Washington City’s Old Curiosity Shop

By: John Muller

The following is our first article written by a guest author. John Muller is a former reporter for the Washington Times and current contributor to Capital Community News, Greater Greater Washington and other D.C. area media. He is the author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia (History Press, 2012), a finalist for the DC Public Library’s 2013 DC Reads, and leads tours of Old Anacostia. This article is excerpted from his forthcoming Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: Adventures of a Capital Correspondent, set for publication later this fall.

If you’ve ever spent time at Capitol Hill Books, on C Street SE across from Eastern Market, and spoken with owner Jim Toole you have experienced the tradition of an eclectic Washington bookstore and its cantankerous proprietor that dates back to the 19th and early 20th century.

Inside the Old Curiosity Shop. Source: Around The Capital with Uncle Hank 1902.

From Masonic Temple to Women's Art Museum

One of the stateliest private buildings in Washington is the old Masonic Temple at 13th Street and New York Avenue NW, completed in 1908 and now home to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Like other Masonic temples, the imposing structure was built with unique cross purposes; it was meant to be both a public forum for lectures and performances as well as a private place for the fraternal order's meetings and rituals. Since the 1980s, this distinctive Renaissance Revival palace has had a remarkably fitting second life as a museum, and now the NMWA is looking to preserve the building for many more years with much-needed roof repairs. As a participant in the Partners in Preservation program, the museum will be hosting a festive open house this Sunday, May 5, from 12 to 5, offering a great, free opportunity to see this extraordinary building up close and appreciate the art it now displays.

Photo by the author.

The Hot Shoppes: Teen Twists, Mighty Mo's, and Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken

A version of the following article will appear in Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats, to be published this September by the History Press, Inc. To keep up with the latest on the book, "like" our new Facebook page.

Of all the mid-20th-century icons of everyday life in Washington, Hot Shoppes ranks among the most memorable. The chain of casual drive-in restaurants founded by J. Willard "Bill" Marriott (1900-1985) in 1927 once had a commanding presence at dozens of sites across the metropolitan area, serving up thousands of fast, friendly meals every day. Beginning with a tiny root beer stand in Columbia Heights, the chain rose rapidly to prominence in the 1930s, expanded in the 1940s and 50s, and then almost as dramatically dwindled away in the 1970s and 80s, eventually slipping into history after winning the hearts and stomachs of several generations of Washingtonians.

Matchbook cover from the early 1960s (Author's collection).

Historic Bridges of Rock Creek Park

I spoke on Wednesday, April 17, at the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library about the historic bridges of Rock Creek Park. We had a great turnout! Prior related posts on Streets of Washington covered Peirce Mill, Boulder Bridge, the Harvard Street Bridge, and the Old Rustic Log Bridge.

The Northumberland, an elegant preservation time capsule

Washington has one of the highest concentrations of apartment dwellers among American cities, and fortunately many of its historic apartment houses from the early decades of the 20th century have survived. Among these, the Northumberland, opened in 1910 at 2039 New Hampshire Avenue NW, is one of the best preserved. Thanks in part to its very early conversion (1920) to cooperative ownership, the building has benefited over the years from the meticulous care and attention of farsighted owners and remains a jewel-like oasis of turn-of-the-century urban living.

The Northumberland (photo by the author).