The Boltbus has been a part of my and the Hayfoot’s life since we met six years ago. At first it was her going to meet a friend for the weekend. Then, as we knew each other better we would both go down to see the sites. It was in a Washington hotel room that I proposed. Now, with her working in the area one of us is on the bus every few weeks. It is part of our everyday life.

One thing I always note when the bus is approaching DC is how there are two Washingtons: the official one that tourists and public officials inhabit and the inner-city version one sees entering town. Like New York City Washington has gentrified a great deal over the past 15-20 years. The Boltbus itself is a product of that gentrification. Still, there are pockets here and there where one sees signs of the civil unrest of the 1960s. No, I am not old enough to remember the 1968 riots there and elsewhere, but I have been around enough to remember when the wounds were still raw. It is something I think about every time the bus is pulling in.

Here is some incredible, recently discovered film footage courtesy of media company CriticalPast. Looking closely at some of the additional footage, I noticed that some of the soldiers were from the Big Red One, which until a few years perviously had been stationed at Governors Island.

I was on DuPont Circle on my way to meet the Hayfoot for dinner the other night when, to my great shock, I noticed that the Patterson Mansion is on the selling block. The mansion has been the home of the Washington Club for the past several decades. Apparently the cost of upkeep along with the prospect of a big payout proved too much to resist for the members of the women’s club. And who can blame them? They stand to make $25-$30 million.

Robert and Elinor (Nellie) Patterson built the home at the turn of the twentieth century when DuPont Circle was transforming into the hub of political and social life in the capitol. Stanford White was the architect. In the decade and a half prior to the Great War a great deal of diplomatic work was carried out in houses like this one in settings formal, informal, and semi-formal.

Here are a few pics.

I guess it should not be surprising, but I did not know that Sotheby’s sold real estate.

A detail of the stately structure

The 26,000 square foot mansion as seen from DuPont Circle itself

The video above gives an overview of the work currently underway to repair the many cracks in the U.S. Capitol dome. I had not realized that so much work was needed. The undertaking is a joint project of two construction companies that have worked on the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, WW2 Memorial, and the National Gallery of Art, among other things. I hope the foundation of the building is structurally sound. It would seem everything else is for nought unless that were the case. A good book on the Capitol if one were looking for something to read this winter is Guy Gugliotta’s Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War. If nothing else, you will be comforted by its “the more things change, the more they stay the same” lesson.

The other day I mentioned that the Hayfoot and I took a Civil War metro trip to the Frederick Douglass House in Washington DC.. Here are a few pics.

Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass

Fittingly given the man who lived in it, the house sits on this high ground. Douglass and his wife, Anne Murray, moved here in September 1877. Anne died and Frederick lived here with his second wife until his death in February 1895. He died in the house. The National Park Service gained jurisdiction of Cedar Hill in 1962 during the Civil War Centennial.

The Hayfoot has a knack for taking photos when I am unaware. The visit to the Douglass house bookended neatly with our visit to the Lincoln Cottage in late May. They were two of the highlights of the summer.

It takes some effort and perseverance to visit these more off-the-beaten-path places in the Capital. So many people just do the Mall and leave it at that. There is so much else to see if one is willing to put in the time and effort.

The Capitol Building from the front yard

As at the Lincoln Cottage, one gets a view of the Capitol Building from the grounds.

It is best to get tickets in advance for either site to make sure you get the tour of the houses; the interiors ar accessible only by guided tour. At both places the interpretation was top notch. As a volunteer myself with the NPS, I can say that a good interpreter makes all the difference.

This was the view from the second story window. You can see part of the Anacostia neighborhood in the distance. This trip was doubly special because my mother was born in the neighborhood. My grandfather worked in the nearby Washington Navy Yard during the Depression and Second World War.

Visiting here had the added effect of getting me to renew my Ancestry account, which expired at the beginning of the summer. These past few nights I have been researching my family history while listening to the pennant races on MLB TV. I just loved that my mother lived so close to here.

Douglass’s man cave

This stone cabin out back is where the great human rights leader came to get away from the grandkids and endless line of visitors who hoped for an audience with him. There was an extensive personal library in the house as well. I don’t think I fully understood Douglass the Intellectual until coming here. There is no substitute for visiting historical sites.

the grounds

This photograph in the rear gives a sense of the size of the grounds. For an African American to own such a property in the nineteenth century was remarkable.

Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

This was inside the visitors center. The NPS staff was knowledgable and helpful. My one criticism is that the film, which appeared to be from the early 1980s, is a tad dated. Hopefully they will remedy that in the future. The Douglass bicentennial, a short five years away, seems a good opportunity to do so.

When I was a graduate student I was taking a course on the Gilded Age and asked the professor what he considered the best Douglass biographies. He said there were a few competent ones, but that an authoritative one is still waiting to be written. We will see what happens in the next few years.

A friend sent this to me the other day and I thought I would post here as a jumpstart to the week.