I saw this photo and I had to share it. This is a photo from June 21st, 1942. We were in the early days of World War II and in the middle of rationing. This poor pup was sitting with his owner waiting through long gas lines the day before strict rationing went into effect. I’m sure […]

Between 1936 and 1943 the Work Projects Administration (WPA), about 2,000 posters were designed to promote the arts, community activities, and used for education. The Library of Congress has digitized 907 of these posters. The one below is one of our favorites – the Navy asks to borrow your binoculars to help prevent attacks at […]

Now this is an interesting old film we found on YouTube. It’s a bit long, but if you’re from Alexandria, you’ll find it entertaining and recognize quite a few of the old buildings. What do you think? Did you recognize any of the old buildings?

On this date, 50 years ago, The Washington Post printed a story about the government of Austria owing the District back taxes on their embassy for lack of payment during World War II. The building in question was at 2343 Massachusetts Ave. NW, which today appears to house the Croatian embassy. About once every two years, […]

This is definitely (hopefully) something you would not see today. It’s a large parade of tanks heading from the Capitol Building towards the White House. Source: National Geographic The caption claims it’s 1947, but the discussion on Reddit seem to point to a time during World War II.

Americans love France, but we hate the French. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word, but we do have a very bizarre relationship with France. It’s kind of unfair, given that they pretty much legitimized the Revolution and helped us actually become a country. And, it goes both ways with the Americans and Allied Forces […]

Back from lunch? Check this cool photo out from World War II. This is a great photo of some schoolboys going door to door on what appears to be Ingleside Terrace in Mount Pleasant in May 1942. What do you think? Check out the Google Street View below. It looks like the home in the […]

I wonder what happened to this couple. It’s possible that this photo was staged for the war effort. Also, take a look at the soldiers milling about in the background. This photo reminds me of this one, also from World War II. Update: Sorry we mislabeled this as a soldier. We are clearly not experts […]

We’re sharing a ton of great old photos this week and this is a great moment, frozen in time from 1943. It’s a shot of a soldier, sitting near a woman posing for a photograph. If you look closer at the man, it appears that he’s eyeing the woman.

This is a tremendously obscure YouTube video, but for any baseball nuts in the GoDC community, you’ll dig this. The video features Buddy Lewis, former Washington Senator and World War II veteran. He played his entire war-interrupted career here in D.C. Buddy was originally from Gastonia, North Carolina, playing a total of 11 years here. […]

The popular “Three Things…” post about Dulles Airport prompted me to give equal treatment to our other local, older and much more convenient airport: National Airport (not Reagan National Airport, thank you very much). Actually, the airport was once known as the National Airport at Gravelly Point. Maybe we should change the name to George […]

This is a far more charming photo of Washington in 1943 than the mock execution being held on the grounds of Woodrow Wilson High School. More than likely, Spangenberg was in the background of that photo, running drills. After a little Googling, I found Walter Spangenberg had his own biographical page. He learned to fly […]

The District's peacetime population exploded as government grew and workers - men and women - flocked to new jobs.  It was 1940.  Census employees hit the streets in April.  They determined that D.C. had grown rapidly.

In Washington, late into the evening of December 6th, reporters worked their normal, likely frantic, hours and submitted their articles in time to be published the following morning. War had been raging in Europe now for two years, but it was still very distant for Americans and those living in Washington. It was the thing […]

This is an amazing old color photo that I came across on the Library of Congress’ website. It was taken by John Collier in May 1943. The unnamed sailor at left appears to be somewhere between 19 to 24 and is visiting Arlington National Cemetery with his girlfriend. The photo is one of a large […]

Continuing the Anglo-American theme of today, here is a second video of a British Prime Minister in Washington. Winston Churchill took a steamship through German submarine-infested waters around Christmas in 1941, just after the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II.

Love it. Hate it. It has some of the most confusing terminology for out-of-towners. Inner loop of what? Outer loop? But there’s only one Beltway. Wait, I’m on 495, but also 95, and that’s 295? That’s not confusing. Super GoDC reader, DrCapsFan (if we make t-shirts, he might get the first) suggested doing a little […]

Here’s an interesting story from the end of World War II. Near the end of the war, the Crowned Prince of Iraq, Abdul Ilah was due to visit Washington and newly inaugurated President Truman (Roosevelt died only a little over a month earlier). Below is an article from the Washington Post, on May 10th, a […]

This is a shocking photo. Look at this picture of two children playing with fake guns. Kids emulate what they see and this was taken at the height of World War II in 1943. The cadets in the background are performing drills at Woodrow Wilson High School. This photo eerily reminds me of the 1968 […]

My last post went way back to the 1920s. This one is a couple of decades after that, but well before the Washington Capitals arrived here. Our second “Before Ovechkin” post will cover the Washington Lions of the American Hockey League (AHL).