Boundary Stones | WETA's Washington DC Local History Website

Postcard showing wedding chapel in Elkton, Maryland. (Source: Ad Astra blog by Charles Leck)

Elkton, Maryland: The Quickie Wedding Capital of the East Coast

If Cupid strikes you in the heart today, you might decide to take a trip to a Las Vegas wedding chapel or your local courthouse for a quick wedding. If you wanted to get married in a hurry in the 1930s, however, there was only one place to go: Elkton, Maryland just inside the Delaware border.

“I Catered for the Best People”: Hattie Sewell, a Black D.C. Entrepreneur in Rock Creek Park

In the 1920s, entrepreneur Hattie Sewell looked to put her extensive experience in the hospitality industry to work turning around the Peirce Mill Teahouse in Rock Creek Park. But as a Black...
“A Great City to Be”: Architect Leon Krier’s Plan to “Finish” Washington D.C.

Should the National Mall really be a National Lake? Leon Krier thought so! The Luxembourgish architect came to D.C. in the 1970s and saw Washington as an unfinished sketch waiting to be painted in...
The Legacy of the Annapolis Liberty Tree

During the Revolutionary War, many communities adopted Liberty Trees -- living symbols of opposition to British rule. The trees became a target for destruction by British soldiers, but unlike many...

Police officer escorts five young African American men out of the Alexandria, VA Library on August 21, 1939.

Black History Month

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Dunbar: The Evolution of America's First Black Public High School

Northwest D.C.'s Dunbar High School transcended humble beginnings in the basement of a church to become, as W.E.B. DuBois' The Crisis put it, the "greatest negro high school in the world." Its commitment to black academic excellence made it the alma mater of many prominent African Americans. 
November 14, 2024
- Washington, D.C.
By Christal Wilson
"I am free now:" Ona Judge's Escape from Slavery and George Washington's Hunt to Get Her Back

After serving as Martha Washington's ladies' maid for most of her life, Ona Judge escaped from slavery in 1796. While with the family in Philadelphia, she boarded a ship headed north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For years she would evade efforts by President Washington to return her to bondage at Mount Vernon.
May 21, 2024
- Virginia
By Kira Quintin
After Bolling: School Desegregation in DC

Most chronologies of the fight for school desegregation often leave off at the Supreme Court decision, a nice bow-on-top finish to a long struggle against segregation, but in reality, the process of integrating the schools was far from over.
March 3, 2021
- Washington, D.C.
By Michael Kohler

Watch & Learn

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How a D.C. Civil Rights Activist Fought Racism with Rodents

In the 1960s, Julius Hobson used a new tactic to fight racial inequality: rat relocation rallies.
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The 1939 Alexandria Library Sit In Opened a New Front in the Civil Rights Movement

Libraries had not been a big part of the civil rights movement but that changed in Alexandria, VA.
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A Black Arlington Neighborhood was Destroyed to Build the Pentagon

To build the Pentagon, the Black community of East Arlington was razed with 30 day's notice.