Monday, July 19, 2010

Historic DC

The national capital, Washington, D.C. Sketched from nature by Adolph Sachse, 1883-1884.  
(Balti[more] A. Sachse & Co., 1884.)  Zoom in of Logan Circle.

A neighbor passed on this interesting link from the Library of Congress, which includes panoramic maps of our city from about 1850 to 1996. In lieu of aerial photos, these painstakingly detailed, hand-drawn maps are hugely important "snapshots" of DC. Used with city directories, they show the state of development in parts of our city overlooked by contemporary tour guides.

The most interesting may be the Aldolf Sachse map circa 1883-1884 and the grand maps done by Williams and Heintz in the 1920s. You may be able to zoom in on the high resolution images to see your very block over a century ago.  Looks like what is now Whole Foods was a whole lot of grass.

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