History Posts
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A Chevy Chase group wants a historic district. What’s a historic district?
Historic districts sound charming, but what do they mean for neighborhoods’ ability to grow and evolve with changing needs over time? We’ve got an explainer for that. Keep reading…
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The lessons of DC’s circles and squares
From the 1870s up to the present day, competing interests — erecting monuments and memorials, preserving space for civic recreation, and catering to vehicular traffic — have led to drastic changes in our shared public spaces. Keep reading…
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The lost history of the DC arena that grew a wrestling institution
A humble venue a few blocks off the U Street corridor hosted colorful wrestling and jazz legends and a wide variety of other events from the ‘30s through the ‘60s. Keep reading…
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Metro was almost built without elevators. Here’s how we avoided that mistake.
Accommodations for passengers in wheelchairs were not the norm when Metrorail was first planned, but the system has — and always has had— elevators in all of its stations. This is the story of how that came to be. Keep reading…
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Amid conservative backlash, a turn away from bold public housing experiments of the ‘30s
Greenbelt, Maryland, and Langston Terrace, DC, were supposed to be models for other federal housing, but ended up being unique experiments after the federal government shifted away from directly building public housing for all but the very poor Keep reading…
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Dave Thomas Circle is getting revamped. It’s not the first time.
After being redesigned and updated multiple times in the past four decades, a new configuration for the treacherous Northeast intersection is set to open soon. Will it be successful? Keep reading…
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Life in Greenbelt and Langston Terrace’s early days
Despite some oppressive rules, DC area residents were grateful to live in the two New Deal-era planned communities, and community blossomed. Keep reading…
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Three transportation gems in our region
Even though White’s Ferry is in limbo, these three other transportation gems are still here for the exploring! Keep reading…
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Segregation and the rise of the car shaped DC’s “new downtown”
In the mid-century, the District’s downtown began to shift north and west as suburbanization and other post war changes took hold. Keep reading…
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DC’s downtown wasn’t supposed to be where it is. Here’s how it migrated
George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant envisioned a very different city when they laid out plans for the Capitol. Part I of a three-part series discusses what changed for the nation’s capital between the 1700s and World War II. Keep reading…