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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.
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 |