John DeFerrari is a native Washingtonian with a lifelong passion for local history and writes about it for his blog, Streets Of Washington. His latest book about DC history is Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, DC. John is also a trustee of the DC Preservation League. The views expressed here are his own.
Take a peek at DC’s first streetcar opening in 1862
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) October 30, 20192
DC’s first streetcar system opened in the middle of the Civil War after taking only six months to build. It ran horse-drawn streetcars along Pennsylvania Avenue, and was an instant hit. Keep reading…
How DC’s first electric streetcar helped build Eckington
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) October 24, 2019
Streetcars ran in the District from 1862 to 1962, and DC got its first electric streetcar in 1888 when the Eckington & Soldiers Home Railway went into operation. A ban on overhead wires kept it from running downtown, and the company ultimately went out of business because it couldn’t find another option. Keep reading…
The story of how DC’s Friendship Archway in Chinatown came to be
ArchitectureHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) September 26, 20184
Much of DC’s Chinatown is about symbols. The neighborhood is small and fragile, seemingly forever on the brink of extinction. Its identity hinges on a smattering of things Chinese: the restaurants (of course), the red and green lampposts, the Chinese characters on street signs. But without a doubt the most striking and enduring symbol of all is the great Friendship Archway. Keep reading…
DC’s first streetcar opened in 1862. Here’s what it was like.
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) February 25, 201611
The DC Streetcar will start carrying passengers on Saturday, but that won’t be the first time we’ve seen a streetcar’s opening day. DC’s first streetcar system opened in the middle of the Civil War after taking only six months to build. It ran horse-drawn streetcars along Pennsylvania Avenue, and was an instant hit. Keep reading…
DC’s first electric streetcar helped build Eckington
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) February 12, 201610
DC got its first electric streetcar in 1888 when the Eckington & Soldiers Home Railway went into operation. A ban on overhead wires kept it from running downtown, and the company ultimately went out of business because it couldn’t find another option.I recently wrote about the 100-year history of streetcars in the District, from 1862 to 1962 (the span from the first… Keep reading…
Little-known quarry played a big role in DC’s rise
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) February 27, 201311
The city’s historic structures were built from materials as unique to their age and as varied as the architectural styles used to mold them into buildings. Those materials often have their own rich stories to tell, as Garrett Peck ably demonstrates in his lively new book, The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry. Seneca sandstone has a lot going for it. In addition to… Keep reading…
Get your fill of DC history this fall
HistoryHistoryBy John Muller (Contributor),John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) October 8, 20121
With 2 annual conferences that recognize, analyze, share, and discuss our city’s recorded and built history, October is a de facto DC History Month. Come November, the Washington Historical Society will turn a page in its own history as it re-opens in the old Carnegie Library.The DC Preservation League’s Citywide Preservation Conference is on Friday, October… Keep reading…
New book chronicles Frederick Douglass in DC
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) September 27, 20125
A statue of Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895), the most famous African-American of the 19th century, will soon be added to or near Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol to represent the District of Columbia. It’s a notable and long overdue recognition for both Douglass and the District.John Muller, a journalist and Greater Greater Washington contributor, has meticulously… Keep reading…
An attempted murder kindled DC’s first race riot in 1835
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) June 29, 20126
The 1830s are not a well-known period in Washington’s history. Too late for L’Enfant and too early for Lincoln, they are a mystery to most residents. But hiding beneath the quiet surface were rising racial tensions, as vividly described in Jefferson Morley’s new book, Snow-Storm in August. Morley brings the 1830s to life with an account of dramatic events… Keep reading…
Last of K Street’s great mansions is threatened
HistoryHistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) May 12, 201277
On the northeast corner of 11th and K Streets NW stands the last dilapidated vestiges of what K Street was once all about—large, elegant Victorian mansions that were the homes of the city’s most powerful and influential citizens. For the last 7 years, the mansion at 1017 K has been quietly crumbling behind the humiliating wrap of a massive fabric billboard. It’s… Keep reading…
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