The lost and untold history of Washington, DC. New and old content regularly tweeted automagically for your scrolling pleasure.
Washington, D.C.
Based in United States
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A Black farmer from New Orleans bought 26 acres in McLean the year the Civil War ended. 140 years later, the Washington Post was still writing about his family on the same quiet street.
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Before it was Petworth's favorite Sunday beer spot, 3634 Georgia Ave NW had barbers, a Hungarian immigrant, a taxi crash victim, and a 1986 auction. The Looking Glass Lounge's untold history:
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A $20,000 slander suit, a mystery neighbor so awful he forced a family to sell at a loss, and a senator's aide named Pitman Pulsifer... welcome to Corcoran St. in 1890.
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Before the homemade Pop-Tarts and boozy shakes, 505 8th St SE was a locksmith shop padlocked by the DC tax office over $975,000 in back taxes. The full story of this Capitol Hill brick building spans nearly a century and three tenants.
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In 1937, a capacity crowd packed a brand-new 1,007-seat Art Deco movie palace at 12th and Newton NE. Look up above the Brookland CVS today and you can still see it.
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In 1986, DC was one of the last places in America where 18-year-olds could legally drink. It took one horrific crash on the Beltway to change everything in 48 hours.
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In 1922, President Harding unveiled DC's only statue of a woman on horseback in Meridian Hill Park. Then in 1978, someone stole her sword and it stayed missing for 33 years.
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In 1912, crowds gathered at all hours, some until midnight, just to watch sculptors chisel a giant marble globe outside Union Station. One slip could ruin everything.
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The day before Wilson's 1913 inauguration, 5,000 women marched up Pennsylvania Ave into a hostile mob. It took an hour to move 10 blocks, and even Helen Keller was too shaken to speak.
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In 1969, students camped on tiny Potomac islands and planted a flag reading "Stop the Bridge." A congressman held DC's Metro hostage to force it through anyway. Here's how they still won.
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In October 1928, a massive German airship floated silently over the White House and Capitol. Even President Coolidge stepped outside, bareheaded, to catch a glimpse.
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In 1860, 70 samurai in silk robes and topknots arrived in DC, drawing crowds of 20,000. One 17-year-old interpreter became such a heartthrob that women chanted his name outside his hotel.
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DC workers numbered every brick of Francis Scott Key's Georgetown house so it could be rebuilt. Then they stacked the pieces by the river and lost the whole thing.
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A sitting US president was once arrested in DC for speeding... on his horse. And the officer who booked him? That story is even more remarkable.
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A boy on tiptoe peers into the candy bins at a Chevy Chase corner store, same as he did in 1975, and 1931, and 1926. How a frame house at Broad Branch and Northampton has survived a century:
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Who was the "objectionable neighbor" so awful they forced a homeowner on Corcoran St. to sell at a loss in 1885? We dug into the 1890 census to meet the block.
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In 1915, D.C. had two entirely separate school systems mapped out block by block. One tiny schoolhouse on Chain Bridge Road was still lit by oil lamps well into the 1920s.
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Zoom into an 1870s photo of Ford's Theatre and you'll spot a shop selling wooden legs, iron legs, even children's legs. The story behind it is stranger than you'd guess.
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A president's dedication, a civil rights leader fresh from a bombing, and a lawsuit against Ben Bradlee for assault at a funeral. All three happened inside one quiet Quaker house on Florida Ave.
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Arlington County was almost called Mount Washington. The twisting tale of how it got its name involves an English earl, George Washington's step-grandson, and a Confederate general's abandoned mansion.
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