1930s

The American Experience film The Forgotten Plague details the impact of Tuberculosis on American society. TB was a problem everywhere. But, the disease hit few places as hard as it hit Washington, D.C. which had infection rates “higher even than that of Baltimore, where congestion and the economic situation are notoriously unfavorable.” (Sorry, Baltimore, apparently you were the measuring stick for terrible public health in the 1930s.)

"You don’t have to look too far when you’re in Shenandoah to see the relics of human habitation. You don’t have to be a historian. You don’t have to be an archaeologist. You can stay on trail. You can’t help but find stone walls that were built by somebody, clearly. There’s old roads. There’s house foundations. These are things you can see from the trail. So, I just saw these things over many, many years and I kind of wondered for awhile what they were all about but I didn’t really look into it for quite some time, until I started going a little bit off trail and finding more things off trail. And my curiosity was really piqued and I wanted to know, who were these people? Why are they not here? Why did they leave? Where did they go? And, what is their story all about?"

When Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast of the War of the Worlds hit the airwaves on WJV, Washington erupted with fear, rumors, and frantic calls. Panic spread through neighborhoods and newsrooms as listeners searched for confirmation, prompting officials to scramble with reassurances.

It’s a casual Sunday in April 1934 and you’re looking for something to do. How about a hike in the great outdoors? Lucky for you, there’s a new hiking club in town — the Wanderbirds — and they are preparing for their very first hike!

Huddie William Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, was a legendary folk and blues musician famed for his twelve‑string guitar virtuosity, powerful voice, and the many standards he popularized. His songs have been covered by artists from Bob Dylan to Led Zeppelin. But one of his lesser known works hits closest to home: "Bourgeois Blues," a searing indictment of racial segregation in Washington, D.C.

If Cupid strikes you in the heart today, you might decide to take a trip to a Las Vegas wedding chapel or your local courthouse for a quick wedding. If you wanted to get married in a hurry in the 1930s, however, there was only one place to go: Elkton, Maryland just inside the Delaware border.

You probably read The Great Gatsby at some point in school, but did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald has a D.C. area connection Indeed he did — and a somewhat controversial one at that!

Repeal Day, December 5, 1933, was a day of wild celebration. The 18th Amendment was repealed, ending the great experiment known as Prohibition. Booze could finally start flowing again (legally) across the country and Americans were eager to imbibe. But, as kegs were tapped and bottles were uncorked from coast to coast, one place was left out of the party: Washington, D.C.

Thirty years before Houston's Astrodome became "the eighth wonder of the world" in 1965, Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall hired an architect to design a climate-controlled, 70,000 seat, all-weather stadium to be located in the District. Never built, the domed stadium would have featured a retractable roof made of steel and glass, tiered seating and flexibility to accommodate ice hockey, track, baseball, swimming or boxing in addition to Redskins football.

Think the impacts of the Dust Bowl were only felt in the Great Plains? Think again. In the spring of 1935, a dust storm nearly blocked out the sun above Washington, alarming local citizens and spurring Congress to take action on soil erosion policy.