AttucksAdams

AttucksAdams Educational Walking Tours in the District of Columbia We're a small company solely dedicated to making your time in DC worthwhile.

Discover secret symbols of the Lincoln Memorial, go behind the scenes on the Hill, or build a custom tour made just for you.

Wow. I just completed my longest tour trip, ever. Exactly two weeks on tour, providing back to back HS student programs,...
07/16/2025

Wow. I just completed my longest tour trip, ever. Exactly two weeks on tour, providing back to back HS student programs, mostly touring in New York City.

So much to reflect on and catalog. I'm not sure I ever want to take a job that long again, but working with students always redeems trivial logistical challenges we might face behind the scenes.

These two groups were amazing and we covered the arts, politics, history, nature, culture, and yes, shopping + all the touristy NYC sites, too.

Read more on today's Patreon where I highlight my favorite NYC adventures from the past two weeks and reveal why the last photo in the deck holds so much meaning professionally and personally.šŸ™šŸ¾Once again, thanks to all Patrons for making it possible for me to share in this way with you all.

I'm debuting a new tour this weekend -- Music and Social Change: Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan!The official debut is M...
05/27/2025

I'm debuting a new tour this weekend -- Music and Social Change: Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan!

The official debut is May 31, with two publicly available tours. Private bookings are already open and thanks to the two groups that already booked.

What is this tour about?

On this 90 minute walk we will delve into the area's rich musical heritage, from the "hillbilly music" of the mid-20th century to the influential punk and Riot Grrrl scenes of the 1990s.

Discover how the arrival of streetcars shaped these neighborhoods, leading to bustling commercial strips and two diverse but linked communities. Learn about 16th Street's past identity as Embassy Row and uncover the origins of the Adams Morgan name, a testament to the neighborhood's commitment to racial integration.

From historic libraries and grand movie houses to the hidden stories behind local businesses and community spaces, this tour offers a captivating glimpse into the evolution of these iconic Washington, D.C. neighborhoods.

Duration: 90 minutes. About 1 mile total distance. Private group torus start at $125 and public tours are $25 per person. ā˜ŗļø

Walking tour in Washington, DC featuring the story of music and social change in Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant.

I truly appreciate everyone who came out over the past week for these tours!
05/14/2025

I truly appreciate everyone who came out over the past week for these tours!

Here's to the scores of federal workers who took advantage of the offer to attend a walking tour for free during Public Service Recognition Week. It was our pleasure to host you--and we applaud the participation of our paying guests as well!

Gratitude to our fellow walking tour colleagues for collaborating with us to provide 21 walking tours during the annual week that celebrates and honors public servants:

- Attucks Adams
- Backward Butterfly
- DC Design Tours
- Off the Mall Walking Tours
- A Tour of Her Own

Partnership for Public Service AttucksAdams Black Broadway Travel DC Design Tours Off The Mall Tours Kaitlin Calogera Brian Kraft

IMAGE Rock Creek Park Hike with Washington Walks guide Brian Kraft

We're partnering with Washington Walks and several other tour companies to offer free walking tours to federal workers n...
04/28/2025

We're partnering with Washington Walks and several other tour companies to offer free walking tours to federal workers next week!

During Public Service Recognition Week (May 3-11, 2025) anyone employed by the federal government as of January 1, 2025, regardless of current employment status, can take walking tours free of charge!

Anyone can reserve a spot on these walks, but federal employees attend for free.

As for Attucks Adams, we're offering two sessions of Eyes on Emancipation: Black History on Pennsylvania Avenue. Tour 1 will be the morning of May 4th. Tour 2 will be the morning of May 11th. As of today there are a few spots open for each session.

This was a true partnership between six indie tour companies in DC. There are many other tours to choose from!

Head to this page and check them out: https://www.washingtonwalks.com/psrw/

Many thanks to the organizing done by Washington Walks and all our partners, including:

Washington Walks

Black Broadway Travel (blackbroadwaytravel.com)

A Tour of Her Own (atourofherown.com)

DC Design Tours

Off The Mall Tours

Please pay them a visit! They all offer their own compelling tours and I'm happy to have them as industry colleagues. šŸ«¶šŸ½āœŒšŸ¾šŸ’ŖšŸ½

Will the thought & speech police come for tour guides and other out-of-school time educators? Part II of my thoughts on ...
04/18/2025

Will the thought & speech police come for tour guides and other out-of-school time educators?

Part II of my thoughts on a recent executive order targeting how museums represent American history.

In 1862 a man named Charles Stuart traveled to the Washington City Hall building on Indiana Avenue and turned in a set of important and valuable papers. The papers documented 10 people that were enslaved by Stuart. Enslaved — in the past tense. On April 16th, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed ...

Then and Now: Dart Drug at the corner on 11th and G Streets NW, circa 1980.Dart Drug was a short-lived chain, first open...
04/11/2025

Then and Now: Dart Drug at the corner on 11th and G Streets NW, circa 1980.

Dart Drug was a short-lived chain, first opened in DC in 1954. By the 1990s the company had dissolved, but not after pioneering the ā€œsuperstoreā€ format, growing from a simple pharmacy to a find-anything type retail format similar to a modern day Walgreens, CVS, or Duane Reade. Basically the owners sold whatever they could get a steep discount on while wholesale buying.

The Dart corporation also grew to encompass many other retail formats such as auto part stores and book stores.

In the early years Dart shook up the pharmaceutical industry by selling drugs below the wholesale price, forcing the large drug companies to adapt and change the way they market and sell drugs to distributor pharmacies.

The flame shone too bright however. Economic turmoil within the company and internal strife within the family that owned Dart led to its downfall as a corporation in the 1990s.

Today this former location of Dart Drug is inhabited by a coffee shop.

What could a new executive order mean for museums? My thoughts.
04/03/2025

What could a new executive order mean for museums? My thoughts.

In what can only be described as blitz, the White House and President Trump, as of today --April 3, 2025-- has issued 109 executive orders. We're just 74 days into the term and the administration has issued more executive orders than any other in their first 100 days, already surpassing Franklin Ro

šŸ“*Let America Be America Again.šŸ“š*Langston Hughes, 1935Let America be America again.Let it be the dream it used to be.Let...
04/02/2025

šŸ“*Let America Be America Again.
šŸ“š*Langston Hughes, 1935

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this ā€œhomeland of the free.ā€)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That’s made America the land it has become.

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,

And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came

To build a ā€œhomeland of the free.ā€

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we’ve dreamed

And all the songs we’ve sung

And all the hopes we’ve held

And all the flags we’ve hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The r**e and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America again!

*Let America Be America Again.
*Langston Hughes, 1935

Art wall at the White House. Anyone could make a contribution. It was here for a day and then gone.Ephemeral displays of...
03/26/2025

Art wall at the White House. Anyone could make a contribution. It was here for a day and then gone.

Ephemeral displays of art a cherished part of city life.

This week on the Looking Blog.Black Lives Matter Plaza: 2020-2025
03/24/2025

This week on the Looking Blog.

Black Lives Matter Plaza: 2020-2025

Two weeks ago, I gave what was I thought could possibly my last tour ever at Black Lives Matter Plaza. A group of college students from Pennsylvania wanted to see the plaza before its potential removal, which they had read about in the news before their DC trip. At the time, that meant the plaza cou

03/22/2025

Washington Walks is partnering with our colleagues in the D.C. walking tour community to celebrate our public service workers:

Attucks Adams, Black Broadway Travel, DC Design Tours, Off the Mall Tours, A Tour of Her Own.

During Public Service Recognition Week (May 3-11, 2025) anyone employed by the federal government as of January 1, 2025, regardless of current employment status, can take walking tours free of charge!

Anyone can reserve a spot on any of the 21 walking tours offered, but federal employees attend for free.

Explore the walks and reserve your spot: https://www.washingtonwalks.com/psrw/

Partnership for Public Service AFGE National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) AttucksAdams DC Design Tours Off The Mall Tours Women's Tourism D.C.

PSRW Walks logo by Carolyn Muraskin, DC Design Tours

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Discover secret symbols of the Lincoln Memorial, go behind the scenes on the Hill, or build a custom tour made just for you. We're a small company solely dedicated to making your time in DC worthwhile.