It’s opening weekend of baseball … Every President since Taft has thrown out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch, usually for Opening Day. Here are photos of Taft up to Carter throwing out the first pitch.

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk
Statue: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, March 7, 1850 – September 14, 1937 Location: triangle park at Massachusetts and 22nd Street, NW Dedication Ceremony: November 2002 Completion Ceremony: March 8, 2003, 2pm Sculptor: Vincene Makovsky, Czech Cost: $0, $757,000 for the American Friends of the Czech Republic The Masaryk statue was a gift to the United States…

James Cardinal Gibbons
Memorial: James Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) Unveiling: August 14, 1932, 3:30 p.m. Location: Sixteen Street and Park Road, NW Sculptor: Leo Lentelli Cost: No cost to the United States, donated by the Knights of Columbus The unveiling coincided with the golden jubilee convention of the Knights of Columbus, who gave dedicated…
National Cherry Blossom Festival
This year’s Cherry Blossom Festival begins Sunday, March 20 and runs through April 17. The Cherry Blossom Festival Parade will be help on April 16, from 10AM – Noon. More information…
Octagon House
The Octagon house is one of the oldest houses in downtown Washington, D.C. The often and easily overlooked house is a beautifully maintained example of an 18th Century house. The Octagon House, at 1799 New York Avenue NW, is actually 6-sided and was designed by William Thornton who also designed the Capital Building, and built…

Bartholdi Fountain
Bartholdi‘s Renaissance-style fountain of cast iron was first exhibited at the International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Congress bought it a year later for $6,000. Its first location was at the base of Capitol Hill to the south of where the Grant Memorial is located. Later it was removed and stored. And in 1932…

Kahlil Gibran
Kahlil Gibran, Poet (January 6, 1883- April 10, 1931) Born: Lebanon, Died: New York Location: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Sculptor: Gordon Kray, Washington, D.C. Design: Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) Dedicated: May 24, 1991 Cost: $1Million (private funds) The Memorial to the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran is a peaceful, recessed 2-acres on Massachusetts Avenue across…

John Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is buried in Congressional Cemetery near his family’s plot at site R20/117. He died on May 2, 1972. There is a fence and a bench that carry the FBI seal that were donated by former FBI agents. J. Edgar Hoover was born on New…