victorian Washington was booming in the 1880s. The decade brought the dedication of the Washington Monument (finally finished in 1884), the consolidation of Georgetown into DC, and a wave of grand Romanesque architecture that still defines many of the city’s neighborhoods. These posts explore Washington at its Victorian peak.
Read the front page of The National Republican from February 21st, 1885, the day the Washington Monument was dedicated. In our “In The Paper” series, explore the history of the nation’s capital as presented in local newspapers.
In February 1880, a mob of nearly 1,000 marched on the DC jail to lynch Tom Smothers. Marshal Frederick Douglass kept him alive.
Dr. Albert Freeman Africanus King attended Abraham Lincoln as he died at Ford’s Theatre in 1865. He later proposed enclosing all of Washington in a giant mosquito net to stop malaria.
An 1880 statistical map compiled by Lt. F.V. Greene shows property values across Washington, with land in Shaw and Mt. Vernon Square worth three to four times more than comparable plots in Dupont Circle.
Take a look at this amazing photo found in the National Archives. This smartly-dressed couple is riding an 1886-Model bicycle just south of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The Stickney House stood at 6th and M NW for a hundred years before the city knocked it down in the 1970s. A parking lot replaced it.
Learn the story of Vijo Jansen, the notorious “resurrectionist” who was caught grave robbing in Walter Pierce Park in the 19th century. Read about his arrest and the ghastly scene that was discovered in the wagon.
Discover the gruesome tale of Charles Shaw, convicted of murdering his sister & sentenced to death in 1883 DC. Unearth the dark world of 19th century body-harvesting & grave-robbing for medical research in this macabre story.
James Madison Wyatt Stone went to the DC gallows on April 2, 1880, after two respites from President Hayes. His lawyer was Richard T. Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard. The hanging made headlines for what the rope did to him.
