Photo by PoPville flickr user StreetsofWashington
“Here’s a wonderful photo of an early Woodies delivery van parked at the loading ramp of the Woodies building downtown on 10th Street. For a history of Woodward & Lothrop, see here.”
when it got painted in 2011
All photos by Pat Tomelden
Thanks to Tony T for sharing some amazing photos his father took of the American hostages coming home from Iran through Andrews Air Force Base in 1981. Tony’s father Pat (RIP) was a prolific amateur photographer and a professional pilot for Eastern Airlines.
More photos after the jump. (more…)
140 Rock Creek Church Road, NW
From President Lincoln’s Cottage:
“On July 4, 1864, the same day the Lincoln family moved to the Cottage for the last time, Abraham Lincoln signed into law An Act to Encourage Immigration. This legislation cemented Lincoln and the Republican Party’s platform pledging that immigration “should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy.”
American by Belief, a new special exhibit opening this fall at President Lincoln’s Cottage, introduces the public to Abraham Lincoln’s little known immigration policies. Lincoln believed that America offered immigrants the full realization of its founding promises and a fair chance to succeed. Some of these very principles continue to draw immigrants to the United States 150 years later.
American by Belief opens on October 16, 2015, in the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center and will remain open for two years.
Follow here for immigration stories visitors have left us in the exhibit.”
Photos courtesy Council of the District of Columbia
From an email:
“Century-Old Photo Negatives Discovered, Depicting Taft Inauguration, Newly-Constructed Wilson Building, and Historic Blizzard
Through its ongoing effort to highlight elements of the history of the District government and its headquarters, the Council has discovered a cache of 108-year-old photo negatives featuring unique local subject matter.
Specifically, the 31 images constitute a historic triple-play in terms of their content, in that they depict:
· The Inaugural Parade of William Howard Taft as the 27th President on March 4, 1909
· The District (now Wilson) Building just months after its dedication
· A historic blizzard so bad that the Presidential Oath was extraordinarily moved indoors
Photos drawn from these negatives, perhaps the first to see the light of day in a century, are on display in the Ground Floor Atrium of the Wilson Building. For full details on the exhibit, please see below. (more…)
8th and Upshur Street, NW
“Dear PoPville,
A developer has applied for a permit to raze one of the first houses in Petworth. We discussed this project here before. It’s the house that has the steps on the side of the porch, which you can see on the photo from 1893.
Below is the notification from DCRA about a raze permit. Does anyone know if there is anything the neighbors could do to save this historic house from coming down? The developers could easily turn the house into condos without razing it.
The following raze applications were filed at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) between December 1, 2016 and January 5, 2017:
ANC Address
4C 4207 8th Street NW (two story brick single family dwelling, semi-detached)”
Merry Christmas and God Bless Fred Cranford for uploading this amazing, truly amazing video, of Commander Salamander in the 80s, now an M & T Bank (1420 Wisconsin Ave, NW) in Georgetown. And props to Old Time D.C. for finding it.
Ed. Note: Old Time D.C. is absolutely awesome.
“Dear PoPville,
Found this on the ground in the CVS on Mass Ave. Any idea when metro stopped using tokens?”
Hmm, did metro rail, bus and streetcar all take tokens. I know the old streetcar did but I didn’t know bus and/or rail did too? Can any history buffs/WMATA employees/old school peeps school us? Either way, very cool find!
Ed. Note: If you have a photo of a neat find you’ve stumbled on please send an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail.com thanks. Please let me know where you found it too.
Courtesy DC Council
From a press release:
“The final chapter in the long saga of the Wilson Building’s World War II Memorial has been reached: the fully restored Memorial has been reinstalled on the building’s ground floor.
After spending two decades broken and forgotten in a closet, then another five years languishing in a mystery status with no known identity, the Memorial’s original purpose was rediscovered in early 2016.
The memorial, measuring nearly 12 feet by 6 feet, honors the nearly 2,000 DC government employees who served during World War II. Their war service is especially poignant given that they could not vote neither for their Commander-in-Chief, nor for a representative or Senator in the Congress that declared and funded the War.
To visit the Memorial, enter the Wilson Building through the 13 ½ Street entrance, then take an immediate left.
This article describes the detective work it took to rediscover the Memorial’s history, and includes links to the original historical documents on which that work relied. The memorial’s historic timeline is included below. (more…)
Photo by PoPville flickr user LaTur
From an email:
“The Space Foundation today commented on the death of Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC (Ret.), 95, the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts, military test pilots selected by NASA in 1959 to become America’s first astronauts.
“U.S. success in space was built on the courage and determination of men like John Glenn, who dedicated his life to serving his country and proving what humans could accomplish in space,” said Kevin Cook, Space Foundation – Marketing & Communications.
In 1962, Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, and the fifth human in space. He was also the oldest person to go into space when, in 1998 at the age of 77, he returned to space as a Payload Specialist on Discovery’s STS-95 mission.
An Ohio native, Glenn was a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, engineer and United States Senator. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.”
Streets of Washington, written by John DeFerrari, covers some of DC’s most interesting buildings and history. John is the author of Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats, published by the History Press, Inc. and also the author of Lost Washington DC.
The Odd Fellows Hall, circa 1880. The two ground floor tenants are Asa U. Hazelton’s Boot and Shoe store on the left and the Webb & Beveridge China and Glass store on the right (author’s collection).
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple, standing at 419 Seventh Street NW downtown, represents the rare persistence of a private organization at the same D.C. address for more than 170 years. The IOOF built their first hall at this location in 1845; today they still hold meetings here in the building they completed in 1917. Their previous hall, an ornate Victorian palace, was the scene of many social activities in the late 19th century but has rarely been captured in photographs.
The Odd Fellows are a benevolent fraternal society devoted to charitable works. The group began in England as “an organization of mechanics and laboring men, united for social purposes and to aid its members to obtain employment, as well as to assist them pecuniarily, when in need,” according to the group’s 1888 history. Like the Masons, the Odd Fellows were known for secret rituals, colorful uniforms and insignia, and elaborate ranks and degrees. The first American Odd Fellows lodge was founded by Thomas Wildey (1782-1861), a London blacksmith who came to America in 1817, in Baltimore in 1819. Odd Fellow lodges spread steadily throughout the United States after that, with over one hundred established by the 1830s. The first Washington, D.C., lodge was formed in 1827, and a Grand Lodge for the District of Columbia was established the following year. At least half a dozen separate lodges were formed throughout the District in the first half of the 19th century. (more…)