@GhostsofDC profile picture
Ghosts of DC @GhostsofDC

The lost and untold history of Washington, DC. New and old content regularly tweeted automagically for your scrolling pleasure.

Joined January 2012
  • Tweets 57,791
  • Following 3,062
  • Followers 14,699
13,091 Photos and videos
Duke Ellington slept here. So did Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughan, and Count Basie. For 30 years, this corner of 15th and U was the address in Black Washington. Then in 1974, the wrecking ball came. ghostsofdc.org/2013/12/05/du…
2
13
32
2,160
A senator's wife tried to move the White House to a hill in NW DC. She failed, then built something stranger: a park with 13 cascading fountains, a vanishing naked man, and Castro holding a baby. ghostsofdc.org/2022/04/07/wh…
4
22
170
11,380
In October 1814, the U.S. Capitol was a smoldering shell and Congress was nine votes away from packing up and leaving Washington for good. Here's how the city survived. ghostsofdc.org/2012/03/01/th…
1
2
20
978
Reston, Virginia was born in 1964 from 6,750 acres of farmland and a $12.8 million bet by a New Yorker who sold Carnegie Hall to fund it. The name itself hides his initials. ghostsofdc.org/2023/01/10/wh…
3
2
34
2,150
A 1936 classified rented the first floor for $55. By 2002, it was a secret lounge with no Budweiser allowed. The strange life of 2321 18th St NW: ghostsofdc.org/2026/06/12/bl…
1
3
30
3,301
The sculptor of the Statue of Liberty couldn't sell his 15-ton cast-iron fountain after the 1876 Centennial. Here's how it ended up at the foot of Capitol Hill. ghostsofdc.org/2013/09/18/ba…
1
3
32
1,305
September 1963: a North Carolina man rammed his pickup through the White House gates, screaming that he had to warn JFK about a communist takeover. He made it within feet of the front door. ghostsofdc.org/2022/03/21/wh…
1
3
5
1,015
A DC real estate dealer, his unfaithful wife, two co-respondents, a pistol pulled in the parlor, and a deathbed will cutting off five children with $1 each. This 1910 scandal has it all. ghostsofdc.org/2012/04/27/th…
2
5
629
A 1928 Dupont storefront. A Coast Guard commander killed by a stray bullet on the sidewalk. A basement where Louis C.K. dropped in unannounced. The Big Hunt's 28-year run hid a much stranger 96-year story. ghostsofdc.org/2026/06/11/bi…
8
33
235
53,519
That CVS at Dupont Circle? It used to be the Old Dutch Market, a thriving grocery chain with a dozen locations across DC. Then in 1927, the whole company vanished at auction for $70,000. ghostsofdc.org/2023/01/17/ol…
12
105
6,118
Chalkboard flight boards, teenage baggage handlers months away from war, and a Bell Cab dropping off passengers: step inside National Airport in July 1941, just weeks after it opened. ghostsofdc.org/2022/02/08/wh…
13
1,138
Franklin Square once piped spring water to the White House through hollow logs. In the 1920s, officials nearly paved it over for parking. ghostsofdc.org/2013/04/19/th…
5
14
1,246
Before Blockbuster took over DC, one Turkish immigrant who arrived here with $16 built a 208-store video empire from a TV repair shop in Georgetown. Then it vanished almost overnight. ghostsofdc.org/2026/06/11/er…
55
108
674
38,352
In 1941, a brand new 16th Street apartment building promised "superior quality." Three months later, JFK moved in. Then came the dog eviction, a death by armchair, and a seven-year tenant war. ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/10/do…
4
29
4,392
Summer soldiers, 30-day wonders, Boy Scouts. That's what the Regular Army called the young men who flocked to the Citizens' Military Training Camp every summer, and they grinned because they were having the time of their lives. ghostsofdc.org/2012/07/27/ci…
1
2
576
A president at the dedication, a civil rights leader fresh off a bombing, and a Washington Post editor sued for assault after a funeral. The Quaker house on Florida Ave has seen it all. ghostsofdc.org/2012/12/21/th…
1
2
536
Twice in twenty years, someone stole an aircraft and put it down on the White House lawn. Both times, the president wasn't home, and one of them involved a doughnut shop and 300 rounds of gunfire. ghostsofdc.org/2026/06/10/ai…
1
5
2,363
In 2003, a baseball stadium on the Potomac with the Capitol framed in center field was nearly a done deal in Arlington. Then the County Board chairman collapsed at his first meeting, and everything changed. ghostsofdc.org/2026/06/09/ar…
8
16
274
43,974
In 1921, a 16-year-old Georgetown girl boarded a train at Union Station as thousands cheered her on. Days later, she'd make history in Atlantic City and inspire a title every American would come to know. ghostsofdc.org/2013/02/06/ma…
2
19
3,078
The DC neighborhood named for a man who couldn't spell his own name. He signed every document with an X, leaving scribes to invent 8 different spellings and 200 years of lawsuits, petitions, and a $63,500 Metro sign fight. ghostsofdc.org/2013/12/30/te…
7
91
18,348
Load more