Clara Barton’s missing soldiers office was re-discovered by accident

The Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office Museum may be found in the DC neighborhood of Gallery Place. You might not be aware that this museum opened its doors for the first time in 2015. Since new construction renamed street addresses, the city had long since forgotten where her DC office was, and in 1996, the building's demolition was slated. Richard Lyons, an inspector who came to the location to check on things, was shocked to see a piece of paper sticking out of the ceiling.

He discovered it was an outdated piece of mail hidden in the attic after climbing a ladder to get a better look. He entered the attic out of curiosity and discovered a location that had been virtually unattended for more than a century. A sign indicating Clara Barton's office at the Missing Soldiers Office was among the over a thousand relics in the office. He and the rest of his agency collaborated with the National Museum of Civil War Medicine to rehabilitate the structure and open it as a museum rather than demolish it! While you're in the neighborhood, you should visit the Clara Barton home in Glen Echo, Maryland, which is just across the Potomac River from where she oversaw the American Red Cross.