BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Callboxes

DC -- Callboxes:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CALLBX_210102_07.JPG: 1. Nacotchtank Family at the Piney Branch Quarry, ca. 1600 In 1609 Captain John Smith sailed from the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, and up the Potomac River as far as Little Falls. He found 13 Indian villages along the Potomac, including one called Nacotchtank. These villagers farmed small plots of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers, and hunted and gathered from the surrounding forests. The Potomac tribes often sided with the Powhatan Confederacy during its wars with the English. The Powhatan were defeated in 1646, and English settlements quickly expanded, reaching what is now Washington, DC, by 1675. Warfare, disease and loss of land led to the quick demise of the Potomac tribes. In the 1890s archaeologists discovered abandoned quarries along Piney Branch, a few blocks north of here, that had been used to make arrowheads and other tools.
2. CALLBX_210102_37.JPG: 3. Casualties Arriving at Mount Pleasant General Hospital, May 1864 In May 1864, a year before the Civil War ended, Union and Rebel troops clashed in a series of bloody battles in Virginia. Steamships loaded with the wounded traveled up the Potomac River to Washington where stretchers piled ashore for days and nights on end. By May 21, 18,000 had arrived, thousands more followed in the weeks ahead. Local volunteers greeted the wounded at the docks before ambulance wagons brought them to the 50 wartime hospitals scattered across the city. The Mount Pleasant General Hospital received more than 5,000 of these patients in May and June 1864. The hospital opened in March 1862 near the intersection of what is now Park Road and 14th Street. Before it closed in August 1865, the hospital had treated nearly 18,400 soldiers. Over 800 died.
3. CALLBX_210102_62.JPG: 5. The Trolley Arrives in Mount Pleasant Until 1900 Mount Pleasant was still a small village of wood-frame houses about a mile outside the City of Washington. In 1903 the city extended and broadened 16th Street, separating what is now Columbia Heights from Mount Pleasant. At about the same time the trolley lines in downtown Washington reached up to Mount Pleasant along what is now Metrobus Route 42. These changes connected Mount Pleasant with jobs and commerce downtown, ensuring the neighborhood's rapid development. Most of the rowhouses and apartment buildings in Mount Pleasant were built between 1900 and 1920, shortly after the trolley arrived. Many were architect-designed, evidence of the relative prosperity of this upper-middle-class neighborhood. New stores opened along Mount Pleasant Street, and several churches, Bancroft Elementary School, and the Mount Pleasant Library were built to accommodate the growing population.
4. CALLBX_210110_08.JPG: Artwork featured on this callbox was created by Phyllis Saroff for the 2007 National Cherry Blossom Festival
5. CALLBX_210114_01.JPG: I have no idea what these were here for. They were gone when I checked back later.
6. CALLBX_210114_12.JPG: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's slave, bore 5 of his children. Sally was never freed. 1 child died, 2 escaped, 2 were freed.
7. CALLBX_210114_22.JPG: In memoriam to Albert E. Mitchler Badge 669 District of Columbia Fire Department who died on September 29, 1947 in the line of duty. Dedicated by his children June Ann M. McComas Joyce Marie M. Luce and Albert E. Mitchler, Jr. [According to https://fems.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/fems/publication/attachments/Bull.%20100%20Roll%20of%20Honor.pdf , he was the 69th DC Fire and Emergency Services person to die in the line of duty.]
8. CALLBX_210119_07.JPG: 10. Washington National Cathedral Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the Federal City in 1791 included a church, "for national purposes," but it was not until 1893 that the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation was given a charter to establish a cathedral. Located on Mount Saint Alban and modeled after 14th century English Gothic, the cathedral was designed by British church architect George Frederick Bodley with American architect Henry Vaughn and completed by American architect Philip Hubert Frohman. President Theodore Roosevelt participated in laying the foundation stone in 1907, and President George H. W. Bush presided at the cathedral's completion in 1990. Artist: Diana Cook
9. CALLBX_210119_11.JPG: Art on Call is program of Cultural Tourism DC, with support from: DC Creates Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation and Office of the Deputy Mayor For Planning and Economic Development. The organization sponsor of the Cleveland Park Call Box Restoration Project is: Cleveland Park Historical Society Call Box Locator Map: Porter Street and 35th Street Intersection.
10. CALLBX_210122_04.JPG: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's slave, bore 5 of his children. Sally was never freed. 1 child died, 2 escaped, 2 were freed.
11. CALLBX_210122_26.JPG: Replace the Emancipation Memorial with Stepping In His Shoes
12. CALLBX_210122_39.JPG: Fearless Girls 2020
13. CALLBX_210307_01.JPG: Let the Good Times Roll Georgetown has been a performance hub for musicians in a wide range of popular genres -- jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, country, and rock. During the 1960s and 1970s the Cellar Door, at the corner of 34th and M Streets, featured artists such as Miles Davis, Linda Ronstadt, B.B. King, Sonny and Cher, John Denver, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters and Bonnie Raitt, as well as comedians Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Steve Martin. Just across the street at Desperado's one could see the likes of Bo Diddley. According to music lore, in February 1979, George Thorogood with the Delaware Destroyers and the Washington-based Nighthawks were performing on opposite corners. At midnight, by prior arrangement, both bands began to play the Elmore James hit Madison Blues. Thorogood and Hawks guitarist, Jimmy Thackery, exited the clubs and stopped nighttime traffic with an extended guitar jam. Blues Alley, one of the oldest jazz supper clubs in America, is located just off Wisconsin Avenue below M Street. Blues Alley showcased internationally renowned artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, and continues to host sensations like Wynton Marsalis and Ahmad Jamal. Many artists have recorded live albums in the club. The Emergency Club, in the 2800 block of M Street was an alternative to Blues Alley. It was a non-alcoholic venue founded by teenagers that hosted such acts as the Kinks, Bob Seger and Asleep at the Wheel. Near the river at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and K Street was the Bayou, the first local venue to host U2, Bruce Springsteen and the Dave Matthews Band. It was Georgetown's oldest performing venue, having opened in 1939 as a Dixieland jazz club. The club was closed in 1998 and razed in 2000.
14. CALLBX_210307_10.JPG: History Preserved and Adapted Georgetown began in the 1740s as a tobacco port, where ships departed for Britain, Europe and the West Indies filled with flour, lumber, coal, grain and, above all, tobacco. The fine harbor brought visitors and goods and, with them, prosperity and acclaim. Warehouses and mills flourished here, but eventually the waterfront became saturated with noxious odors, soot and waste as industries produced an unsightly collection of abandoned warehouses, junk yards, salt piles and parking lots. In 1949 construction of an elevated highway required demolition of several historic structures. Dismay at the loss of these buildings hastened passage of the Old Georgetown Act of 1950, which preserved the character of Georgetown above M Street - but not below. Finally, in 1967 the Georgetown waterfront was designated a National Historical Landmark, but misuse and neglect continued for years until the courts allowed rezoning. A number of creative architects and developers responded by preserving and adapting the remaining old buildings with imaginative designs. Architect Arthur Cotton Moore was one of the first. In 1970 he converted a derelict 19th-century warehouse on 31st Street to the lively office and art center known as Canal Square. In 2003 developer Anthony Lanier, with architects Gary F. Handel and Shalom Baranes, preserved the brick incinerator across the street by wrapping a hotel lobby around its 130-foot-tall smokestack. The Washington Harbour complex behind you, constructed as a modern complement to the many restored K Street structures that have made the Georgetown waterfront a popular tourist destination and scenic place to live.
15. CALLBX_210307_23.JPG: Restoration of Georgetown's Call Boxes Georgetown's Call Box restoration project is part of a city-wide effort to rescue the District's abandoned fire and police call boxes. Known as Art on Call, the project has identified more than 800 boxes for restoration. Neighborhood by neighborhood, they are being put to new use as permanent displays of local art, history and culture. The Georgetown project highlights the anecdotal history of Georgetown and its unique heritage as a thriving colonial port town that predated the District of Columbia. Fire alarm such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. In most boxes, the alarm was activated by opening a door on the front of the box and pulling a lever. An automatic telegraph system transmitted the box number to a central office that directed the closes fire station to dispatch a fire truck to the vicinity of the call box. After almost 100 years, the system began to decline in the 1960s with the advent of two-way car radios and walkie-talkies. The alarms were finally turned off in the 1960s and replaced with the 911 emergency system. Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and humanities, DC Creates Public Art Program District Department of Transportation Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Citizens Association of Georgetown EASTBANC
16. CALLBX_210307_28.JPG: Georgetown's Watering Holes Among the first businesses in historic Georgetown were its inns and taverns. They not only offered food, drink and lodging, but were focal points of community life where political debate and civic meetings took place and business deals were made. The proclamation creating the City of Washington was issued in 1791 at historic Suter's Tavern, once a famous Georgetown gathering spot. President Washington and Thomas Jefferson often met there with city commissioners, landholders and Pierre L'Enfant in planning the federal city. Georgetown's reputation for lively watering holes continues. Many of the buildings here on Wisconsin Avenue were originally private homes. Over the years they were converted to bars, restaurants and shops spurred by the city-wide historic preservation movement that began in the 1930s when Georgetown's charm and small town feel were rediscovered. In 1933, William S. Martin and his son William G. Martin, a Georgetown University Hall of Famer who played three professional sports, founded Martin's Tavern behind you, the oldest family owned restaurant in Georgetown. Since its opening, the tavern has played host to presidents starting with Harry Truman, other politicians, journalists, sports figures, tourists and locals, and it continues to be a landmark on this corner. It has long been the site of intrigue and romance; rumor has it that alleged Soviet spy Alger Hiss, who lived in Georgetown, and Soviet operative-turned U.S. informer, Elizabeth Bentley, met their contacts at Martin's in the 1930s and 1940s -- and that in 1953 John F. Kennedy proposed to Jackie in booth number 3. When Georgetown was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1967 it attracted fashionable shops, as well as restaurants and bars that soon grew to more than one hundred. Today, Georgetown has regained the social prominence that began in the early 1800s, and it is indeed a place to see and be seen.
17. CALLBX_210311_05.JPG: In memoriam to Albert E. Mitchler Badge 669 District of Columbia Fire Department who died on September 29, 1947 in the line of duty. Dedicated by his children June Ann M. McComas Joyce Marie M. Luce and Albert E. Mitchler, Jr. [According to https://fems.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/fems/publication/attachments/Bull.%20100%20Roll%20of%20Honor.pdf , he was the 69th DC Fire and Emergency Services person to die in the line of duty.]
18. CALLBX_210311_25.JPG: Artwork featured on this callbox is a watercolor painting created by Jim Siemer for the 1996 National Cherry Blossom Festival
19. CALLBX_210314_022.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project Educational Institutions Educational institutions are part of Sheridan-Kalorama's history. Across the street is Our Lady Queen of the Americas Catholic Church. Built in 1904, it housed St. Rose's Industrial School, where orphaned girls were taught home economics. Later St. Ann's Infant Asylum, the Cathedral Latin School and Mackin Catholic High School occupied the site. The church is a cultural center for Washington's Latino population offering educational programs for many immigrants. Independent schools once located in the neighborhood include: Field, Holton-Arms, Maret, Potomac and Sheridan. About the artist: Michael K. Ross, artist, is a sculptor and painter in the realist style.
20. CALLBX_210314_044.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project Architects and Architecture Sheridan-Kalorama's grand mansions, in a variety of architectural styles, are the work of many prominent architects. In 1910 Jules Henri de Sibour designed the stately mansion at 2221 Kalorama Rd. for a mining magnate. It is now the home of the French ambassador. John Russell Pope designed a Georgian home on S St., later donated by its owner to establish the Textile Museum. Also on S St. is the Wilson House, one of many designed by Waddy Wood. Ogden Codman designed the home at 2145 Decatur Pl. that is now the Thai ambassador's residence. Elegant residences on Massachusetts Ave., now the property of Turkey, Greece and Pakistan, were designed by George Oakley Totten, Jr. About the artist: Art and Design by Supon Creative Enterprises.
21. CALLBX_210314_059.JPG: Peter Waddell MMV
22. CALLBX_210314_061.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project The Presidents Six United States presidents have resided in Sheridan-Kalorama between 1916 and the present (2018). Warren G. Harding lived at 2314 Wyoming Avenue while a senator from Ohio. William Howard Taft lived across the street at 2215 Wyoming Avenue while Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after leaving the presidency. Herbert Hoover occupied the house at 2300 S Street while Secretary of Commerce and until his inauguration as President. Woodrow Wilson lived at 2340 S Street after his presidency. And [sic -- left over from the original text before Barack Obama's portrait was added] Franklin D. Roosevelt resided at 2131 R Street while assistant secretary of the navy. Barack Obama made his post-presidential home at 2446 Belmont Road. About the Artist: Peter Waddell, artist, specializes in images of 18th and 19th century Washington.
23. CALLBX_210314_070.JPG: Peter Waddell MMV
24. CALLBX_210314_080.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project Chief Justices Three chief justices of the Supreme Court lived in Sheridan-Kalorama. William Howard Taft, appointed Chief Justice after his presidency, lived at 2215 Wyoming Ave. Charles Evans Hughes, a U.S. Secretary of State and an unsuccessful candidate for President in 1916, became Chief Justice in 1930 and resided at 2223 R St. Harlan Fiske Stone, a U.S. Attorney General, occupied 1919 24th St. during his tenure. Other prominent Supreme Court justices have lived in Sheridan-Kalorama including Louis Brandeis, Joseph McKenna and Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice of the Supreme Court. About the artist: Peter Waddell, artist, specializes in images of the 18th and 19th century Washington.
25. CALLBX_210314_093.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project Joel Barlow Joel Barlow (1754-1812) served in the American Revolution and was a businessman, diplomat and published poet. In 1796-97 he negotiated the release of Americans held for years by the Turkish regent of Algiers. Thomas Jefferson urged Barlow to settle in Washington, and in 1807 he bought a house located at what is now 23rd and S Streets, naming it Kalorama. In 1812 Barlow went to meet Napoleon at the emperor's headquarters in Lithuania to complete a treaty of commerce. Finding the French in retreat, he followed them to a village near Krakow where he died of pneumonia on Christmas and was buried in an unmarked churchyard grave. About the Artist: Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827) artist. By permission, US Department of State.
26. CALLBX_210314_104.JPG: Peter Waddell MMV
27. CALLBX_210314_115.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project The Lindens At 2401 Kalorama Road stands an elegant Georgian frame house, The Lindens. This is Washington's oldest house, yet it is not "of" the District. Built in 1754, in Danvers, Massachusetts, by Robert "King" Hooper a wealthy merchant, The Lindens once sheltered General Thomas Gage, that colony's last British governor. As the American Revolution drew near in 1774, the beleaguered Gage took shelter there. George and Miriam Morris purchased the house in 1934. It was moved here in six railroad cars, and reassembled under the supervision of architect Walter Macomber in 1935. About the artist: Peter Waddell, artist specializes in images of 18th and 19th century Washington.
28. CALLBX_210314_134.JPG: Sheridan Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project Little Friar Paz, paix, shalom, esaalam, are words from several foreign languages spoken in Sheridan-Kalorama, each meaning peace. This representation of a benevolent friar welcomes you in peace. We share, too, works of "America's poet" Walt Whitman, who spent the tumultuous years of the Civil War in Washington, yet expressed an inner serenity in his poem, "Miracles." "As to me I know of nothing else but miracles...the wonderfulness of the sundown, or stars shining so quiet and bright...to me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every cubic inch of space a miracle..."
29. CALLBX_210404_07.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
30. CALLBX_210404_27.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
31. CALLBX_210404_32.JPG: 9. Rosedale The grand, 1,000 acre Rosedale Estate which was later subdivided to form Cleveland Park, was purchased by General Uriah Forrest, an aid-de-camp of General George Washington, who built a farmhouse in 1793. Between 1920-1959, the estate was owned by the Coonley/Faulkner families. The property then became a dormitory for a private school and offices for an international exchange organization. To prevent further development, a group of Cleveland Park residents purchased the estate in 2002; sold lots on the north side; renovated the farmhouse as a private home; and established the Rosedale Conservancy to preserve the southern portion as a green space for the Cleveland Park Community. Artist: John Woo
32. CALLBX_210531_06.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
33. CALLBX_210531_18.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
34. CALLBX_210531_23.JPG: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings
35. CALLBX_210617_13.JPG: "Victory Gardens" The community gardens at 42nd Street and Tunlaw Road and in Whitehaven Park were established as part of the Federal National Victory Garden Program during World War II as a way for average Americans to contribute to the war effort. These gardens reduced demand on commercial food supplies thus making more supplies available to the Armed Forces and Lend-Lease programs. After the War, these gardens not only continued to provide healthy and economical vegetables to local gardeners but also became social centers for urban communities. Glover Park Artist: Michael Hagan, 39th Place NW Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC, with support from: DC Commission of Arts and Humanities, DC Creates Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, Office of Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. This box was restored by Friends of Glover Park in 2009. Local funding was provided by ANC 3B. www.gpcadc.org
36. CALLBX_210617_17.JPG: "Emergency" Police and fire call boxes were installed throughout Washington, D.C. neighborhoods to provide emergency communication links between neighborhood streets and local police and fire stations. With the introduction of the 911 emergency call system in the 1970s these call boxes became obsolete. By 1995 all electronic components had been removed but the boxes remained and, through the support of the D.C. government, became neighborhood art projects. The Glover Park Call Box renovations were completed in 2009. Glover Park Artist: Michael Hagan, 39th Place NW Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC, with support from: DC Commission of Arts and Humanities, DC Creates Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, Office of Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. This box was restored by Friends of Glover Park in 2009. Local funding was provided by ANC 3B. www.gpcadc.org
37. CALLBX_210617_25.JPG: Introduction to Burleith As you read this plaque, you are standing at the dot • on the map facing one of the five fire call boxes in the Burleith neighborhood. A star indicates each of the other four. Each call box has a plaque focusing on an aspect of Burleith's history. Take a stroll through our neighborhood and visit all five. Learn about the origins of the name Burleith, famous residents, the evolution of the neighborhood, and patriotism and espionage. Fire call boxes were installed throughout Washington, D.C. neighborhoods to provide emergency communication links between neighborhood streets and local fire stations. With the introduction of the 911 emergency call system in the 1970s, these fire call boxes became obsolete. The Burleith Citizens Association, which has represented the interests of Burleith citizens since 1925, sponsored the restoration of the fire call boxes. This call box was restored in 2015 with generous donations from the residents and friends of Burleith through the Burleith Community Fund.
38. CALLBX_210617_38.JPG: Volta Place: A Place in History The first house of worship in Georgetown -- a town dominated by Presbyterian Scots -- was a log church built in 1769 by a Lutheran congregation where the present Lutheran church now stands (opposite). The Presbyterian Burial Ground, once the resting place of both Revolutionary and Civil War dead, was located in the next block. It is now the busy and beautiful Volta Park, restored by its neighbors and the city in the 1990s and maintained by the Friends of Volta Park. South of the park is the charmingly restored Pomander Walk, an alley once known as Bell's Court. Named for Alexander Graham Bell, who lived and worked at the west end of Volta Place, the alley's ten tiny dwellings each sheltered two African American families who worked as domestics and laborers. The houses had no running water or electricity. By the late 1940s the families were evicted as part of the city's effort to eliminate substandard housing. At the west end of Volta Place is the Volta Bureau. It is the headquarters of the Alexander Graham Bell Associated for the Deaf, founded by Bell to promote teaching deaf children to speak. Bell made many scientific inventions, notably the telephone and the phonograph record, but this great passion was helping the deaf. The Bureau was named for the Volta Prize, awarded to Bell by France for scientific achievement in electricity. Helen Keller, the deaf and blind woman who inspired millions turned the sod at the groundbreaking in 1893. Bell's parents lived at 1527 35th Street, and the inventor used the small stucco carriage house behind as a workshop.
39. CALLBX_210617_47.JPG: Georgetown's First Market The citizens of Georgetown were already raising money for good causes two centuries ago. In 1796 the Mayor of Georgetown, Daniel Reintzel, was authorized to demolish a frame market house that stood on this site and erect a new brick market building. Funds for the new market were to be raised by voluntary contribution from the citizens of Georgetown. During the decades of profitable operation of the adjacent Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which made Georgetown a thriving commercial port, the Old Georgetown Market was enlarged. But by the end of the Civil War the market was worn out and was torn down and rebuilt again. One hundred years later, the U.S. Congress declared the market a historic landmark, and required that it be preserved and used only as a farmers market. So what began in revolutionary times as a butcher's market is still functioning as a market today -- perhaps the finest remaining symbol of Georgetown's long commercial history. Georgetown continues its tradition of volunteering funds for worthy projects. Just like for the Old Georgetown Market, funds for the restoration of this, and all other police and fire call boxes in Georgetown were raised by voluntary contributions from its proud citizens and business leaders.
40. CALLBX_210704_01.JPG: Dupont Circle Diverse Visions | One Neighborhood Police Call Boxes such as this one (originally painted blue) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Officers on foot patrol used this secure telegraph system to contact the station, accessing the box with a now highly collectible "gold key." This system was used until the late 1970s when it was abandoned in favor of more modern communication methods. Before the 1800s, ocean and river trading vessels could sail up Rock Creek as far up as P St. Traders carried flour and gristmill products on barges from up-river down Rock Creek to the Georgetown wharves. In 1866 Major Nathaniel Michler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the Rock Creek area, recommending that it become a park (above). Banker Charles Carroll Glover (1846-1936) rallied support for the federal Rock Creek Park legislation by taking politicians for horseback rides there on Thanksgiving Day 1888. The Rock Creek Park bill finally became law on September 25, 1890. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., was commissioned to develop a plan for connecting the parks and forts of Washington in 1918, and he proposed the parkway to connect the Mall to the National Zoo. Not content with helping save Rock Creek Park, Glover assembled more than 3,200 acres of parkland that he felt were crucial to the integrity of the city and made a gift of it to the District of Columbia. He said he was inspired to do this by the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1870. Today Glover is considered the father of the National Zoo of Rock Creek Park, and of Rock Creek Parkway. Artist | Sepi Majd Born in Iran, Ms. Majd lives in Dupont. A graduate of the Corcoran School of Art, she exhibits extensively in DC, and focuses on oils, acrylics, bold color balances, human forms and the total immersion experience offered by installation art. Tour guide, map and artist information for all 22 boxes available at: www.DupontCircleCallBox.com
41. CALLBX_210704_08.JPG: Dupont Circle Art on Call The Dupont Circle Art on Call project explores neighborhood history and local fire and police events. It also celebrates our diverse political, artistic and intellectual community by presenting original artwork by 22 local artists featuring the hub of our neighborhood. Dupont Circle and the beautiful fountains designed by Daniel Chester French. Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development District Department of Transportation This call box is sponsored by: The Mansion on O Street Dupont Circle Art on Call Corporate Sponsor PNC Bank This community project also supported by Dupont Circle Association and the Dupont Circle Conservancy, Inc. and generous donations from community residents and businesses. See all 22 Dupont Circle Call Boxes! Development Committee Members: Marilyn Newton, Chair Michael Beidler Phil Carney Elaine Faye Carol Galaty Bill Glew Gil Hill Steve Hoglund Maureen Lynch Gary McLeod Amanda McNally James H. Mears Gerald Allen Schwinn Tour guide, map and artist information available at: www.DupontCircleCallBox.com Graphic design courtesy of: e-lanestudio Fabrication: Gelberg Signs
42. CALLBX_210704_13.JPG: Dupont Circle Diverse Visions | One Neighborhood Fire Fact | June 25, 1925 The era of horse-drawn fire apparatus ends with a ceremonial "final run" with Barney, Gene and Tom pulling a 1905 Steam Pumper belonging to Engine Company 19. Fire alarm boxes such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (top) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned. During the years following the Civil War, because there were no regulations governing the planning of new subdivisions, developers often laid out new streets with no regard for coherence and without public amenities. In 1891 Charles Carroll Glover (below) persuaded Congress to extend the order of L'Enfant's original streets and avenues all the way to the District line. In 1880 street modernization began to reach this area. That year a recent invention known as asphalt, made of coal tar and gravel laid over a cement base, covered M and N Sts. and the numbered streets south of Dupont Circle while New Hampshire Ave. still had wood block paving, an earlier, failed experiment in street paving (the wood rotted). Gas lamps lighted the paved streets at intersections and at intervals, but only for six hours each night. Artist | Matthew Parker Washington artist, Parker, explores multidimensional DC landscapes through photographic collages using a standard point and click camera. Recently adapting Cubism, he wants viewers to experience a scene's poetic space through multiple collaged pictures that wrap around them.
43. CALLBX_210704_17.JPG: Dupont Circle Art on Call The Dupont Circle Art on Call project explores neighborhood history and local fire and police events. It also celebrates our diverse political, artistic and intellectual community by presenting original artwork by 22 local artists featuring the hub of our neighborhood. Dupont Circle and the beautiful fountains designed by Daniel Chester French. Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development District Department of Transportation This call box is sponsored by: Blue Capital Management, Inc. & Boston Properties, Inc., The Dupont Circle Citizens Association Dupont Circle Art on Call Corporate Sponsor PNC Bank This community project also supported by Dupont Circle Association and the Dupont Circle Conservancy, Inc. and generous donations from community residents and businesses. See all 22 Dupont Circle Call Boxes! Development Committee Members: Marilyn Newton, Chair Michael Beidler Phil Carney Elaine Faye Carol Galaty Bill Glew Gil Hill Steve Hoglund Maureen Lynch Gary McLeod Amanda McNally James H. Mears Gerald Allen Schwinn Tour guide, map and artist information available at: www.DupontCircleCallBox.com Graphic design courtesy of: e-lanestudio Fabrication: Gelberg Signs
44. CALLBX_210705_09.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
45. CALLBX_210705_23.JPG: DCFD In memory of Firefighter John T. (Big John) Williams killed in the line of duty the 19th day of December 1984 Box 144
46. CALLBX_210728_28.JPG: Replace the Emancipation Memorial with Stepping In His Shoes
47. CALLBX_210815_11.JPG: Golden Triangle Art on Call This historic call box has been transformed into a work of art as part of the Golden Triangle Art on Call program to celebrate the vitality of the central business district. The map below details the location of nine call boxes in the the neighborhood. Artists include: (location) Cindy Berry: 8, 9 Leonor Brazao: 2, 4 Mary Grigonis: 1, 3, 5, 6 Jessica van Brackle: 7 Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Created Public Art Program, District Department of Transportation, and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Local sponsorship of this call box is provided by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. For more information about this program and other activities in the neighborhood, please visit goldentriangledc.com
48. CALLBX_210815_14.JPG: Dupont Circle Diverse Visions | One Neighborhood Fire Fact | July 23, 1892 Box 325 (nearby) was sounded at 2:36 am for fire at the Heurich and Company Brewery, 1229 20th St. NW. This was the third disastrous fire at this location following 1881 and 1888. Fire Department information and images courtesy of Capitol Fire Museum Fire alarm boxes such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (top) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned. Myrtilla Miner (1815-1864), born near Brookfield, NY, was an idealistic white teacher who came to Washington to teach African Americans. In 1853, with funding from northern abolitionists, she paid $4,000 for a three-acre site at 20th and N Sts. (Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" contributed $1,000.) The next year she opened Miss Miner's School for Colored Girls despite widespread opposition from the Washington establishment. After her death the Miner Fund was created with $40,000 received from the sale of the three-acre lot. Interest on the money was used to operate a new three story 12-room building at 1613 P St. In 1889 the Miner School became part of the public school system, one of the earliest publicly supported teacher training institutions in the nation for African Americans. Miner Normal School became part of DC Teachers College (left) in 1955 and was folded into the University of the District of Columbia in 1974. Edith Galt, the widow of a Washington jeweler, lived at 1308 20th St., across from the Heurich mansion, until December 18, 1915 when she was married there to President Woodrow Wilson. Image courtesy of The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Artist | Mamdou Cherif Born in the Ivory Coast and raised in Paris, Cherif's artistry is a bridge between African art and European influences. The front of the sculpture shows two of the fountain's statues with figures walking and playing chess below; the back depicts the jetting water with two people emerging from its spray. The red letters represent the inscription on the fountain's base.
49. CALLBX_210815_20.JPG: Fire Fact | July 23, 1892 Box 325 (nearby) was sounded at 2:36 am for fire at the Heurich and Company Brewery, 1229 20th St. NW. This was the third disastrous fire at this location following 1881 and 1888. Fire Department information and images courtesy of Capitol Fire Museum
50. CALLBX_210815_31.JPG: Dupont Circle Art on Call The Dupont Circle Art on Call project explores neighborhood history and local fire and police events. It also celebrates our diverse political, artistic and intellectual community by presenting original artwork by 22 local artists featuring the hub of our neighborhood. Dupont Circle and the beautiful fountains designed by Daniel Chester French. Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development District Department of Transportation This call box is sponsored by: The Mansion on O Street Dupont Circle Art on Call Corporate Sponsor PNC Bank This community project also supported by Dupont Circle Association and the Dupont Circle Conservancy, Inc. and generous donations from community residents and businesses. See all 22 Dupont Circle Call Boxes! Development Committee Members: Marilyn Newton, Chair Michael Beidler Phil Carney Elaine Faye Carol Galaty Bill Glew Gil Hill Steve Hoglund Maureen Lynch Gary McLeod Amanda McNally James H. Mears Gerald Allen Schwinn Tour guide, map and artist information available at: www.DupontCircleCallBox.com
51. CALLBX_210912_01.JPG: "The Beatles" collage on wood, 2008 Artist: Jason Yen #Yen_Jason * Jeyen.com
52. CALLBX_210912_11.JPG: "The Beatles" collage on wood, 2008 Artist: Jason Yen #Yen_Jason * Jeyen.com
53. CALLBX_211111_05.JPG: Dupont Circle Diverse Visions | One Neighborhood Police Call Boxes such as this one (originally painted blue) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Officers on foot patrol used this secure telegraph system to contact the station, accessing the box with a now highly collectible "gold key." This system was used until the late 1970s when it was abandoned in favor of more modern communication methods. This is part of the Shaw neighborhood of upwardly mobile African Americans (1875-1950). Prior to the Civil War (1861-1865), this was the northernmost edge of the city, an area of small farms. By the late 1890s, the farms had been subdivision and covered with the rows of Victorian dwellings (left) that you see today. African Americans and whites lived in close proximity. By the 1920s, however, housing segregation through restrictive covenants changed people's habits. With the widespread adoption of automobiles by the middle class and suburban development for whites only, what had been a bi-racial residential community became a self-sufficient black community. Fire alarm boxes such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (top) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned. Lily Spandorf (1915-2000), a prolific local artist who was born and trained in Europe, emigrated to the United States in 1959 and lived near the present Dupont Circle north Metro exit. She chronicled everyday Washington, especially Dupont Circle. Her work can be found in the Senate's collection of fine art. Artist, Lily Spandorf
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