Center Market was a hub of activity for Washington's African American population during the 1800s. Both free and enslaved African Americans bought and sold produce at the market and operated stalls before and after Emancipation. This woman,…

Center Market was established in the early 1800s and for most of that century served as a central point of commerce, transportation, and entertainment for the city. Toward the end of the century, city officials, private entrepreneurs, and the federal…

Thomas Law was a wealthy Englishman who invested financially and ideologically in the development of the new city of Washington. In 1804 he wrote a pamphlet, published anonymously, proposing a canal from the Anacostia River to the Potomac following…

As a member of the DC Board of Public Works and later as Governor of the District of Columbia, Alexander Robey "Boss" Shepherd managed a number of public works programs in the 1870s. He oversaw the project to fill in the part of the Washington City…

The Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station was built in 1873, over the old Tiber Creek and Washington City Canal waterway on the present-day site of the National Gallery of Art. Building contractors sank 35-foot piles to secure the foundation of the…

The Washington City Canal ran for approximately two miles of canal through Washington from the present day Navy Yard, across the Capitol grounds, and down present day Constitution Avenue. Completed in 1815, the Canal incorporated Tiber Creek near…

Tiber Creek had been known as Goose Creek before 1790 when the city of Washington, DC was laid out and designated the nation's capital. The creek extended from the base of Capitol Hill to its mouth near the present day Washington Monument. In 1815,…

Once the largest commercial market in Washington, Center Market opened in 1801. The original buildings were replaced in 1872 by a building designed by Adolph Cluss. The market was close to the Washington City Canal, railroads, and streetcar lines. It…

Commemorating the first air mail flight connecting Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, the Aero Club of Washington placed this plaque in 1958 to mark the 40th anniversary of that flight. Following 52 experimental flights by the Post Office…

Mary Ann Hall’s brothel was the largest and most luxurious of more than 100 known bordellos in Washington during the 1800s. Hall’s three-story establishment stood where the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is today. According to Union…