Existing comment:
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 By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.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 |