Skip to main content
RETURN TO Return to WETA website Donate
Boundary Stones logo

Main navigation

  • Washington, D.C.
  • Maryland
  • Virginia
  • Video
  • About

Georgetown

DC
What's in a Name? Georgetown

What's in a Name? Georgetown

07/20/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

Who was Georgetown named for? There are actually a few candidates. As it turns out, you’ll find a lot of Georges in this D.C. neighborhood’s history.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
"Skyrockets in Flight:" Starland Vocal Band Launched from D.C.

"Skyrockets in Flight:" Starland Vocal Band Launched from D.C.

09/30/2019 in DC by Lori Wysong

The soundtrack of the summer of 1976 was a special one. Just after the USA celebrated its Bicentennial, one unlikely song, with its folksy style and airtight harmonization, soared past the countless disco tunes to the number 1 spot on the Billboard charts. No matter how you feel about it, “Afternoon Delight” was perhaps the perfect way to celebrate our independence. With lyrics referencing “skyrockets in flight,” the song (and the band behind it) has a very strong connection to the Nation’s Capital.  

It all started in 1974, when musicians Bill Danoff and Margot Chapman stopped at Clyde’s in Georgetown for a meal...  

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Maryland was almost "Almost Heaven"

Maryland was almost "Almost Heaven"

07/18/2019 in DC by Lori Wysong

In the summer of 1970, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert were driving down Clopper Road to a family reunion in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Montgomery County was a much more rural place in those days, and the scenery inspired Danoff to repetitively sing “country roads, country roads, country roads.” 

Under normal circumstances, this burst of creativity might have gone nowhere, but the couple happened to be a duo of professional musicians. So, with the help of John Denver, they soon turned the phrase into the earworm we know today. 

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
What is the True Story Behind Georgetown's Gun Barrel Fence?

What is the True Story Behind Georgetown's Gun Barrel Fence?

12/14/2017 in DC by Callum Cleary

At first sight, the old wrought iron fence on the corner of P and 28th streets appears indistinct from the many other railings that skirt Georgetown’s redbrick sidewalks. Upon closer inspection, however, it’s clear this fence is unique. Cracks in some of the pickets reveal that although each upright is hollow, the walls of the pickets are far thicker than is structurally necessary for a perimeter fence. Plus, a number of the pickets feature small nubs just below the attached spikes, which, even to the untrained eye, resemble gun sights. While the Gun Barrel Fence has long been a Georgetown landmark, the fence’s origins remain shrouded in mystery and misconception. Let’s bust some myths, shall we?

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
A Forgotten Fight? Kicking Bear and the Dumbarton Bridge

A Forgotten Fight? Kicking Bear and the Dumbarton Bridge

12/12/2017 in DC by Callum Cleary

Dumbarton Bridge is nestled between Georgetown and Dupont Circle. Bronze Buffalo guard the approaches and 56 identical sculptures of a Native American man line the base of the bridge’s second tier of arches. Chosen to provide a distinctly “American character,” these design features are reflective of an artistic movement that idealized European settlement and western expansion. Ironically, the man depicted by the replicate busts spent his entire life fighting European settlement.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Tennis's Original Sister Act: Margaret and Roumania Peters

Tennis's Original Sister Act: Margaret and Roumania Peters

07/13/2017 in DC by Lila Spitz

Decades before Venus and Serena Williams dominated women’s tennis on the WTA tour, the Peters Sisters — Margaret Peters, a.k.a. “Pete", and Roumania Peters, a.k.a. “Repeat” — from Georgetown, were unstoppable champions in the all-black American Tennis Association.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Julia Child's Washington Roots

Julia Child's Washington Roots

04/26/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

Julia Child was a giant of French cooking, but before she became a legend in the kitchen she worked in the Office of Strategic Services -- the precursor to the CIA -- in Washington, D.C.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Grave Robbing in Washington: A History of the Morbid Trade

Grave Robbing in Washington: A History of the Morbid Trade

10/26/2015 in DC by Mike Williams

Let's take a moment to explore one of Washington’s horrific nineteenth-century professions, the professional grave robber. Known as “resurrectionists” by the media outlets that covered their deeds, grave robbers haunted Washington’s many graveyards and potter’s fields in the cover of night, acquiring bodies to sell to local medical colleges. With several medical colleges operating in Washington during the later decades of the nineteenth-century, the District of Columbia became a hub of grave robbing activity in the United States. Their exploits may be thought of as morbid and disgusting, yet their contribution to modern medical science is an important one that is often ignored by medical historians.

For a medical professional to learn the skills to be a surgeon, a hands-on knowledge of human anatomy is essential. Potential surgeons need to perform dissections on human remains—remains that are intact and with as little decomposition as possible. In today’s society, supplies of subjects for dissection purposes are easy to obtain. In nineteenth-century America, acquiring needed subjects proved to be a challenge. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, death traditions favored the condition of the corpse. Religious views proclaimed that the body should be buried in the earth to await eventual resurrection upon the Day of Judgment. Despite the pleas by the medical community expounding the importance of available bodies for dissection, people remained repulsed by the thought of former loved ones lying out upon a dissection table being poked, prodded and sliced by medical students.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Rough and Tumble in Georgetown

Rough and Tumble in Georgetown

10/02/2015 in DC by Claudia Swain

You’ve heard of DUELING, now get ready for ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE. In the 1800s, more than a few disputes of personal honor were solved by shooting each other to death. But that’s what the gentry of the area did, so what did the common people do? Plain old hand-to-hand fighting and eye-gouging.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Fire and Rain: The Storm That Changed D.C. History

Fire and Rain: The Storm That Changed D.C. History

07/30/2015 in DC by Benjamin Shaw

On Aug. 24, 1814, for the first and only time in our country's history, Washington, D.C. was overrun by an invading army. The British army had easily defeated inexperienced American defenders, and set the city ablaze. The President fled to Brookeville, MD, and many of the citizens had fled along with the army. Those few residents of the capital who hadn't already fled may well have prayed for anything that could stop the flames. What they got, however, was something far more than they were hoping for: a "tornado" more powerful than any storm in living memory.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Next page ››
  • Last page »
Surprise Me!

Not sure where to start reading? Let us pick a story for you!

Categories

  • DC (565)
  • Maryland (106)
  • Virginia (146)

Latest Posts

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

03/17/2023

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

03/10/2023

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

03/03/2023

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

Most Popular

How the B&O Railroad Almost Gave Kensington, Maryland its Name

09/23/2022

How the B&O Railroad Almost Gave Kensington, Maryland its Name

Encore: How the Tivoli became the Epicenter of a Debate over Urban Renewal

07/27/2022

Encore: How the Tivoli became the Epicenter of a Debate over Urban Renewal

Mighty Yet Stubby: A Four-Legged War Hero Takes D.C. By Storm

08/09/2022

Mighty Yet Stubby: A Four-Legged War Hero Takes D.C. By Storm

Tags

1860s1870s1890s1900s1910s1920s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990sAlexandriaArlingtonBlack HistoryBygone DCCivil WarGeorgetownMusic HistorySports HistoryWhite HouseWomen's HistoryWorld War IWorld War II
More
Historical D.C. Metro Map
Tweets by BoundaryStones
WETA

Footer menu

  • Support WETA
  • About WETA
  • Press Room
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • RSS
  • Accessibility

Contact Us

  • 3939 Campbell Avenue
    Arlington, VA 22206 | Map
  • 703-998-2600
  • boundarystones@weta.org

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About Boundary Stones

Boundary Stones explores local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia. This project is a service of WETA and is supported by contributions from readers like you.

DONATE

Copyright © 2023 WETA. All Rights Reserved.

Bottom Footer

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Guidelines