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Join author Alison Fortier for a walk through our United States Capital and its iconic locations.  

This tour of the nation's capital goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the federal district. Visit the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln's Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Look around lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L'Enfant, the city's Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. From George Washington's Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of Washington, D.C., for a tour of America's most beloved sites. Join author and Washington insider Alison Fortier as she carefully curates an expedition to our shining city on a hill.

John DeFerrari investigates the bygone institutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with an engaging collection of new vignettes and reader favorites from his blog "The Streets of Washington."

Washington seems the eternal and unchanging Federal City with its grand avenues and stately monuments. Yet the city that locals once knew - lavish window displays at Woodies, supper at the grand Raleigh Hotel and a Friday night game at Griffith Stadium - is gone. From the raucous age of burlesque at the Gayety Theater and the once bustling Center Market to the mystery of Suter's Tavern and the disappearance of the Key mansion in Georgetown, DeFerrari recalls the lost Washington, D.C., of yesteryear.

Before John and Jackie lent a touch of Camelot to the famous red-bricked rows and even before the founding of the nation's capital, Georgetown was an influential port city. Men such as the charismatic Scot Ninian Beall came to the Potomac shores to capitalize on the riches of the New World. Beaver pelts, great hogsheads of tobacco, and slaves all crossed the wharves of George Town. Through a series of vignettes, Missy Loewe and David Mould chronicle the fascinating history of the nation's oldest neighborhood.

Discover the lost port city from the days of the Revolution and the terror of the War of 1812 to the founding of Georgetown University and the town's incorporation in the District of Columbia.

A carving of General Lee on the back of the Lincoln monument, the birth of lobbying at the Willard Hotel, a romantic gesture that built the distinctive homes of Capitol Hill--these are legends of Washington, D.C. The capital is home to all manner of colorful rumors and tall tales. According to local lore, the missing J Street was L'Enfant's snub to Supreme Court justice John Jay, and the course of history could have been changed if only a young baseball player named Fidel Castro had accepted a contract with the Washington Senators. In search of the truth behind these legends and more, local guide and writer Robert S. Pohl takes readers on a tour of the historic lore and urban legends that surround the monuments, neighborhood streets and even the Metro stations of Washington, D.C.

During the Gilded Age, Dupont Circle was Washington's undisputed center of wealth, power and status. Over twenty years, it evolved from small farms and an overrun city cemetery to a community of grand homes for society's elite. Residents included future president William Taft, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, newspaper publisher Cissy Patterson and many more. From the intimate dinners and receptions of the Cave Dwellers to the lavish balls of Mary Townsend and others in the "smart set," Dupont Circle marked each social season in the capital. Satirized in Mark Twain's novel "The Gilded Age," the nouveau riche lifestyle of Dupont Circle was fodder for newspaper celebrity gossip. Author Stephen Hansen brings to life the intriguing history of Washington's famed Dupont Circle.

Beginning as a small town on the banks of the Potomac, the neighborhoods of Foggy Bottom and the West End grew into the capital's industrial center at the head of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, with factories, gasworks and breweries. The amalgam of working-class row homes, stately mansions and mills largely disappeared with the coming of the twentieth century, and in their place came the federal government, George Washington University, the Kennedy Center and the Watergate. With a collection of rare vintage images, local authors Matthew Gilmore and Joshua Olsen have compiled a stunning visual narrative of the evolution of these historic Washington, D.C. communities.

Welcome to Millionaire's Row, where the Gilded Age mansions and clubs of high society still exude a faded elegance. It was here that fiery Martha Wadsworth--avid sportswoman and social maven--and wealthy hostess Nellie Patterson mingled with the likes of famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell and miner-turned-millionaire Thomas Walsh. From the Union Station Plaza and Embassy Row to Dupont Circle and the Washington National Cathedral, author Mark N. Ozer examines the extant Beaux-Arts architecture of Massachusetts Avenue mansions and tells the tales of socialites and politicians who lived and played behind their grand façades.