Washington in the 1970s was a city reinventing itself. Home rule arrived in 1973, giving DC its first elected mayor. Metro opened in 1976, remaking how the region moved. Watergate consumed the political establishment for two years. And neighborhoods that had been devastated by the 1968 riots slowly started to find their footing again.
Take a look back at the history of 1319 Connecticut Ave NW in Dupont Circle, home of the Mad Hatter! We uncover the stories of Mrs. Cordley’s antiques store, The Jenny Shoppe, Wig Fair and more.
Providence Hospital opened on Capitol Hill in 1861. It took First Manassas wounded a month later. The site is now Providence Park.
If you were at the Capital Centre on February 10th, 1975, you were one of 18,800 lucky fans witnessing Led Zeppelin’s performance. Learn about the show, the arrests, and the setlist here!
Take a rare look at Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney on Air Force One back in September 1976. Learn more about the history of this iconic plane at GhostsofDC.org.
Two nights before Nixon’s 1969 inauguration, James Brown opened the Armory with ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.’
Do you recognize the women in this photo from 1971? They are shopping at Hecht’s in Tysons Corner, three years after it opened as the largest enclosed mall in the world. Can you identify them?
Miriam Auerbach Wolf was 12 in this 1924 photo. She grew up to be the first woman life member of the Washington Board of Realtors’ Million-Dollar Sales Club.
On a Saturday night in 1972, House Speaker Carl Albert’s white Thunderbird hit two cars outside the Zebra Room in Cathedral Heights. No police report was ever filed.
Six spires of Alabama marble, 288 feet tall. The Washington DC Mormon Temple opened near Kensington, Maryland in 1974. Shortly after, someone painted “Surrender Dorothy” on a nearby Beltway overpass.
