Statue: John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) Location: 17th Street and Independence Avenue, NW (Potomac Park) Sculptor: Charles Niehaus, New York Architects: Carrere & Hastings Unveiling: 3:00 p.m., April 17, 1912 Cost: $50,000 John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States’ first well-known naval fighter in the American…
John Witherspoon
Statue: John Witherspoon, born Scotland, February 5, 1722 – died New Jersey, 1794 Location: Connecticut Avenue, 18th Street and N Street, NW (Dupont Circle, south) Sculptor: William Couper, New York Dedication: May 20, 1909, 3:30pm Cost: Public Funds: $4,000 Private Funds: collected through subscription The John Witherspoon statue was approved in 1907 and in 1908…
Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon
Robert Alphonso Taft (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) Sculptor: Wheeler Williams, New York Architect, Douglas William Orr, New Haven, Conn. Bells: molded by firm George Paccard’s Son, Annecy, France Dedicated: April 14, 1959 Dedication: President Eisenhower, and former President Hoover Cost: Public Funds: $0, Private Funds: $1.2 million In 1954, a year after…
St. Thomas Parish
I recently attended a presentation at St. Thomas Parish, the Episcopal church at 1772 Church Street, NW., organized by the DC Preservation League and given by Matt Jarvis, the architect for new church plans. Presented as A Civil Union: Marrying the Historic and Modern – the talk discussed the long history of the church and…
WalkingTownDC
I recently gave a tour of Meridian Hill Park as part of WalkingTownDC – a 10-day festival of tours organized by Cultural Tourism DC. If you haven’t heard of Cultural Tourism DC check out their website at culturaltourismdc.org. They offer a weekly e-newsletter distributed on Wednesdays and filled with activities and other interesting happenings. It’s…
Louis Jacque Daguerre
A statue for Louis Jacque Daguerre, for whom the daguerreotype is named, was first proposed in January 1890 by the Photographer Association of America. The Association requested the memorial be erected in the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institute and permission was given by then Smithsonian Secretary Samuel P. Langley.