Did you know that the Washington Senators almost moved to Los Angeles?
This is a great find from archive.org. We dug up an old home movie of a family’s visit to Washington and the White House. When you watch it, you’ll be shocked to see how different the times were (i.e., security compared to today was non-existent)
Source: The Internet Archive
Here is a good video we stumbled upon on YouTube. It was pulled together by Amtrak in 2008, on the occasion of the station’s 100th anniversary.
Here is an interesting video that we found, showing a collection of really old photos of D.C.
Here’s another great video of the old D.C. streetcar system.
This is some really cool old footage. It shows the 82 streetcar line running from Eckington, heading through northeast, up to Mount Rainier, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park, and College Park.
It’s really long, but well worth a watch.
Check out this amazing retro DC Metro infomercial from the 1970s! Thanks to GoDCer Harrison for sharing this awesome find on InTheCapital.
This is a rather strange photo. It’s of the Republican Congressional baseball team parading around the field at American League Park.
The photo was taken on May 3rd, 1926.
Don’t forget to watch Ron Paul crank a double in 1983. More importantly, watch the video to see the awesome Houston Astros uniform he’s wearing.
This is a drawing done by John T. McCutcheon for the 1919 visit of the Prince of Wales.
The Library of Congress also had this great clip of him visiting Teddy Roosevelt’s grave.
Below is the caption for the video.
In the summer of 1919, Edward, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, embarked on a tour of the Dominions. After touring Canada for several months, the Prince decided to spend several days in the United States. His visit was the first visit of a Prince of Wales to the United States since that of his grandfather, Edward VII, fifty years earlier. On his last day in New York, Nov. 21, 1919, the Prince made a semiprivate journey to Oyster Bay. Film shows the Prince placing a laurel wreath on TR’s grave in Youngs Memorial Cemetery; the Prince, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., wearing a mourning band, a man who is probably Joseph M. Nye, Chief of Special Agents, Dept. of State, and a group of men return down the path from the gravesite. Behind the Prince, the man wearing dark glasses is probably Viscount Grey, British Ambassador to the United States. A man wearing an ascot and walking in the rear of the group may be Rodman Wanamaker, Chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Reception to Distinguished Guests. The Prince tips his hat to people gathered alongside the path.
Do you know why it’s named Andrews Air Force Base? Who was Andrews? If you know, before reading this, you are an all-star GoDCer.
The base’s military history dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops occupied a church near Camp Springs, Maryland. The church still stands, and is used on the base as Chapel Two.
The 4,000-acre base began its current life in 1943 as Camp Springs Army Air Base. Toward the end of 1944, it was reported in the Baltimore Sun, on December 22nd, that the base was to become the air forces’ headquarters for the continental United States. The announcement was made the day earlier. Below is an excerpt from the article.
It will be responsible for air defense of the United States, for joint air-ground training and for training of service and combat units and crews and their preparation for deployment overseas, the announcement said.
The continental headquarters will be manned by personnel now assigned to AAF headquarters here, and new buildings and barracks will be built at Camp Springs airfield to accommodate them.
…
Brig. Gen. Eugene H. Deebe, of Long Beach, Cal., is to be the first commanding general of the CAF. He was formerly the highest ranking American air officer of the staff of Lord Louis Mounthatten in India.
On February 7th, 1945, the base was renamed Andrews Field to honor Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews, who had died in Iceland, two years earlier in a plane crash. At the time, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theater of Operators (i.e., kind of a big deal).
We dug up an interesting article about Andrews in the Washington Post from Mar 22nd, 1942.
Army legend has it that before World War I, when aviation was like flying on a leaf and a young lieutenant, “Andy” Andrews wanted to marry the general’s daughter, the general said Andy couldn’t be both his son-in-law and an army pilot.
So young Lieut. Andrews married the daughter and stayed in the cavalry–for three years.
In 1917 he transferred to the Army’s Neophyte Air Arm and with the Army of Occupation in Germany after the war had the satisfaction of being father-in-law Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen’s air service officer.
Today Lieut. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews is as tenacious in his aims as ever. And he aims to keep impregnable the theater of his Caribbean command which anchors in the Panama Canal Zone and fans out to the bases acquired from Britain.
Now, the base named for Lieut. Gen. Andrews is home to the 89th Airlift Wing of the United States Air Force, better known as the Presidential Airlift Group. You may recognize them for their most famous aircraft, Air Force One (there are actually two planes that serve as Air Force One).
And here is a cool video of Air Force One, taking off from Andrews Air Force Base.
