Where were the police and fire stations located in Washington back in 1880? Check out this great old map. Source: Library of Congress This was done by the same people that did the great 1880 property values map, street sweeping schedule map, and the streetcar lines map.

Ulysses Grant was arrested for speeding by William West, an African-American metropolitan policeman. This is a great historical story.

Fascinating article of our blog's favorite hero Officer Sprinkle.

Thanks to the tweet below, we came across an amazing photo of Officer Sprinkle and his brother. The photo came from the National Law Enforcement Museum’s blog.

Here is the obituary for Raymond B. Sprinkle, the son of our favorite policeman, Officer Sprinkle. Thanks to long-time GoDCer John for sending this one in. SPRINKLE–On Monday, January 2, 1933. RAYMOND B., beloved son of Capt. and Mrs. Joshua B. Sprinkle,of 924 Madison street northwest. Body resting at the Tabler funeral home, 928 M […]

Really? This is a crazy headline from the Washington Post, published on March 1st, 1972. The city was a little rough around the edges then, but a policeman performing a holdup? A metropolitan policeman was arrested last night and charged with the armed robbery last Friday of a practical nurse employed at the George Washington […]

This is a wild story we dug up in the Washington Post. It was published on June 5th, 1938. Private Ernest Cullenber, of Park Police, yesterday made a story-book arrest. Clinging in the running-board of a commandeered automobile, he pursued a wanted motorist along Mount Vernon boulevard to Alexandria and back to Washington at speeds […]

Here is a terrific photograph from the Library of Congress, showing a traffic policeman at 14th and Pennsylvania, making use of a rearview mirror. The photo was taken some time in the 1920s.

You all have been waiting a long, long time for this. So have we. Thanks to one of our GoDC fans, we have in our possession, the biography of Officer Sprinkle from the 1908 Metropolitan Police Department’s official history book. LIEUTENANT J. L. SPRINKLE Lieutenant J. L. Sprinkle, stationed at No. 2 precinct, was born […]

I can’t find him in this photograph. Can you?

This is an awesome photograph of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department in 1922, on their motorcycles. (I’d hate to be the guy riding in the sidecar.) The photo was taken on April 26th, 1922.

If you lived in D.C. in the 1980s, seeing a police chase screaming down K St., or any other major thoroughfare, was not a rare occurrence. So, out of the thousands of chases mentioned in the newspaper archives, we have selected three to share in our next “Three Things …” post. 1. Rum runners crash […]

Our favorite officer and the patron saint of Ghosts of DC, Officer Sprinkle, took a trip up to New York City with a group of 21 contest winners from The Washington Post. Twenty-one winners in the Post’s European tour contest were in the Big Apple prior to heading across the Atlantic for their journey. Below […]

Here’s a crazy story for you from the 1940s. This was published in the Washington Post on June 4th, 1949. A young Air Force private was grabbed from a ninth-floor ledge of the Willard Hotel yesterday by three policemen who had spent 25 minutes persuading him from plunging to death. Paul J McDuff, 19, of […]

Where was Hell's Bottom in Washington, DC and what happened there? Here are three stories from lost history about the long-gone neighborhood.

What an awesome headline … we have to share this one with GoDCers. On October 28th, 1957, the Washington Post reported on a bizarre incident, where a man took a streetcar for an illegal joyride on Pennsylvania Ave. You have to read this to believe it. Clayton Morgan Jr., 40, of 1602 4th st. nw., […]

This is the first guest post by GoDCer Tim. Given that we have “ghosts” in our name and with today being Halloween, it’s appropriate to have a post about the paranormal. Also, don’t forget to check out Tim’s recently released book on Amazon about haunted Capitol Hill. On Capitol Hill a few blocks from the […]

Minnesota representative Francis shoemaker was arrested outside of his house office by two detectives serving a warrant. He had assaulted a taxi cab driver.

A huge gambling bust happened on January 31st, 1925. The location was a crowded restaurant on E St. where people would gather for illegal dice games and gambling. The Washington Post reported on it the following day. A Greek restaurant at 1217 E street northwest, said by the police to be a rendezvous for dice […]

Do you like your beer, wine or liquor? The Sheppard Bone-Dry Act of 1917 would have put a major damper on your libations when it was signed by President Wilson. November 1st, 1917 would be the day all Washingtonians would rue, when their legal right to consume alcohol was taken from them with the advent […]