(South West Five, Stones of the District of Columbia)   A massive construction project is in progress behind the General’s house on the hill.   Carl was clearly proud of the work, as proud as if he were digging it himself, and not all those hired contractors.   It was funny about that, and as […]

(Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs)   Engineering Technian Carl is a man who likes his work. I suspect he thought Jason and I were just another couple Stone Junkies, on a wham-bam mission to count coup on the stone in the deep woods at the top of the Decarlia Reservation.   I explained that I had […]

  (The Decarlia Water Treatment Facility, Washington, DC)   “You know,” I said. “If that guy in the Post actually did visit the sites of all forty District Stones on a Sunday, he was trespassing on Army Corps of Engineers land. This reservoir provides the drinking water for the District, Arlington and Fall’s Church. It […]

(Young RFK and Family at Hickory Hill)   I wasn’t going to write the story of the two stones in Decarlia today, much less drag you off on some brand new wild goose chase.   Dammit, I was going to finish off the mystery of the Buckingham Swim Club, and I will. It is going […]

  (The Econowash Today) I have two recollections of the wide world from the 1950s. There is a jumble of personal stuff, of course, but the two things that filled my little brain with dread were the news of Ike’s heart attack in 1955.   Why that stayed with me all these years may have […]

(Author Alex Haley)   Great forces were in motion in the year of 1966. They manifested themselves on the world stage, and in local politics, and even in the real estate market.   The Civil rights protests under her office window must have given pause to the Queen of Buckingham. Frances Freed had already laid […]

Frances Freed was no Henry Ford, though her late husband Allie had made a decent go of manufacturing in the taxi business in New York.   When he passed away with the first Buckingham units just being completed, she picked herself up and executed the plan. She was a remarkable women, disciplined and industrious, and […]

(Basement Laundry Room)   It is a chicken-and-egg thing, and I wish I had time to slow down and have some eggs this morning. Unfortunately, I have to be someplace else and there is nothing to be done about it. To make an omelet you have to break eggs, right? No time.   So no […]

(Buckingham, November 1939)   I am a little peevish this morning. I am distracted by a breathtaking demonstration of how far we have fallen as an educated society. The fall has been so swift because the tumble is accelerated by astonishing technology.   If you want to get sidetracked and pissed-off, you can take the […]

(Original Klan Robe)   After the marching season was done emotion continued to run high outside the rental office at the target for integration in Arlington County, the Buckingham neighborhood.   1966. One hundred and one years since the War Between the States had concluded. The centennial was only a year past, and the demonstrators […]