Category Archives: History

Adventures, Essential DC, Fun & Games, History, The Daily Feed, The District
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A Movie Location Tour Of DC

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

DC’s become a hot spot for filming these days! Real World, Real Housewives of Orange County, Blonde Charity Mafia, as well as Reese Witherspoon, Night at the Museum and so many more. It’s a wonder that we didn’t get a DC movie site bus tour any earlier. But it’s here now, better late than never.

Screen Tours has arrived to take you and other interested parties around DC to all our hot film spots. Shop in the mall where No Way Out and True Lies were filmed; stand on the steps where Father Damian fell to his death in The Exorcist; visit the bar used in St. Elmo’s Fire; go to the park used in The Sentinel and see locations from Wedding Crashers, Thank You For Smoking, Election, X Files, Independence Day, Forrest Gump, and many others. From classic films of the seventies such as The Godfather II, All the Presidents Men, and Being There to the recent Transformers, Mission Impossible III, West Wing, 24, and The Visiting, the tour of Washington DC TV and movie sites takes tour guests on a journey of the timeline of filming in DC.

Tours run Saturdays at 10 am and depart from Union Station. Detailed information on all tours can be found at www.screentours.com. Advance purchase is required, as tours normally sell out. To purchase tickets call Zerve at 800-979-3370 or visit them online.

Downtown, Essential DC, History, The Features
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The “New” Ford’s Theatre Museum

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_3434’ courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’

Last night, Ford’s Theatre re-opened its museum after nearly two years of extensive renovation. The result is a transformed space that magnificently shows off the National Park Service and Ford’s Theater Society’s remarkable collection of artifacts of President Lincoln and the events surrounding his assassination on April 14, 1865.

The museum now tells the story of Lincoln from his arrival in Washington in 1861 through the Civil War and the sudden end of his life. Lauren Beyea, the museum’s publicist, explained that they “tried to create a greater sense of the context of what Lincoln’s life was like when he was in Washington. The city doesn’t have anything like that – we have monuments and things that are in tribute to him scattered around the District. But being Ford’s Theatre and storytellers ourselves, we thought it would be a great opportunity to really embrace the history that surrounds this place as well as Lincoln himself.”

So what can visitors expect now? Continue reading →

Entertainment, History, Media, News, The Daily Feed
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Vote DC’s Ed Walker into National Radio Hall of Fame

Photo courtesy of
‘Studio Microphone’

courtesy of ‘curtis.kennington’
Ed Walker, American University graduate and DC radio legend, has been nominated to the National Radio Hall of Fame in the category “Local or Regional — Pioneer.”  With his soothing voice and radio history expertise, Walker has hosted The Big Broadcast,  a four hour radio show featuring classic radio programming from the 30s, 40s and 50s, since 1990.  These classic shows (Suspense, Flibber McGee and Molly, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, Lux Radio Theater, etc.) offer us a weekly reprieve from computers and TV, and transport us back to a time when big movie stars like Orson Welles, Gary Cooper, Gene Harlow and Jack Benny communicated their acting and comical talents to the American public over the airwaves. Continue reading →

Downtown, History, Monumental, The Features
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Monumental: Pershing Park

Photo courtesy of
‘Film! – Canon A-1 – Pershing in Focus -11-7-08’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

Few people think much of Pershing Park. I’d wager that most walk by without noticing it. In spite of Pershing Park being DC’s largest World War I memorial, it serves primarily as a napping place for the homeless and a thoroughfare for tourists walking from Federal Triangle station to the White House. You never see people stopping to take pictures or reading the inscriptions on statue pedestals, and the space is a bit disordered and poorly maintained. In and of itself, the park is hardly worth writing about, but it does serve as a disheartening case study of Americans’ indifference towards our nation’s participation in the Great War.

Pershing Park is located on 15th and Pennsylvania, between the Willard and the Commerce building. It was constructed in 1981 by the Pennsylvania Ave. Development Commission in honor of Gen. John J. Pershing and the American Expeditionary Forces. In case you’re a little hazy on your history, Gen. Pershing was one of America’s greatest military minds and “General of the Armies,” the highest rank ever held by any American officer aside from George Washington (although, Washington received this distinction posthumously). Pershing commanded the Expeditionary Forces during World War I and his over all strategy has been credited by many as a deciding factor in the Allied victory of World War I. In the course of a year and a half of combat, his armies suffered over 300,000 casualties, but succeeded in dislodging the Germans from many key locations in Europe.

Continue reading →

Downtown, Food and Drink, History, Night Life, The Features, The Mall
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First Look: W Hotel Washington

Washington Monument from POV, W Hotel Washington

"Washington Monument from POV, W Hotel Washington" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

Yesterday I got a sneak peek at the W Hotel Washington, due to soft open next Wednesday. I’m so sorry I wasn’t allowed to photograph the interior for you. Because really, it’s absolutely gorgeous. I hope my words will give you a taste of what to expect on July 8.

First off, it’s impossible to tell what kind of vibe the W will actually have when its public spaces are filled with people. Will it deliver on the promise of some seriously stunning interior design and incredible libation talent? Or will it devolve into a pretentious hive? I can’t answer that now, but I do know that designer Dianna Wong’s wry elegant touches set the stage for a crazy scene.

I was happy to see the original architecture has been renovated, not gutted, melding the cool classicisim of the old hotel with the arch sensuality of the W style. Empress Josephine, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Lily Allen would all be at home in the grand Living Room, with its blacks and reds and pinstripes in a riff on the idea of “lingerie as a power suit.” The chandeliers are all lit for changing moods and clever little details abound, like the George and Martha Washington silhouettes flirting on the elevators.

My favorite part of this large room is tucked into a corner – the old registration desk with its imposing brass and marble is used as a private alcove with purple banquette seating. It’s the perfect example of how the W went about merging the historic with the new. Continue reading →

Dupont Circle, History, Mythbusting DC, The Features
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DC Mythbusting: The DC Streetcar System

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington, DC View east down F Street NW no date’
courtesy of ‘army.arch’

Welcome to another edition of DC Mythbusting.  In order to avoid thinking about the terrible accident on Metro yesterday, I’m going to transport you back in time to when DC had another transit system.  That’s right, our fair city was served by a streetcar system beginning in 1862, and the last of the trains ran a hundred years later in 1962.  Then, as was the trend at the time, the transit system was forced to switch to buses, and the streetcars were no more.  There are many legends about the streetcar– it’s hard to imagine a transit system just leaving town with no marks, but you look around the city today and it’s hard to imagine the thriving streetcar system that existed just a few generations ago.  However, we’re lucky enough to have some very cool remnants of the old streetcar system.

Have you ever walked around Dupont Circle and seen those things that look just like New York City subway entrances?  Well, those are old streetcar entrances.  They were not all fancy like our Metro entrances (no one is standing to the right on escalators here), they’re just simple stairwells down to the streetcar platforms.  Passengers would descend into the station, where the streetcar would run in half-circles.  The Mount Pleasant Line of the streetcar system shut down in 1961, and by 1964 the station entrances were paved over.  But that’s not the end of the story for Dupont’s old streetcar station– in 1995, the station opened as a food court called Dupont Down Under, but apparently people don’t like eating in windowless underground lairs when they could be eating outside in one of DC’s great urban parks.  The project failed within a year, and the area was once again abandoned.  A couple years back, Jim Graham suggested that the space be used for adult clubs; however, neighborhood residents weren’t too excited about that and the space has remained vacant.

Continue reading →

History, Mythbusting DC, The District, The Features
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DC Mythbusting: “Lobbyist” Coined at Willard Hotel

Photo courtesy of
‘WASHINGTON 2-35’
courtesy of ‘chantoozie’

Welcome to another edition of DC Mythbusting!  This week we’ll be busting the myth of the term ‘lobbyist’.  The legend that I’ve heard countless times in the District is that the term ‘lobbyist’ originated at the Willard Hotel when Ulysses S. Grant was in office (1869-1877).  Apparently President Grant would frequent the Willard Hotel to enjoy brandy and a cigar, and while he was there, he’d be hounded by petitioners asking for legislative favors or jobs.  It is said that President Grant coined the term by referring to the petitioners as “those damn lobbyists.”   The legend has been forwarded by the Washington Post, The Hill, the American Society of News Editors, and, of course, the PR director of the Willard Hotel.

It’s a fun story to tell tourists, and it makes the Willard Hotel even more of a landmark, but the legend is just not true.  Sure, President Grant visited the Willard Hotel and enjoyed his brandy and a cigar, but he did not coin the term ‘lobbyist’.

The verb ‘to lobby’ first appeared in print in the United States in the 1830’s, at least thirty years before Ulysses S. Grant came to Washington.  The term is believed to have originated in British Parliament, and referred to the lobbies outside the chambers where wheeling and dealing took place.  “Lobbyist” was in common usage in Britain in the 1840’s.  Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary, believes the term was used as early as 1640 in England to describe the lobbies that were open to constituents to interact with their representatives.

So there you have it: President Grant may have used the term to refer to all those hangers-on at the Willard, but the term was around long before he arrived in DC.

History, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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The 300 club

 Photo courtesy of
‘Nationals Home Opener’
courtesy of ‘cruffo’

Tonight could be historic at Nats Park. Giants’ pitcher Randy Johnson is going for win number 300. While 24 other pitchers have broken this milestone, it is conjectured that due to changing “strategy” (ie, not using ‘roids anymore) Johnson could be the last to do so. To post a win, Johnson needs pitch at least five innings, leave the game with the Giants in the lead, and then see that lead maintained by his relief. It’s a large number of variables, but Randy Johnson is obviously a quality pitcher.  I bet he can overcome them. If you’re planning on seeing a game this summer, you should definitely go tonight.

Continue reading →

Essential DC, History, Life in the Capital, The District, The Features, Where We Live
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Where We Live: Capitol Hill

Photo courtesy of
‘The Shape of Colors in DC’
courtesy of ‘Gen Jones (Gen-esis Photography)’

This week we’ll be looking at the Capitol Hill neighborhood. This neighborhood could probably be called the largest in DC, since essentially anything east of the Capitol, north/west of the Anacostia River, and south of Union Station is generally known as Capitol Hill.  The area is home to so many great places, from Eastern Market to Barracks Row to Union Station, and it also has some of the best historic architecture in the city.

History: The hill that the Capitol sits on was originally called Jenkins Hill (or was it?).  Pierre L’Enfant decided that it would be a good location for the “Congress House”, and before you knew it, it became the center of residential development in our fair city.  Because it was so close to the Capitol, congressmen lived in Capitol Hill boarding houses, and because it was so close to the Navy Yard, it was also home to craftsmen and laborers.  The neighborhood continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century, and many historic rowhouses in the area date from this era.  It was mostly a mixed-income neighborhood for the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  However, the fringes of Capitol Hill were hit hard by drugs in the 1980s, and as recently as 2000 crime was out of control in Hill East (if you get a chance, check out Jim Myers’ description of that time in The Atlantic).  Most of the area has bounced back, and Capitol Hill is now the city’s largest historic district and one of the city’s greatest neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Character:  The neighborhood is certainly one of the District’s most diverse.  You’ve got empty-nesters, long-time residents, recent college grads, families with small children, and Hill staffers all mixed together in a few square miles.  Hill East resident Shaun says, “My fiance and I live in a condo that’s home to Georgetown law students, Hill staffers and a retired woman who’s lived at our intersection for so long, she remembers when the new condo around the corner was a crack house.” Historic rowhouses make up the majority of the housing in the area, with a few apartment buildings and condominiums throughout the area.  Commercial development is mostly located along Pennsylvania Avenue, 8th Street SE (Barracks Row), and around Metro stations.  The area is quite pleasant to walk around, with brick sidewalks and mature trees and beautiful views of the Capitol.

Continue reading →

History, Interviews, People, The Features
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Scribblings: Paul Chaat Smith

Paul Chaat Smith 4/18/09

On one of the first springtime Saturdays in April, I managed to slip down to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to catch its associate curator, Paul Chaat Smith, read from his latest book Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong. Not exactly an event to herald the death of a wet, extended winter, but the book title and press release had my attention. I wanted to know more about the book – and the man behind it. Spring, for the moment, could wait.

I wasn’t disappointed.

To understand the author is to understand the book that much more. It’s less a cohesive treatise on any particular point – and if you’re looking for a “top ten” list based on the title, you’ll be sorely disappointed. As Paul stated, “It’s a book title, folks, not to be taken literally. Of course I don’t mean everything, just most things. And ‘you’ really means we, as in all of us.”

Continue reading →

Essential DC, History, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
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DC Public Library Joins Flickr Commons

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White House by flickr user DC Public Library Commons

This just in – the D.C. Public Library has joined the Flickr revolution and entered the Commons on Flickr. The Commons on Flickr is basically a place to share public photo archives and gives the public the opportunity to tag things and share personal knowledge.

Flickr says, “The District of Columbia Public Library is a center of activity in the U.S. capital and this 7 set, 145 photo sampling from its collection features historic images of D.C.’s buildings and federal memorials, the Arlington National Cemetery, historic houses, and street scenes. Also featured are portraits of past presidents and other prominent Americans.”

Start browsing, you might be able to find a shot of your street with horse and buggy!

Downtown, History, Penn Quarter, Special Events, The Features, Tourism
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Tourism: Ford’s Theatre

Rehearsal, Ford's Theatre

"Rehearsal, Ford's Theatre" by Jenn Larsen, on Flickr

It seemed eerie and yet fitting that as I was rushing to get to Ford’s Theatre I was delayed by a major traffic jam as the President was attending an event downtown. People were lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the man who counts Lincoln as a guide, and I was on the way to see a tech rehearsal of a musical on the Civil War, in the theater where Lincoln fell. Sometimes the line between the present and the past in this town gets blurred in a truly palpable way. It’s manifest in the remarkable renovation of this living museum.

Ford’s Theatre’s reopening season continues this month with “The Civil War,” a Tony-nominated musical opening tonight and in performance through May 24. I’m very impressed by the renovated space. Last time I saw a show in this theater it was a bit clunky, and that’s being charitable. Now they are up-to-date, with all new lighting, sound and visual equipment – it’s a bit snazzy actually! And those infamously uncomfortable seats and obstructed sightlines are a thing of the past. It looks to be an admirable job updating the theater while maintaining its historical and monumental status.

With all the tourists pouring into our city this week, I hope many of them take the chance to see the renovations and catch a show. “The Civil War” sounded quite rousing musically, a little bit bluesy, with some incredible vocalists, live musicians, and moving visuals. Get some important history mixed in with your cherry blossoms. 

Ford’s Theatre
511 10th Street NW
between E and F Streets
202.347.4833
“The Civil War” performs Tuesdays thru Sundays at 7:30pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30pm, now thru May 24

All Politics is Local, Fun & Games, History, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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VDOT YouTube – Your Tax Dollars At Work

YouTube Preview Image

Okay, I know it’s apocryphal for us to be linking to another blog <cough>BoingBoing</cough>, but while the video is cool and somewhat local (we had a shot of our own Wilson Bridge), I wonder if our tax dollars, besides going to the banks, insurance companies, and other misanthropes in another metro area <cough>New York</cough>, are now funding somebody’s quick fingers with Final Cut Pro? While I’m glad to see the Dulles Metro extension finally get moving (2013 to ride to Herndon), was this a real “shovel ready” project Tim Kaine approved? (The opera, however, is a nice touch… I think it was inserted for the NoVA constituents)

Foggy Bottom, History, Monumental, The Features
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Monumental: The American Meridian

American Meridian

Longitude is probably one of the most important scientific solutions of the modern era. It was easy to work off a set of common star charts and figure out how far north or south of the equator you were. Take a couple readings at sunrise, midday and sunset, chart a few stars, and wham there you are. We’ve been measuring that for millenia now. But Longitude was a lot harder. By the early 18th century, it had become such a problem for sea-faring nations that the King of England set forth a prize to determine the best way of calculating it. Enter John Harrison and his clocks. If you can keep accurate enough time, you can determine your longitude. It took decades of engineering, and the promise of riches (in some cases denied, read Dava Sobel’s Longitude, which is a fascinating historiography of the events surrounding the prize.)

The thing about Longitude that is most interesting is that there’s no clear and obvious choice for a prime meridian, the way there is with latitude and the Equator. Thus, common standards of practice evolved, with prime meridians, and associated maps, appearing at Greenwich, Paris, Rome, and various other European centers. Each set of charts was keyed to use with a specific set of longitudes, with no common standard. Thus it was that Thomas Jefferson set the first American Meridian through the center of the Executive Mansion in 1793. This meridian would stay in place through 1850 when it was moved west 8 blocks to 24th Street at the site of the Naval Observatory (now the grounds of the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery at 24th and D Streets) where it remained the American line of demarcation and measurement until 1884 when we moved to the Greenwich Standard by International Treaty.

But why have an American Meridian when Greenwich’s would do? The only good way to measure longitude was to take a clock, synchronized from Greenwich’s observatory master clock, and sail it across the Atlantic. Sure, that sounds pretty straight forward, but clocks, even as late as the early 19th century were not anything we’d considerate accurate to the second, not to mention had all kinds of mechanical issues even if you sailed them across the sea. Not to mention the fact that two journeys could come up with two totally different longitudes for the final result. Thus, setting a local point of demarcation allowed for a better continuity of result. Continue reading →

Alexandria, Fun & Games, History, Special Events, Weekend Flashback
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Photo Flashback: George Washington’s Birthday Parade

Happy Birthday, GW

Yesterday, we headed out to the “largest parade celebrating George Washington’s Birthday in the USA!” – Alexandria’s George Washington Birthday Parade. How can you beat that as the perfect homage to President’s Day? Here it is in a photo review, from clowns to horseback riders, the parade had it all. Continue reading →

Fun & Games, History, Inaugupocalypse, The Daily Feed
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Best Inauguration Picture Yet

Photo courtesy of
‘Ready for history’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

Click through this link for the most amazing full-screen high resolution picture of the inauguration. It’s incredibly entertaining, plus you can play fun games like  “find Beyonce” and “I didn’t know W had a side table!”. Plus, if you were lucky enough to have a seat up close, you’ll be able to play the most fun game of all – “find me!”

History, Special Events
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Scribblings: Rufus Phillips

Photo courtesy of
‘The Three Servicemen Statue, sculpted by Frederick Hart’ courtesy of ‘cliff1066’

Tonight at the International Spy Museum is a visit to our nation’s past, as we look ahead to our future.

As the East and West battled for dominance in the Cold War, the fate of Vietnam was a matter of enormous importance. In the 1950s, the U.S. Saigon Military Mission (SMM) was created to respond to this situation with dual purposes: a covert CIA and an overt military aid mission. Under the command of Colonel Edward G. Lansdale, the legendary covert political action operative, the SMM was preparing stay-behind agents for both North and South Vietnam, should the North succeed. At Lansdale’s side was Rufus Phillips, an Airborne Infantry Officer detailed back to the CIA. For his role as the sole adviser to two major Vietnamese army pacification operations, Phillips was awarded the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit. He later joined the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Saigon Mission to lead its counterinsurgency efforts. In this wide-ranging discussion, Phillips, the author of Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned, will describe his wartime experiences in Vietnam, how the SMM operated, the renowned Lansdale, the extraordinary North Vietnamese spy Pham Xuan An, and the real lessons of Vietnam and their applicability today.

Rufus took a few moments to answer a couple of questions about his latest book – Saigon Stories – giving you a taste of tonight’s discussion.

Continue reading →

History, Special Events, The Features
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Scribbling: Thomas D. Schoonover

Photo courtesy of Ya-Bing
The Unwavering Night Watch, courtesy of Ya-Bing

Thomas D. Schoonover, professor emeritus in history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, will share his impressive research into the Nazi spy story of Heinz August Lüning, discussing how he separated fact from fiction from this story that inspired Graham Greene’s 1958 book, Our Man in Havana. He took a moment to answer some questions about his research and the book; you can meet and discuss Shoonover’s work at noon tomorrow at the International Spy Museum. The event is free and open to the public.

At the beginning of World War II, Heinz August Lüning, posing as a Jewish refugee, was sent to Cuba to spy for the Third Reich. Lüning’s assignment was to collect information about the United States and its allies and report back to the Abwehr, the German military intelligence agency. His Caribbean post was an important vantage point for observing shipping patterns and ship deployments, but things went badly wrong for the bumbling Lüning who was ultimately captured and executed for espionage.

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Essential DC, History, Interviews, People
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He Loves DC: Peter Earnest (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of Me
Peter Earnest, courtesy of Me

Last week, we introduced you to the Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, Peter Earnest. He sat down with me back before Thanksgiving; we talked for quite a while covering both his personal observations and his professional opinions on the Washington DC area.

Before we continue with the rest of the interview, I need to point out that Peter can be an extremely funny guy. If you doubt, witness the two-part episode that aired about a month ago on Stephen Colbert’s show, specifically the “Fallback Position” segment he does periodically. He did two segments with Peter, an interview and a look at some items in the museum proper. If you’ve not seen them, you must. (Each segment is about six minutes long.) Don’t worry, we’ll still be here when you get back.

Ok, on with our conversation! We cover everything from public perception on espionage to cabbies to people; find out what Peter had to say after the jump. Continue reading →

Downtown, Essential DC, History, Monumental
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Monumental: U.S. Navy Memorial

DSC_1261

Architect Pierre L’Enfant envisioned a memorial in the capital to “celebrate the first rise of the Navy and consecrate its progress and achievements.” However, it never took shape until 1980 when Rear Admiral William Thompson, USN (Ret.) received blessing from Congress to construct a Navy Memorial on public land.

The Memorial Foundation, formed in 1977 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and other Navy colleagues, selected Market Square – across the street from the National Archives – as the site of the memorial. Construction started in 1985 and was officially dedicated on October 13, 1987, the 212th birthday of the US Navy.

There are two parts to the Navy Memorial, the public plaza and the Naval Heritage Center, which occupies one of the two buildings that flank the memorial. Just inside the entrance is a sculpture by Stanley Bleifeld, The Homecoming. The Center caters to building personal links between naval service personnel, both veterans and active-duty, and their families.

Continue reading →