Ghost Town Trails

State atlas · filed under DC

Ghost Towns of District of Columbia

Even the capital has erased communities — freedmen's settlements, alley neighborhoods, and river-plain villages absorbed or demolished as official Washington grew over them.

193 sites surveyed across District of Columbia. Full records are being verified and charted — the survey marks below are where they'll appear.

✕Charted — click for the recordSurveyed — records pending

Survey note

The federal place-name archive records 193 vanished or historical sites in District of Columbia — ghost towns, mining camps, townsites, and railroad stops. We chart them a few at a time, as the records can be verified. Every mark on this map is a place that once had a name.

Society Pro

See District of Columbia as the surveyors drew it, 1879 to 1919

17 USGS survey sheets from those years cover District of Columbia. Pro lays them over today's map with a swipe between then and now, and adds every mine feature, lost place and mineral site the federal record holds for the state.

1mine features
48mineral sites
641lost places
17survey sheets

The full survey ledger

Every vanished town the federal archive records in District of Columbia — each with its own record page, verified and expanded over time.

Armsleigh ParkDistrict of Columbia Co.BloodfieldDistrict of Columbia Co.BrinetownDistrict of Columbia Co.CarrollsburgDistrict of Columbia Co.CowtownDistrict of Columbia Co.Dobbins AdditionDistrict of Columbia Co.Fairview HeightsDistrict of Columbia Co.Fernwood HeightsDistrict of Columbia Co.Georgetown HeightsDistrict of Columbia Co.HamburghDistrict of Columbia Co.HarlemDistrict of Columbia Co.Hells BottomDistrict of Columbia Co.Monastery LotDistrict of Columbia Co.Morris AdditionDistrict of Columbia Co.NacocktankeDistrict of Columbia Co.NacotchtankeDistrict of Columbia Co.PipetownDistrict of Columbia Co.Potomac CityDistrict of Columbia Co.Pretty ProspectDistrict of Columbia Co.RobeyvilleDistrict of Columbia Co.Sauis AdditionDistrict of Columbia Co.TohogaDistrict of Columbia Co.Tunlaw HeightsDistrict of Columbia Co.WestonDistrict of Columbia Co.WidowsvilleDistrict of Columbia Co.YoungsboroughDistrict of Columbia Co.
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