The street now known as Independence Avenue was originally called South B Street, following the district's street-naming conventions. In 1934, Congress voted to rename the street Independence Avenue, three years after it had renamed North B Street as…

The street which is now known as Constitution Avenue was originally called North B Street, following the District's street naming system. For much of the 1800s, there was no road, but instead was the site of the City Canal. When the canal was covered…

In the years preceding the Civil War, the area bordered by Pennsylvania Ave., 15th, and the "open sewer" of the Washington Canal was a slum characterized by rampant prostitution, muggings, and robberies. The population of this area increased during…

In 1882, Congress approved the creation of a statue to honor John Marshall, fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The statue was sculpted by artist William Wetmore Story, whose father had served on the Supreme Court with Marshall. It was…

By 1870, after two years on the National Mall, the Department of Agriculture combined the functions of an office building, a research center, library, and museum. In this stereoscopic view of the mall, visitors chat in from of large iron and glass…

When President Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture in 1862, the agency consisted of only four scientists and agriculturists. By 1867, their numbers grew to 70 employees, indicating the rapid growth of the scope and influence of what is now…

David Burnes, one of the original nineteen proprietors of land that created the District of Columbia, lived in this humble cottage overlooking today's Constitution Avenue. Burnes owned 700 acres encompassing the heart of downtown, including the…

This original, lavish design of the Washington Monument was created by Robert Mills, who won a national design competition in 1836 sponsored by the Washington National Monument Society. The Society relied on public funds for construction. Shortly…

Although most of the office buildings constructed on the Mall to house war department offices during World War I and II had been removed by the 1960s, a row of buildings from 1918 still stood in the space between Constitution Avenue and the…

Slave trading establishments in Washington, DC are superimposed on this 1855 Atlas of Washington, DC to show the locations of a few of the many slave trading establishments in the city. Businesses flourished on the Mall's borders including slave…