Tag Archives: washington
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.
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.
A Tale of Two Markets
A photo tour of gentrification and redevelopment in Washington’s old central wholesale market. If you follow food culture in Washington, you’ve probably seen this place: Like the sign says, it’s called Union Market. Union Market was developed by Edens, a multibillion-dollar developer and property owner based in Columbia, South Carolina. Edens holds over 100 shopping […]
American Pompeii, Part Two: The Rest of White Flint Mall
In a post last week, American Pompeii: After the Food Court Closes, we published photos of the food court – surreal, with its neon lights and its sci-fi paintings – at the mostly abandoned White Flint Mall, which is slated for demolition. Earlier this month, a judge once again blocked an attempt to halt the redevelopment. […]
American Pompeii: After the Food Court Closes
Photos: Stillness and silence at the abandoned White Flint food court. When it first opened in 1977, White Flint Mall was pure glamor. Donna Karan attended one of two celebratory black-tie events. Elizabeth Taylor – Cleopatra herself, then on her sixth or seventh husband, Senator John Warner of Virginia – attended the other. Through the expansive glass […]
Duck Pie 