Vermont Avenue was almost extended all the way to Georgia Avenue near Howard University. See the map of the proposed extension.

The site of so many wonderful baseball and football memories, Griffith Stadium, had its life ended by the brutal swings of a wrecking ball in 1965. The hapless doormat of the American League, the Washington Senators stopped playing in there after the 1961 season, after which, the days were numbered.

LeDroit Park was established as one of the first suburbs of Washington, D.C. It was named for a family member of the founders Amzi Barber.

Check out this cool photo of Howard University’s football team in 1904. GoDCer Andy sent this in after checking out this cool post about Georgetown Prep’s basketball team. St. John’s College is now St. John’s College High School on Military Rd.

It’s that time of year, again. Commencement speakers address graduating college and university classes, and inevitably their speeches are ranked, assessed, complimented, and criticized. This year, both NPR and Vox.com have compiled the best commencement speeches ever. From the lists they created, we’ve found all the commencement addresses that happened in Washington, DC and posted them […]

Check out this great old advertisement that we dug up in The Washington Times from September 7th, 1919. Source: Library of Congress

Here’s a cool photo that we found on Tumblr. This is Howard University’s Women’s Athletic Day in 1949. Source: Vintage Black Beauties

Here are two great old photos of Howard University’s Old Main Building.

This is a guest post by John (from The Lion of Anacostia), cross-posted here. For black newspaper boys holding their street corners throughout downtown Washington, on Thursday January 13, 1870 there was a new paper to hawk, a paper uniquely speaking to their emerging place in the country and city, “The New Era.” We forget Frederick Douglass came up […]

This is a guest post by John (from The Lion of Anacostia), cross-posted here. Forget what you’ve heard, or rather haven’t heard or yet read. Frederick Douglass was a Howard Universityman through and through. Douglass was not just a lion, he was a Bison. Douglass raised funds and donated his money to Howard. He received an honorary doctorate from the university. He testified before Congress […]

This is a guest post by John (from The Lion of Anacostia), cross-posted here. Frederick Douglass was a self-made man about town during his years in Washington. He was a frequent guest of the White House through the various Presidential administrations after the Civil War, he served as adviser to both black and progressive white Senators and Congress men, he often […]

Here’s a photograph from 1890 which shows Dr. Daniel H. Riggs of Howard University posing next to his carriage near the Smithsonian. In 1893, the doctor was the defendant in a malpractice lawsuit. The Post reported on the suit on October 13th. A case of interest to physicians and surgeons is that of Harry B. […]

I think you’ll agree that this is some serious history, frozen in time. Both former baseball star Jackie Robinson and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. were among a group of prominent individuals receiving honorary degrees from Howard University in the summer of 1957. This was the 89th commencement held at the university and […]

How did Columbia Heights get its street names? This history goes back to the early 1900s when street names came into alignment with the rest of the District.