Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Lady with the Harp

 Eliza Ridgely
This 1818 painting by Thomas Sully may have saved his 15-year-old subject's home, Hampton.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Southernmost House in Philadelphia -- 1763

The Starting-Point of the Mason-Dixon Survey



In 1763, a century of sometimes violent conflict between the Calverts and Penns had ended and the boundaries between their Pennsylvania and Maryland proprietaries were fixed. To ensure that Philadelphia remained in Pennsylvania, the boundary was set 15 miles south of the southernmost house in Philadelphia. Astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were hired by the sons of William Penn and and the degenerate Lord Baltmore, Frederick Calvert, to mark the boundaries.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Slave Pens in Alexandria

Lest We Forget...


1315 Duke Street in Alexandria is a stark reminder of the coastal trade in human beings, sold south, from the mid-Atlantic to the deep south in the years preceding the Civil War.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Albert Pike

"Author, Poet, Soldier, Scholar" or "Traitor, Klan Leader, Satanist, Coward"?

 Nothing about Albert Pike is uncontroversial.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

John's Grill

Where Sam Spade Had Dinner


Here's a historic landmark where a fictitious character had chops, baked potatoes, and sliced tomatoes and smoked a cigarette. John's Grill is at 63 Ellis in San Francisco.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Braddock Boulder

At the National Cathedral

This boulder, sitting on the front lawn of the National Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue, may be the oldest historical marker in the Washington, DC, area commemorating a Colonial event.