Rock Creek Park runs through the heart of Washington, a 1,754-acre strip of forested parkland that has divided the city’s neighborhoods since it was established by Congress in 1890. The park has served as a recreational escape for Washingtonians for more than a century, and its history includes Civil War fortifications, a functioning flour mill, and the unsolved murder of a Georgetown socialite. These posts explore Rock Creek Park’s long and layered history.
Halfway down the Rock Creek slope at 2400 Tilden Street NW stands Isaac Peirce’s 1811 whiskey still. In 1954 Sherman Adams moved in and ran the Eisenhower White House from a converted distillery three miles from Lafayette Square.
This 1890 photograph shows a group riding horse-drawn carriages through Rock Creek, years before the National Park Service formally established Rock Creek Park. See if you can recognize the area today.
Teddy Roosevelt went for a pleasant walk in Rock Creek and unfortunately lost his wedding ring in the process. This is a great ad in the newspaper asking for its return.
This Thanksgiving, take a look back at historical photos of Peirce Mill and the Rock Creek Park spring house in 1910. Amazingly, the structures look almost exactly the same today!
Take a journey through history with us and explore the historical entrance to the National Zoo in Rock Creek Park. Learn more about the area and its past with us today.
Take a look back in time with this amazing photo from the 1880s-1910s. We can’t quite tell the direction of this shot, but we think it’s looking east toward Mt. Pleasant
Take a look at this 1907 view of K St. bridge over Rock Creek Park. See the bucolic and rural atmosphere from this incredible photo from Library of Congress.
How about the 460 acres of land for sale along Rock Creek? This is the part of the park up near the Maryland border.
In these 1966 drawings, train cars roll under Connecticut Avenue, but above Rock Creek. These amazing early Metro plans never came to fruition. They depict the Red Line between Dupont Circle and Woodley Park.
