What was Washington, D.C. like in the 1950s? Take a look at our great posts with stories, people, photos, and history about the District from the fifties.
Brickskeller was an iconic DC institution that many locals remember fondly. Learn about its slow demise and the beer renaissance that arrived in DC, as well as a look back at the 1957 advertisement for its opening.
The Silver Sightseer streetcar gave cool, narrated tours of Washington D.C.’s famous landmarks in the late 1950s. Read about this one-of-a-kind, air-conditioned trolley that was specially decorated before it tragically burned down years later when the streetcar system closed.
When was Dulles Airport built? Unveiled in 1962, discover its visionary design and transformative influence on Washington D.C.’s landscape.
President Eisenhower needed a quick and effective way to travel from Washington to his summer home in Rhode Island. Air Force One was too large for the trip and a motorcade would take too long, causing major traffic jams.
Helicopters were relatively new in aviation and the military began conducting tests to see if one would meet the needs of the president.
Check out the video of the landing tests they performed on the White House South Lawn in 1957.
Did you know the Washington Senators almost moved to Los Angeles in 1957? This amazing and true story would have changed the outlook of baseball on both coasts.
Look at the homes for sale around Washington in 1952. These great old real estate ads from The Evening Star show the booming market at the time.
You may not know this, but there was a very public assassination attempt on a President very near the White House and it wasn’t that long ago. President Harry Truman was in the middle of his second term and his home was having under major renovations, forcing him to live in Blair House for several years.
It also might shock you to think about this, but he obviously commuted to work on a daily basis by walking across Pennsylvania Avenue, then a bustling main roadway through the heart of the city, surrounded by Secret Service and stopped for red lights.
An extremely brazen and violent assassination attempt occurred in front of Truman’s temporary residence on November 1st, 1950 in the middle of the afternoon with thousands of witnesses. The Washington Post wrote the following report the next day.
Hundreds of office and store employes, shoppers and pedestrians, cab and streetcar riders–perhaps as many as 2000–witnessed the gunfire battle yesterday between the Puerto Rican assassins and the White House police on Pennsylvania ave,. in front of Blair House.
Scores found themselves in the line of fire between the blazing pistols of Blair House guards and the attackers.
Two bullets hit shopper-crowded Whelan’s drug store, on the southwest corner of 17th st. and Pennsylvania ave., half a block away from the site of the shooting.
One bullet smashed through a plate glass window, a second flew through the open door of Whelan’s and landed on the floor, it was reported.
Hayward Simmons, 22, of 600 Columbia rd., a porter at the store, was outside sweeping up when he heard shots. He looked up and “felt a bullet pass by my head” and smashed into the window. A splinter of glass plunged into his arm as Simmons plunged into the store.
Twenty to thirty persons, strolling across the busy 17th and Pennsylvania corner, or waiting on the platform for a streetcar, ran pell-mell for the comparative safety of Whelan’s, the Mills Building which houses the drugstore, and other buildings nearby. One woman was seen racing wildly from the east side of 17th st., stumble and fall, get up and keep on running, leaving a black pocketbook and sweater behind her in the middle of the street.
…
Pvt. Donna Jean Cole, 18, Wac driver attached to the Pentagon motor center, was transporting Lieut. Col. Clifford P. Hannum, 904 Potomac ave., Alexandria to old State Department Building. She was just turning the corner at 17th into Pennsylvania ave. when they hear the shooting. She said: “When I heard this shooting, I saw a man lying in the street looking wounded and another looking dead. ‘Get down!’ the colonel yelled at me and I stopped the car, and he pulled me down behind the dashboard. We stayed there a few minutes and then the colonel got out. I was very nervous. I just knew they were trying to assassinate the President, and oh, I was nervous.”
This took place at 2:20 p.m., while Truman was taking a nap in the front bedroom. In the assassination attempt, two Puerto Rican nationalists, down from New York — Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola — had attempted to shoot their way into Blair House, assassinate the president and kick off a revolution in the United States. Standing in the way of this plot were three of the White House Police Force’s finest officers: Joseph Downs, Donald Birdzell and Leslie Coffelt.
Coffelt was stationed in the police guard house, positioned one building to the west of Blair House. Torresola walked up to the guard house, took aim and unloaded four bullets into the officer. Leslie was fatally wounded and bleeding to death in the booth.
With a gun battle blazing on Pennsylvania Avenue, Torresola headed east, just steps away from Blair House to reload his pistol. At the same moment, President Truman, startled by the sounds of gunfire opened, and looked out the window, in the line of sight of the would-be assassin. A nearby officer frantically waved and shouted for the president to get back.
As if on cue, Leslie Coffelt emerges from the guard booth, staggers to the side and leans up against it as he takes aim for Torresola. He fires one bullet, hitting him just above the ear, killing him instantly. Many speculate that Coffelt’s heroism and sharpshooting save the president’s life.
If you pass by Blair House, you will not notice a plaque on the right, commemorating the bravery of the fallen White House police officer, Leslie Coffelt, who died protecting President Truman. He remains the only officer to die defending the president in the line of duty.
IN HONOR OF LESLIE COFFELT
WHITE HOUSE POLCEMAN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE IN DEFENSE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HERE AT BLAIR HOUSE, NOVEMBER 1, 1950.
“FOR LOYALTY, BRAVERY AND HEROISM BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY”
Next time you walk by the house, take a minute to read the sign and pay tribute to Coffelt.
Here is some more news coverage of the assassination attempt on Truman.
The name Adams Morgan is from the names of two formerly segregated area elementary schools—the older, all-black Thomas P. Morgan Elementary School and the all-white John Quincy Adams Elementary School, which merged in 1955 following desegregation.
The land on which Seven Corners sits used to be owned by Frederick Foote, a former slave. He purchased the plot for $500 and left it to his children.
What is the history of brunch in Washington? The word dates back to 1895 and started appearing the the local papers in the early 20th century. Are you hungry?
