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Meridian Hill Park; Joan Of Ark
Mary Henderson, an important land owner in the 16th Street corridor, managed in 1911 to get the city to pay $490,000 for a twelve-acre slice of her land that became Meridian Hill Park. Construction took 19 years, beginning in 1917 and finishing in 1936. The main feature of the park is a cascading waterfall meant to denote the site as the fall line (meridian) of the nation's capital. The upper terrace of the park was the first campus of the George Washington University (then called Columbian College). It was also the site of an early black college, Wayland Seminary, which was established here in 1865 and moved 25 years later to Richmond.
The park was renamed as the Malcolm X Park.
This is a photograph of a statue of Joan of Ark that sits on the falls' side of the park. The park also features a memorial to James Buchanan. Apparently, the memorial was paid for by his child since no one else cared to do one and is the only memorial in existence to him. |