Women in Preservation: Ruth Butler & the Historic American Buildings Survey of Peirce Mill
Women in Preservation: Ruth Butler & the Historic American Buildings Survey of Peirce Mill In the mid-1930s, the federal government sent a team of architects, historians, and photographers to Rock Creek Park to produce a detailed report on Peirce Mill--part of a New Deal effort known as [...]
William Beckett, Dealer in Wood and Coal
William Beckett, Dealer in Wood and Coal In 1877, William Beckett placed this advertisement for a wood and coal yard in Boyd's Directory of the District of Columbia, the 19th century's answer to the yellow pages--or an online search. Beckett's business sat near the corner [...]
William Beckett Project
Announcing the William Beckett Project The Friends of Peirce Mill recently initiated the William Beckett Project to learn more about the remarkable life of a man who was once the enslaved manager of Joshua Peirce’s nursery business on Linnaean Hill, now Rock Creek Park headquarters. [...]
Republic Built on Flour
The Republic Built on Flour by Yong Kwon Grinding wheat into flour, grist mills played a significant role in not only feeding the United States after its independence, but also keeping its economy upright. Even after the war was formally concluded in 1783, Britain [...]
A History of the Orchards Near Rock Creek
A Fruit Tree Grows in Washington: A History of Orchards Near Rock Creek In an orchard on a hillside behind Peirce Barn, Tim Makepeace works with volunteers and Rock Creek Park staff to care for two dozen apple and pear trees planted in 2012. These [...]
Titian Ramsay Peale’s First Attempt at Photography: Peirce Mill 1855
Titian Ramsay Peale's First Attempt at Photography: Peirce Mill, 1855 On September 26, 1855, artist and naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale set up a camera near Peirce Mill. He was experimenting with the revolutionary new medium of photography, invented less than twenty years earlier. Peale placed [...]