“Ice skaters on Rock Creek on the grounds of the National Zoological Park,” Washington, D.C., 1905, photographer unknown, via Smithsonian Institution Commons on flickr.
Schools are closed in Washington today, with 4″ to 8″ of snow predicted.
Category: Washington, D.C., gardens
Vintage landscape: the axis
Montpelier, south of Laurel, Md., 1931, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
(Those are antique smoking pipes in the corner.)
The house was built in the early 1780s. George Washington was a guest there several times, and Abigail Adams praised the owners’ “true English hospitality” after a stay.
It still stands, although the boxwoods along the front walkway are gone.
The estate is open to the public and available for events. (Although, it has been closed for much of 2013 for renovations.)
Vintage landscape: Lafayette Square
“The Belasco Theatre as seen from Lafayette Square, ca 1910,” via the D.C. Public Library Commons on flickr. The photographer is not noted.
The Washington, D.C., theater was called the Lafayette Square Opera House when it was built in 1895. It was renamed the Belasco in 1905. In 1962, it was demolished to make way for the U.S. Court of Claims building.
Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile. . .
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.— Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “The Snow-Storm“
Vintage landscape: the capitol and the conservatory
The U.S. Botanic Garden, 1917, by Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The conservatory will be decorated for the holidays through January 5.
I wish you a very happy 2014.
“. . . Botanic Goddess! bend thy radiant eyes;
O’er these soft scenes assume thy gentle reign,
Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train;
O’er the still dawn thy placid smile effuse,
And with thy silver sandals print the dews;
In noon’s bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold,
And wave thy emerald banner starr’d with gold.”Thus spoke the Genius, as he stepp’d along,
And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong;
Down the steep slopes he led with modest skill;
The willing pathway, and the truant rill,
Stretch’d o’er the marshy vale yon willowy mound,
Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground,
Raised the young woodland, smooth’d the wavy green,
And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.—— Erasmus Darwin, from “The Botanic Garden”
Vintage landscape: Georgia Avenue gate
“Washington, D.C., gateway to an old house on Georgia Avenue, N.W.,” March 1942, by John Ferrell, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
That was some gate, although it was in pretty bad shape at the time of the photo (click the image to get a larger view). I think the style is gothic.
And some house too. Does anyone know if it’s still standing?
enclos*ure 