As the joke goes – you’d think he’da seen it.

More accurately, as the History channel reports, President John Adams arrived in our town on June 3rd, 1800, to find the President’s House not yet done. This document from the historical society reveals that he had to pack up and get out of the President’s House in Philadelphia because the lease expired. While the unfinished structure could safely store his furniture, it wasn’t habitable for people, much less a President.

So he took up lodging in what they describe as “Tunnicliffe’s City Hotel near the also half-finished Capitol building.”

If you wonder, as I did, whether the current Tunnicliffe’s over at Eastern Market could be close enough to be the same space, well The Hill is Home has the answer: no. In part two of their piece last year about William Tunnicliff they talk about this space and Adams’ stay there and identify it as being at the south-east corner of 1st and A, NE.

If that doesn’t immediately jump out at you, that’s where the Supreme Court currently resides.

Don Whiteside

Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.

Hmm, guess I just did.

My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.