Capitol Hill is one of the oldest and most historically layered neighborhoods in Washington, stretching from the Capitol itself east through the rowhouse blocks that housed members of Congress, their staffs, and generations of working families. These posts dig into the neighborhood’s history, from its earliest houses to the urban renewal battles that defined it in the 20th century.
What does Washington D.C. used to look like? Take a look at this aerial view of E Street around 1900 and try to identify some of the old buildings. Come uncover the past with us!
Take a journey back in time to explore the history of East Capitol Street, before it was even a street. See a fascinating old photograph, mislabeled as Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park, taken by William M. Chase.
Take a look back in time with us at East Capitol Street from the Dome, with a photo taken in 1880 and a modern update. Check it out!
In 1796 an Englishman named William Tunnicliff opened the first hotel in Washington, D.C., a brick house on Pennsylvania Avenue SE that survived for 135 years. The place we call Tunnicliff’s Tavern today on 7th Street SE borrows the name. The original is something else entirely.
Providence Hospital opened on Capitol Hill in 1861. It took First Manassas wounded a month later. The site is now Providence Park.
Plan of part of the city of Washington : on which is shewn the squares, lots, &c., divided between William Prout Esq’r and the Commissioners of the Federal Buildings, agreeably to the deed of trust / laid down from a scale of 200 feet pr. inch by N. King, 1800.
An interracial affair, a jealous rage, and an axe murder in a Capitol Hill boarding house led to the 1869 trial of Millie Gaines, the first in Washington, DC to seat a racially mixed jury of six Black and six white men.
An 1863 photograph looking southeast down New Jersey Avenue, with A Street and B Street (now Independence Avenue) in the foreground, and the Washington Navy Yard and Eastern Branch visible in the distance.
This 1903 map of Lincoln Park shows the neighborhood in transition, with many vacant lots and a race track at 15th Street and North Carolina Avenue that has since disappeared.
