Lost Capitol Hill: Blizzards on the Hill

We all now know that this winter has dumped the most snow on the nation’s capital than any previous winter – and there may be more to come, soon. I was all set to talk about the winter of 1898/9 and began working my way through the newspapers of the time when I became, well, sidetracked. And so instead of a nice narrative, I will write of a little of what I found while looking for something completely different.

The winter of 1898/9 started out quietly for Washington DC. Some parts of the country were hit hard early – on election day, 1898, Wyoming was hit with blizzards that reduced visibility to zero and dramatically cut down the number of voters making their way to the polls and a few days later, Chicago and Nebraska were inundated. Two weeks thereafter, another snow storm pummeled the midwest, leading the meteorologists of the time to predict snow in DC for Thanksgiving – but still, DC had no snow.

Instead, New York was hit hard on November 26 as the whole northeast was covered in snow. 2 weeks thereafter, it was New Orleans that took the brunt of the snow. As Christmas passed without any snow on the ground in DC, it looked as if there might be no noteworthy snow that winter at all. And then, well into February, old man winter showed what he could do. On the 8^th, 14 inches fell, coupled with record low temperatures. Another 21 inches dropped on Valentine’s day, for monthly total of 35 inches. The final total for the year was 54.4 inches.

I was going to figure out when the other snow had fallen that year, and find out how this had all affected Capitol Hill, but then I was distracted by this Youtube video, which shows the aftereffects of a 1966 snowstorm on Capitol Hill. Although the reactions are the same as today: Get out the shovel and the sled! the hats, hairdos and fashion shows it to be another era. You can see Marion Park in part of the clip.

The author and his inner child in front of the Capitol (Photo: Trish Petty)

And then I went sledding on the grounds of the Capitol, and any hope of doing any research at all vanished in a happy slide to the base of Capitol Hill.

At least someone remembered who brokered the deal that allowed us the rare pleasure of sledding down Capitol Hill.

To learn more about local history, the author of this column will be talking about his book “Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery in the District of Columbia” tonight at 7:30 at Riverby Books, 417 East Capitol Street SE. Learn about this little-known chapter in DC history, and be prepared for when DC Emancipation Day comes around again on April 16.