This photo is an aerial view of the Navy Yard just a couple of months before President Kennedy was assassinated. Source: National Museum of the U.S. Navy Here’s another one from the 1970s. Source: National Museum of the U.S. Navy And finally, from the 1980s. Source: National Museum of the U.S. Navy

What a great old photo of the Navy Yard. Source: Dig DC

Check this out … it’s an old 1858 plan for the Navy Yard. Source: Library of Congress

Digging through the old newspaper archives, we uncovered a the following headline: “Found Wife Murdered; And Man Lay Dead Beside Her In Husband’s Home; Believes He Did Shooting.” How can we not look into this? The piece was printed in The Baltimore Sun on October 24th, 1905. When Rudolph B. Scheitlin, who is employed at the United […]

Walking through the Navy Yard a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an incongruous plaque embedded on the side of a building. The building was a modern parking garage, similar to dozens around the city, and unremarkable in every particular. Except, of course, the plaque. It read, quite simply; Within this wall is deposited the […]

We found this great old plan for the Washington Navy Yard at the Library of Congress. It shows the position and dimensions of all the buildings as they were on June 1st, 1881. Source: Library of Congress

This is the best contribution thus far by a member of the GoDC community. This is from Tom H. in Bethesda, and when I first saw it, I was blown away at how professional it looked. Thanks Tom! The video is a fascinating history of the gun barrel fence in Georgetown, made from 364 reclaimed […]

Another map! Sweet. I think GoDCer David will dig this. Most of you will dig this because these old maps are amazing. This time, we’re checking out the Navy Yard circa 1921. This is the area around the current Nationals Park. Here is the same area today in Google Maps. Studying the 1921 map closely, […]

In January 1860, the Tokugawa shogunate sent a delegation to the United States with the primary objective of ratifying the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation (aka, the Harris Treaty). Commodore Matthew Perry (not Chandler) had opened Japan (forcefully) in 1854 and this was the first Japanese diplomatic mission sent to the United States. This historic event is particularly […]

Your second major stop on the WABA “Down the Tubes” bicycle ride on Sunday is going to be the O Street Pumping Station, down by the Navy Yard. This is a beautiful old Beaux-Arts building from the early 20th century, and I’m a little jealous of you all, since I won’t be on the ride […]

Here’s a haunting and solemn colorized photo from 1921, much like the Lincoln photo I posted a while back. The Unknown Soldier from World War I had just arrived by ship at the Washington Navy Yard. The body was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11th, 1921. Both former President Woodrow Wilson and current […]

April 10th, 1865 — Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered a day earlier at Appomattox Court House. The Civil War was over and the Union had been preserved. Workmen from the Washington Navy Yard, accompanied by a band, visited Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles to congratulate […]