Washington: More Stories
Where Garfield was shot, the Sickles shooting, the guard at the Watergate and how a general’s home became Arlington.
20 places
Blair House Gunfight
The president was upstairs, napping. The man who stopped it was already dying.
Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office
A landlord sealed these rooms to save money. Under the dust was a forgotten search for the missing of a war.
Emancipation Memorial
Freed people paid for it. Others chose it. Its main speaker went after it in the newspaper within the week.
Frank Wills at the Watergate
He pulled a strip of tape off a door. Two years later a president was gone.
How Lee's Home Became a Cemetery
The government took a house for a ninety-two-dollar tax, then filled the garden with graves. A court said it had no right.
Isaac Hawkins Hall
A college paid its debts with people. It took until 2017 to change whose name is on the door.
Mary Surratt's Boarding House
Five of her judges asked for mercy. Two men gave opposite accounts of what became of the letter.
Paul Jennings and Dolley's House
The man she sold brought her money. Years later he corrected her legend in print.
Reagan at the Hilton
One agent, one limousine, one decision taken at a glance, and a film he saw at nine.
Rose Greenhow's Prison
Her daughter went to prison with her at eight. Her gold went with her into the sea.
Selina Gray's Keys
The law counted her as property. She told the Army what not to touch.
The Heiress and the Number 11 Con
She paid a swindler to save a kidnapped child. He told the jury where the money went, and used her own code name.
The Justice Who Walked the Canal
A newspaper said pave it. A Supreme Court justice said come and walk it first.
The Knickerbocker Collapse
Every inquiry looked for someone to blame. The courts could not name anyone.
The Pearl Escape
Two sisters, a schooner in the dark and one hundred and forty miles of river.
The Sickles Shooting
A congressman killed a man across from the White House. A later act of mercy is what the city would not forgive.
The Train in the Concourse
An express came through the station and through its floor, with an inauguration five days off.
The Wrong Men on the Statue
A mother knew who was in the photograph before the Marine Corps did. It took the Corps seventy-four years to finish correcting it.
Thompson's Restaurant Case
The law that ended restaurant segregation in the capital had been sitting unused for eighty years.
Where Garfield Was Shot
A president, a bullet, an inventor and a doctor who would not be told. Eighty days.