Topic

1940s

World War II reshaped Washington completely. The Pentagon rose across the river in just 16 months, the federal workforce exploded, and the city became the command center for the Allied war effort. Housing was impossibly scarce, rationing was everywhere, and Washington hummed with wartime urgency from 1941 to 1945.

144 stories

AI-colorized photograph of the Dunbar Hotel: the hotel along 15th street.

The Dunbar Hotel: A Gathering Place for Black Washington6 min read

Before it welcomed jazz musicians and visiting professionals, the Dunbar Hotel was a brewer’s luxury apartment house at 15th and U.

Eight officials and officers at three firing booths in the Treasury basement range.

The Shooting Range Beneath the Treasury Building3 min read

The Treasury’s basement range had electric targets and an air lock. Two men in its 1940 photograph had corresponded about the investigation of Al Capone.

Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. in Halloween costumes with President Kennedy in the Oval Office, 1963

Washington Used to Trick-or-Treat a Night Early8 min read

For about twenty years after World War II, Washington kids started trick-or-treating on October 30, a night early. They called it beggar’s night.

Original 1973 theatrical poster for The Exorcist: a man with a hat and bag silhouetted under a streetlamp in front of a lit house

Behind The Exorcist: The 1949 Boy and the Wrong House8 min readEpisode

In August 1949 the Evening Star reported that a priest had freed “a 14-year-old Mount Rainier, Md., boy” from the devil. That phrase sent curiosity seekers to the wrong town for half a century. The family actually lived one town over, in Cottage City.

The Duo Who Built D.C.’s First Freeway: Archie Alexander, Maurice Repass, and the Whitehurst Story6 min read

A four-year-old cut the ribbon on the Whitehurst Freeway on October 8, 1949. It was Washington’s first elevated highway.

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Ella Watson stands before an American flag holding a broom and mop, Gordon Parks, 1942

Ella Watson’s Home: The House Behind American Gothic7 min read

Gordon Parks made Ella Watson famous in 1942. Census records, deeds and old newspapers reveal her home at 1433 11th Street NW and the block around her.

Engraving of the interior of the Northern Liberty Market in 1875, a vast hall under arched iron roof trusses with rows of market stalls and crowds of shoppers

Northern Liberty Market and Boss Shepherd’s 1872 Raid15 min read

Nearly 200 laborers showed up at 6 p.m. with orders to tear down the Northern Liberty Market that night. By 11 the roof was gone.

The General Scott apartment building at 1 Scott Circle NW, Washington DC

The General Scott Apartments: A 1940 Deco Landmark on Scott Circle10 min read

Robert O. Schultz’s 1940 General Scott Apartments at 1 Scott Circle NW, the mansions it replaced, the WPA underpass beneath, and the 1982 tenant buyout that saved it.

Capital Transit demonstration run of a Twin Coach articulated bus (a model they did not end up using), April 3, 1948. This turnaround is still used by buses today [photo by Robert S. Crockett].

1971 Calvert Street: The Toddle House at the Adams Morgan Bus Turnaround8 min read

The Toddle House diner at 1971 Calvert Street NW served Adams Morgan from 1940 until 1971, survived a 1942 knife suit over a bad cup of coffee, and shared a chain name with a Bethesda restaurant that was still turning Black customers away in 1957. The building still stands.

Color photograph of a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-049 Constellation named Paris Sky Chief (NC86505) parked on an airport ramp. The polished silver aircraft displays TWA markings and the distinctive triple-tail design, with hangars and airport equipment visible in the background.

The “Paris Sky Chief”: When a Constellation Flew From National Airport to Paris8 min read

On December 3, 1945, TWA’s Constellation “Paris Sky Chief” lifted off from Washington National Airport for Paris, christened with a blast of vapor as a band played. Here is the story.

The Francis Scott Key Mansion at 3516-18 M Street NW in Georgetown, its gabled roof and chimneys intact, with the Potomac River behind it.

Francis Scott Key’s House in Georgetown, and How DC Lost It6 min read

Workers took the house apart and numbered its bricks for a reconstruction that never happened. The stored pieces gradually disappeared.

Temple Court off D Street and Delaware, SW, Washington, D. C.

Old Southwest DC: Temple Court in the 1930s and 1940s1 min read

Temple Court off D Street and Delaware Avenue SW, around 1940. The area is unrecognizable now; the Rayburn House Office Building went up nearby in 1965.

Entrance of the Tune Inn at 331 1/2 Pennsylvania Avenue SE on Capitol Hill

Tune Inn Capitol Hill: A DC Dive Bar Since 19479 min readBest Of

Three blocks from the Capitol dome sits a 1947 dive bar with deer butts on the wall and a Nardelli behind the counter.

Pentagon construction site on July 1, 1942, with three sides framed up, parked cars and worker trailers in the foreground, and the fifth side still open ground

When Was the Pentagon Built? The 16-Month Wartime Sprint9 min read

Sixteen months from groundbreaking to dedication. Thirteen thousand workers on round-the-clock shifts. Segregated cafeterias FDR personally overruled.

1940s. "Arlington County, Virginia. War Department. Pentagon, aerial view." Safety negative by Theodor Horydczak.

The Pentagon From Above in the 1940s1 min read

Theodor Horydczak’s aerial photograph shows the Pentagon in Arlington during the 1940s.

Aerial view of the Pentagon and the roads around it, about 1947

Why Does the Pentagon Have Five Sides? The 1941 Story6 min readBest Of

The Pentagon’s five sides were drawn over one weekend in July 1941 to fit an Arlington farm tract bounded by roads. Then Roosevelt moved the site, and the shape stayed.

Alexandria, Va. Gabby's Tavern at left. Spire of old City Hall

Alexandria in 1940: Charles Cushman’s Kodachrome Old Town4 min read

Four early Kodachrome color photos of Old Town Alexandria from a single September 23, 1940 afternoon, taken by an amateur named Charles Cushman. He shot four frames and drove away. The Pentagon broke ground eleven months later.

Hand-colored 1860 lithograph showing the long Gothic Revival St. Elizabeths Hospital building with carriages and pedestrians in the foreground.

Dallas Williams, the “Bad Man of Swampoodle”9 min read

Dallas Williams’s trials exposed conflicts over DC’s insanity defense, years before he killed two men at a gas station in 1961.

Street-level photorealistic rendering of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Crystal Heights glass towers

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Crystal Heights: DC’s Lost Glass City9 min read

Frank Lloyd Wright drew Washington a glass city of twenty-one towers on a Connecticut Avenue hill. The height limit refused to let it rise.

A Capital Transit streetcar boarding passengers on a downtown Washington street in 1937 with the U.S. Capitol dome in the background

Washington Almost Built a $56 Million Streetcar Subway at the End of World War II5 min read

In 1944, Washington weighed a $56 million, 7.1-mile streetcar subway under downtown, which would have been the longest in the country.