Robert Pohl worked for many years as a computer programmer but recovered from that and became a full time stay-at-home dad. With his son now in school, he has expanded his horizons and become a self-taught historian. He has written books about his house as well as Emancipation in the District of Columbia. You can reach Robert at Robert[at]thehillishome.com
The 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War was a moment I wanted to mark in some way, and the obvious place to do so was at my local cemetery: Congressional. I needed some hook for this, though, and after some time spent searching the web, I discovered that there was at […]
Smallpox is, thankfully, no longer an issue today. With two strains deep-frozen in freezers in Moscow and Atlanta, we do not have to worry about a disease that kills 30% of all afflicted any more. Even in 19th Century Washington, it was no longer the death-bringer it had been, as vaccines had been developed even before […]
Ghosts have been a part of Capitol Hill from earliest days. Ghosts from the days when the Capitol was being built still haunt the place. During the 19th Century, ghost stories were frequent fodder for the pages of the newspapers, and reporters displayed a remarkable lack of skepticism. Or maybe that was because there was a […]
Halloween celebrations on the Hill are starting to kick off! While we have some of the best trick-or-treating around: you don’t have to wait until the 31st to get into the holiday spirit. From pumpkin carving to cemetery tours to scavenger hunts, there is no shortage of events for kids of all ages. Spooky Cemetery […]
As always, I am on the lookout for inventions that were either made or tested at the Washington Navy Yard. On March 2, 1858, a brief item appeared in the Washington Evening Star, stating that a “trial of Holmes’s ‘Self-righting Turf and Life Boat’ was to take place at the Navy Yard this morning.” The […]