William Howard Taft's Inauguration in 1909 (File)

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It was the worst snowstorm we had for years. We had some relatives on Third Street, just below Pennsylvania Avenue. And they were very close to the Capitol. And in the living room they had a kind of heater. We [would] run in there and get warm and then go out again and watch the inaugural parade. . . . We'd stand right on the curb stone. And of course years ago, the presidents used to come out and walk up and down the street and shake hands. . . . As I remember, [President Taft had] a big open car. He was a big fat man, you know.

State, War, Navy Building (File)

State, War, Navy Building ~ 1918
Washington

When I was 18, I took the Civil Service Examination. It was during the First World War. And I made $1,100 a year. And then, I got a little paper to show that I was promoted to $1,200. I worked in the War Department. I remember when the U.S. announced they won the war. Everybody ran out on the street on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the building.

Plane-watching at National Airport in 1946 (File)

National Airport ~ 1940s
Washington

We used to go out and my son would always beg to let him go up in some of the planes. We used to go over there, and for 10 cents you could go up in the little tower and stand up there and watch the planes. And that was one of our Sunday afternoon treats for my boy, because he loved planes. And finally, in his late years, he bought . . . a plane and learned to fly. He used to do it quite often.

Just after Katharine Hanson was born in 1899, her mother died of cancer. Soon after, she was sent to live with her grandmother, forever separated from two of her three siblings.

"It makes a difference when your mother dies," she says. In 1907, her father remarried, enabling her to return to her father's home.

With Capitol Hill for a playground, the young Katharine watched Union Station rise from the ground and witnessed President William Howard Taft's inauguration in 1909. She cavorted on Pennsylvania Avenue, watching the trolley cars as they passed.

One semester before Hanson was to graduate from high school, her father died of lung problems. Now orphaned, Hanson set out to find a job.

At 18, Hanson took the civil service exam and landed a job as a typist in the War Department at the Old Executive Office Building during World War I. For five years, Hanson walked to work beneath the gas lanterns and alongside horse troughs on Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 1923, she married Maynard Hanson, a plasterer 12 years her senior, and quit work. Undeterred by the Depression, the new couple built a home and bought their first car, their first phone and their first radio. In 1928, Hanson bore her only child, Maynard Jr., whose favorite pastime was watching planes at the newly built National Airport.

After her husband died, Hanson got what was supposed to be a three-week job at Aetna Insurance. It turned into a 13-year career. In 1965, she retired and moved to Arlington, Va.

In August, Hanson's children, grandchildren and five great-grandchildren watched as she celebrated her 100th birthday on "The Today Show" with Willard Scott.