The brick Baltimore and Ohio Railway Depot stood at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Second Street on lots formerly occupied by a cabinet maker and a boarding house. Fitted with offices, living rooms, and a waiting room, an agent and a…

In August 1814, British troops invaded Washington and set fire to many federal buildings. Congress reconvened on September 19, meeting in cramped rooms at Blodgett's Hotel because the Capitol had been heavily damaged. The House of Representatives…

The polo field on the National Mall has been a popular site for polo matches since the early 1900s. During World War II members of the military, including General George S. Patton, used the field for intramural games. Today, the polo field and…

Even before President Abraham Lincoln officially created a Department of Agriculture in 1862, the Bureau of Agriculture, part of the Patent Office, was growing crops on the National Mall, conducting research, and distributing seeds across the…

In 1967, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley opened a carousel on the Mall. Built in 1922, the carousel featured music played by a Wurlitzer organ. In the photo, Ripley celebrated its 10th anniversary on the Mall. By 1981, the carousel was too…

For thousands of federal employees, the National Mall is a workplace as well as a public space. The Department of Agriculture, where these women and men worked in 1942, is the only building bordering the Mall exclusively designated as an office, but…

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 landscape painting of Washington, DC, looks out from the area that is Union Station today onto the early US Capitol building. George Washington built two row houses to the right of the Capitol. Although this is a highly romanticized view of the…

These young Pages participate in a snowball fight on the Capitol grounds. The Congressional Page program began during the 20th Congress (1827-1829). In the early 1900s, Pages, also called messengers, were generally local Washington children, many of…

These American bison, also known as buffalo, were part of the Smithsonian's Department of Living Animals. The Department was started by chief taxidermist William T. Hornaday, who was a spokesman for the conservation movement and very concerned about…