Author Archives: J.S. Graboyes
In the Halls of the Ancients: The Imagined Washington, DC, of Franklin Webster Smith
At the turn of the twentieth century, he had a bold dream of making Washington a museum of world history. Egyptian temples, Assyrian palaces, and the Taj Mahal would complete a landscape out of Rome and Greece. His scheme attracted educators and socialites, senators and major newspapers. Then it all came crashing down.
The Time the US Senate Debated Crabcakes
Senator Beall hurried back from the Senate dining room to the floor where the Democrats were filibustering. Beall, a Republican, tugged at Senator Hill’s sleeve. “Mr. President,” he thundered, “I rise to defend the fair name of the great Free State of Maryland against an insult.” The insult wasn’t the filibuster. The insult was lunch.
Back When We Ate Roses
In Victorian America, flower-scented butters were all the rage with morning mocha and afternoon tea.
Knotts Island: North Carolina’s Forgotten Child
The story of a place stuck in North Carolina, accessible by land only from Virginia, the child of an imaginary line drawn 400 years ago and the community that grew up there.
When Adams Morgan Had a Five-and-Dime
Adams Morgan, a diverse neighborhood of bars and row houses in Northwest Washington, D.C., has always had a complicated history with alcohol, entertainment, and development. When a moratorium on new liquor licenses was due to sunset in 2013, the neighborhood was forced to reflect on its past and figure out its future.
Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s
Every May, New Yorkers flock to the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. Artist A.S. Graboyes captured what the festival was like when it first began back in the 1970s.
Telling Time in Paradise
Time may be linear or time may be cyclical, but, for many in Nova Scotia, time is divided into six-month increments.
A Pedestrian’s Eye View of La-La-Land
In American’s most car-centric city, snapping photos of façades as only a pedestrian can.
Slouching Towards Beverly
“L.A. is good for façades.” The view from a reality star’s restaurant in Beverly Hills.
A Brief Walk Through the Circles of Hell
A long layover and short walkabout in Amsterdam reveals a unique city, new discoveries, and the sheer magic of the brief trip.
The Taco Time at the End of the Earth
To Brigham Young, Utah was “the place.” But why? A surreal journey to an island in the Great Salt Lake and across the salt flats of western Utah to a casino town in the middle of nowhere brings answers but raises new questions.
Kaiserschmarrn
In the mountains and ski towns of far western Austria, we uncover the world’s next great dessert.
Eating Green Curry in the Delaware of Europe
“So far as I can tell, there are only two reasons you visit the pint-sized principality, one condescending but honest (the novelty), the other more surreptitious (tax evasion).” A whirlwind trip through Liechtenstein — a tiny Alpine kingdom with an outsized influence — in words and photos,
Duck Pie 