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.
John DeFerrari, a native Washingtonian with a lifelong passion for local history, pens the Streets of Washington blog and is the author of Lost Washington, D.C. (2011), Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats (2013), and Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, D.C. (2015), all published by The History Press. DeFerrari is active in historic preservation and serves as a trustee of the D.C. Preservation League. He also has a master's degree in English literature from Harvard University and works for the federal government.