One of the more… ahem, colorful people inhumed at Congressional Cemetery is Miss Mary Ann Hall, a noted Madam. I wrote about about her in my scandal book. Recently, I was contacted about a Mary Ann Hall who apparently ran a house of ill repute in New York in 1866, with the question as to […]
While researching Samuel Colt’s experiments with mines at the Washington Navy Yard, I came across the statement that “Robert Fulton conducted research and testing on his clockwork torpedo during the War of 1812.” Since numerous sources use this exact wording, it probably comes directly from the Navy. Obviously, this is exactly the sort of historical event […]
Last week, I wrote about Samuel Colt and his destruction of a ship in the harbor of New York, without ever referring to Capitol Hill. Today, I tell the second half of the tale, and how it does, indeed, relate to our neighborhood. Having proved the concept of his mines, it was now time for […]
I have often written about the various experiments that have been done at the Navy Yard; this is a topic that draws me back again and again, much like the manufacturing history of the Hill on the whole does. Imagine my surprise to discover that there was an almost wholly forgotten episode that included one […]
I occasionally go through old pieces that I have written. Usually, I do this when I want to write a quick piece for a day with lower readership, such as Columbus Day. In this spirit, I looked at one of the earliest pieces here on the site. As it turned out, there was so much […]