Great Washington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main-mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules’ pillars, his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go.
— Herman Melville, Chapter XXXV, Moby Dick
Above: Baltimore’s Washington Monument under construction in 1828 (looking north). A watercolor, ink, and graphite drawing by John Rubens Smith, via the Library of Congress.*
Completed in 1829, the monument was the second one erected to honor George Washington. (A tower in Boonsboro, Md., was finished first, in 1827.)
The land for the 178′ tower and its surrounding park had been donated by John Eager Howard from part of his estate, Belvidere. In the late 18th century, Belvidere was often praised for its fine high views, and the monument was originally visible from ships entering the harbor (today, 10 city blocks to the south).
Above: Detail of “The View of Baltimore from Governor John Eager Howard’s Garden Park,” 1796, via the Maryland Historical Society and Early American Gardens.
Above: In 1849, artist unknown.
During the next twenty years, four small squares, one in each direction, were laid out around the monument. They were originally planted with grass and surrounded by iron fences. The well-to-do built homes, churches, and cultural institutions around the squares, which became known collectively as Mount Vernon Place.
“It [was] one of the first examples in the United States of a deliberate use of city planning to create a dramatic setting for an existing monument,” according to the Trust for Architectural Easements.
Above: Mount Vernon Place, east side, 1900, photographer unknown.
Mount Vernon Place has undergone several design and planting changes since about 1850, according to the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy. The photo above and those below show the 1875-76 paths and stone walls of Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm.
Above: The south side, ca. 1902, by William Henry Jackson (Detroit Publishing Co.). 
Above: Mt. Vernon Place, north and east sides, ca. 1903, by William Henry Jackson (Detroit Publishing Co.).
Above: Looking north, ca. 1920-1930, photographer unknown.
This last photo shows the work of Thomas Hastings of the architecture firm of Carrère and Hastings. In 1917, he redesigned the squares in the Beaux-Art style. According to the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy:
[His] design was an exemplar of City Beautiful-inspired architectural and landscape design, which called for symmetry, uniformity and axiality.
Hastings utilized white marble to harmonize his new work with the existing monument, and retained the tradition in the east, west and north squares of matched trees framing the squares. After his hardscape work was completed, the trees in all of these squares were replanted to ensure they would mature uniformly, creating and maintaining a crisp border on their edges. Hastings supported this wholesale replanting as necessary for the future integrity of his design.
In the south square, however, he retained some of the existing large trees and shrubs to frame out a newly positioned statue of Lafayette.
It used to be possible go inside the monument and climb to the top. I did it about 12 years ago. There are 228 very claustrophobic steps. The structure has not been open to the public for the last three years, however.
*All the images here are via the Library of Congress Prints and Photos Division, except the third, fourth, and last, which are via the Maryland Historical Society.
“Children with sailboats at Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial in background, Washington, D.C.,” in the 1920s. Photographer unknown, part of the National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Unfortunately, these little boats would be swamped today, as Washington is in the grip of tropical storm Andrea.
Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads,
Great, hollow, bell-like flowers,
Rumbling in the wind,
Stretching clappers to strike our ears . . .
Full-lipped flowers
Bitten by the sun
Bleeding rain
Dripping rain like golden honey—
And the sweet earth flying from the thunder.— Jean Toomer, “Storm Ending“
. . . I keep
a beautiful garden, all abundance,
indiscriminate, pulling itself
from the stubborn earth. . . .— Paisley Rekdal, from “Happiness“
A garden plot in a communal garden, Town of Locke, Sacramento County, Ca. Photo by Jet Lowe, April 1984, part of a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the town, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
From the 1984 HABS report:
Locke, California, is a small, rural Chinese ghetto on the Sacramento River. It was developed in the early 20th century to serve Chungshan Chinese laborers who worked in the fruit orchards and vegetable fields in California’s Delta region. Today, virtually all Chinese communities in America are urban enclaves. By contrast, Locke has remained an unincorporated village since its founding in 1915. For this reason, it is unique within the United States as the only extant rural Chinese community still occupied by Chinese people.
Today, the population of Locke is 70 to 80 people, about 10 of whom are of Chinese descent.
Children’s party on the South Lawn of the White House, April 4, 1963.
All photos are by Cecil Stoughton (Office of the Military Aide to the President), via the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
If you were wondering whether to put in a super-huge fountain or a swimming pool, please note that you can have both in one.
“Take water. . ., part I,” is here.
Remember summer? Bubbles filled
the fountain, and we splashed. We drowned
in Eden. . .— Robert Lowell, from “The Public Garden“
enclos*ure 