Virginia

Everyone knows that the President lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. But some locals may remember a time when that wasn’t the case. For ten days in August of 1974, the leader of the free world lived in a relatively modest red brick and white clapboard house in Alexandria, Virginia and commuted to the Oval Office each morning. Life changed pretty quickly for Gerald Ford that summer.

All we know for sure is that Stonewall Jackson's left arm was buried at Ellwood plantation in 1863. What has happened to it since is anyone's guess.

On February 2, 1959, four African American seventh‑graders walked into Stratford Junior High and became the first students to integrate a public school in Virginia. With over 100 Arlington County police officers in riot gear standing guard, it was an orderly and historic moment that helped break the state’s “Massive Resistance” to Brown v. Board and opened the door to wider desegregation across Virginia

In recent years the small brick building at 2507 N. Franklin Rd. in Arlington has been the home of coffee shops and eateries. That is quite a departure from the building’s previous life. From 1968-1984, this duplex was the national headquarters of the American Nazi Party. A swastika hung over the doorway (visible from busy Wilson Blvd half a block away) and khaki-clad “storm troopers” occupied the space, periodically clashing with neighbors.

Sometimes a trip to the mechanic turns into a history lesson. Don't believe us? Visit Joe's Service Center in Warrenton, Virginia. The waiting area is unlike any auto shop you've ever seen.

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to check out the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington's online exhibit, "Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City, 1861-1865." The exhibit provides an interesting look at Civil War Washington through the lens of the Jewish experience in our fair city.

December 14th marks the anniversary of George Washington's death from an unknown illness, which came on quickly. Centuries later, historians still debate what killed the first President and doctors are weighing in. So, how exactly do you diagnose an illness of a patient who died over 200 years ago? Very carefully.

In 1903, just weeks before Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully flew their Wright flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Smithsonian secretary Samuel Langley launched a daring, government-backed attempt to fly a motorized craft off a houseboat in the Potomac River. Langley's Aerodrome promptly crashed, but — much to the Wright Brothers' dismay — that didn't stop the Smithsonian from crediting Langley with creating the first motorized, manned craft “capable of flight.”

So where do you think Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath made his professional football debut? Shea Stadium in New York? Wrong. Fenway Park in Boston? Wrong again. D.C. Stadium in Washington? Nice try, but no. The correct answer is George Washington High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

The year is 1943. You’re new to the area and looking for a place to live that’s close enough to the city that the commute to your government job won’t be completely terrible. The war is going on and Washington is buzzing with activity. Where are you going to live? Well, if you were looking in Arlington, there’s a good chance you might end up in the new Fairlington neighborhood.

Was the father of our country a deadbeat book borrower? Apparently so. In April of 2010, a New York Society Library employee stumbled across the long lost fourteen-volume collection, Common Debates but, the collection was missing a volume. A check of the old circulation ledger proved that volume #12 had last been checked out by George Washington October 5, 1789 — and never returned.

On November 17, 1927 one of the fiercest storms our area has ever seen touched down near Old Town Alexandria. With winds estimated at 125 mph, it ripped through Alexandria, D.C. and Prince Georges County within minutes, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.