We have spent the last few weeks looking at the Pipetown neighborhood, its birth and demise. Pipetown had one final moment in the sun in 1905, when the name of the neighborhood was used in a book written by none other than local hero John Philip Sousa (pic). While Sousa is best-known for writing marches, […]
Last week, we looked at the origins of Pipetown and the rather bizarre noise complaint that brought a number of its citizens into conflict with the law and into the court of Judge Ivory Kimball (pic). Unfortunately, this was not the end of court appearances for one of those fined on that occasion. William Steele went […]
A few weeks ago, we looked at the location used by the 50th New York Engineers during the Civil War. Today, we will look at the continuing history of this part of Capitol Hill. Almost immediately after the sale of the leftover buildings of the Engineer Camp, the land thus freed up started to be built up. […]
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 […]