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1930s

The Great Depression hit Washington differently than most American cities. FDR’s New Deal brought a massive expansion of the federal government, filling the capital with new agencies, new buildings, and hundreds of thousands of new workers. The decade that devastated much of America actually transformed Washington into a modern metropolis.

165 stories
AI reconstruction of the 1931 newspaper photograph of Julian Altman holding a violin, Sylvia standing beside him, and Elmer seated with a cello.Sylvia Altman, DC’s Child Prodigy, and Her Brother’s Stolen Stradivarius8 min readColorized 1964 photo of a man in a dark suit and bow tie watching an older Black woman in a plaid dress and head scarf arrange vegetables, with bushel baskets of green beans, cabbages and potatoes, under a market shedUnion Market Was Built on an Old Army Camp and Circus Lot16 min readEpisodeMatthaus Lindner plowing behind his horse Nellie in 1975, an AI-enhanced restoration of a Washington Post photo by Margaret ThomasThe Last Farm in the District Wasn’t the Last13 min read
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Rock Spring Club, a three-story frame clubhouse with striped awnings on Conduit Road, about 1897Conduit Road Roadhouses: DC’s Vice Strip Over the Line11 min readEpisodeBlack-and-white panoramic photograph from 1927 of Suburban Gardens amusement park, showing a sign reading ICE CREAM COLD DRINKS at left, a CATERPILLAR ride sign behind it, and Black families in summer dress walking along a tree-lined dirt path.Suburban Gardens: DC’s Black Amusement Park in Deanwood13 min readEpisodeUptown Theater at 3426 Connecticut Avenue NW in Cleveland Park at dusk, with its red neon UPTOWN sign and lit marqueeUptown Theater in Cleveland Park: DC’s Last Movie Palace7 min readPhoebe Hearst Elementary SchoolPhoebe Hearst: The Woman Behind the School’s Name5 min readWashington Post banner headline Rigid Restrictions Protect Residents of Barnaby Woods above a photo of a white colonial house and real estate ads, November 14, 1937Barnaby Woods’ 1937 Promise of ‘Social Restrictions’9 min readThe Newton Theater's original Zink marquee and ziggurat over the CVS Pharmacy tenant, April 2007Newton Theater: The 1937 Brookland Movie House Behind the 12th Street CVS7 min read
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