This week’s column will be slightly different than usual, as I have been given a book to review. I was sent a copy of Becoming What We Can Be: Stories of Community Development in Washington, DC, which was written by Tony Proscio, and found that the stories were indeed relevant to my interests. The book […]
Using a telephone is, today, one of the things you learn at a very early age. Being able to communicate with people over long distances is one of those things we simply take for granted. 100 years ago, it was a very different world, and the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company wanted to make sure […]
I recently wrote about Thomas Law and his attempt to build a sugar refinery on the Hill, at the base of New Jersey Avenue, on that Anacostia. The refinery did not last long, and was soon turned into a brewery. It is about this brewery, and the man behind it, that we will look at more […]
You’ve all heard the joke: How do you make a small fortune in the [art/wine/horse] business? Start with a large one. Well, add another one to that: The early real estate business on Capitol Hill. No one better exemplifies this than Thomas Law, who arrived here in 1795 with a large fortune — and ended […]
Finding a house in D.C. by its address is, today, a trivial operation. The numbers match-up with the streets, and thus make navigation child’s play. It was not always this easy. For the first 50-or-so years, D.C. had no street numbers. Addresses were given as “n side Ls btw 7 & 8e,” leaving it up […]