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
Once again, research on one subject has brought me back to one I looked at many years ago, in fact, one that was part of my first book. While the connection of my house to Mr. George A. Bohrer was fairly tenuous – he was married to the owner of the property on which it was […]
In today’s post, we return to the Civil War and to a unit that was stationed on Capitol Hill on and off throughout the conflict. Over the next few weeks, we will look at what happened with the land on which they were stationed. With the outbreak of the Civil War, regiments were raised all […]
When researching Hill history, I often come across names for geographical features that are no longer in use, such as Garrison Street or Navy Yard Hill or Carroll’s Spring Today, I’ll look at a more sinister name once belonging to a landmark which – like Carroll’s Spring– no longer exists. The Anacostia River today is fairly benign, swinging […]
To those (assumedly exceedingly small number of people) actually reading THIH today, I say, Welcome to beginning of summer! With it being Memorial Day and all, today’s column will be a rerun. This rerun is actually appropriate for the day, as it concerns a Capitol Hill resident’s work building the amphitheater at Arlington Cemetery, site […]
Last week, we looked at the aftermath of a raid on a young enslaved African-American. Despite having almost bought himself free, he was taken away from Mrs. Sprigg’s boarding house and sold. Joshua Giddings, Abraham Lincoln’s messmate at Mrs. Sprigg’s, attempted to rescue the young man from a slave pen, but was thwarted because Henry Wilson had […]