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
Given that it is Labor Day today, and I expect, nay hope, that my readership will drop off dramatically, I am thus going with a rerun for today’s column. It’s an episode that has intrigued me since I first saw a picture of it on Shorpy’s: The day that the Graf Zeppelin flew over the […]
I have written about manufacturers on the Hill numerous times in the past, and am always on the lookout for more companies that used to produce goods on the Hill. And I am continually surprised at the breadth of stuff that have been manufactured on here. Today’s company represented a real surprise to me, however.
Over the last two weeks, we have looked at the first school in D.C. – and on Capitol Hill. It all started with a picture taken about 1917 with the caption “Said to be the first school in the District of Columbia, 4th & C Streets S.E.” Today, we will see whether this really does […]
Last week, we looked at the first school on Capitol Hill – the Eastern Free School – and how it opened in a rented building next to the Capitol. Today, we look at how a purpose-built school replaced it, and the state of public education in the early years of Washington D.C.
If you have a couple of hours to kill, I can highly recommend the website Shorpy. Filled with pictures from bygone eras, it captures everything from the earth-shaking to the mundane. I was happily paging through it the other day when I came across a picture of a rather ordinary wooden building with two men […]