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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.
The mansion at 1801 Massachusetts Ave. was built in 1900 as a winter residence for the middle-aged Wadsworths, a childless couple from upstate New York. Martha helped design the block-sized mansion. During World War II it was used by the Red Cross. Empty for most of the 1920s, it became the private Sulgrave (women's) Club in 1932, with the help of Red Cross head Mabel Boardman, who lived in the Roman-brick house at 1801 P St. Boardman's house has been the Embassy of Iraq since 1942.
To your right across 18th St. is the headquarters of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (above), built in 1917 as Washington's most opulent apartment building. Designed by J. H. de Sibour, five of its six residences had 24 rooms each. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon occupied the penthouse in the 1920s and housed his extensive collection of artwork there. Years later this collection was presented to the people of the Untied (sic, United) States as the central collection of the National Gallery of Art. Perle Mesta, American socialite and diplomat who served as the first U.S. minister to Luxembourg, later rented one of the two ground-floor suites.
Artist | Colin Winterbottom
This photo, one of the artist's first in black and white, changed Dupont Circle resident Colin Winterbottom's life. Its dramatic impact, capturing the cold winter night, prompted him to leave a career in health policy research to photograph Washington's urban landscapes. |