Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0373Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of Pennsylvania Ave., a multitude of cars are parked and driving on the street. Above the image "34" is printed, below the image "32247 Pennsylvania Ave. from the S. Steps of the Treausry Building. Washington, D. C." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
32247
LOOKING EAST TO THE CAPITOL, UP HISTORIC PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Although it is not now as it long was, the only street of importance in the city, Pennsylvania Avenue will doubltess always continue to be Washingotn's most famous thoroughfare and the scene of its greatest public demonstrations and ceremonials, whether of national joy or of national sorrow. It has been the "American Appian Way" ever since Thomas Jefferson, in the early days of the city, first applied that happy phrase to it, or at least to the mile and a half of it along which we are now looking eastward from the southern steps fo the Treasury Building. Though Pennsylvania Avenue, from Rock Creek to the Anacostia River, is rly about five miles long, it is only the part from the White House to the Capitol which possesses a particularly absorbing story. It had its birth on April 14, 1792, when orders were given to have "a breadth of two perches done in the middle of the avenue from the President's Palace to the Capitol." Nevertheless, ight years later, in 1800, the avenue was still "nearly the whole distance a deep morass, covered with alder bushes." Its transition to the dignified street of today was very gradual. Jefferson planted it with rows of poplar trees but they did not thrive and in 1831 thew whole broad surface was macadamized. Lamp posts and oil lamps were installed along the avenue in 1842, and in 1848 these were replaced by gas lights. Hotels, thearers, and stores which have played conspicuous parts in the life of the city have arisen, flourished and passed away beside this highway. Saddle horeses and coaches have given place to horse cars, trolley cars and automobiles. And still the great thoroughfare lies, like an artery between the head and the heart of the Nation, ready for tis share in whatever events the future may hold.
Copyright Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection