Category: Washington, D.C., gardens

The Sunday porch: late afternoon

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A repeat porch from June 2014. . .

A gathering on the south portico (or back porch) of the White House, probably between 1890 and 1910, photographer unknown, via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The portico was built in 1824, principally from an 1807 design by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, then Surveyor of Public Buildings.  Latrobe was appointed and supervised by Thomas Jefferson, who loved  neoclassical design and called Palladio’s books “the bible.”

The South of France

Roman temple
“simple and sublime”

Maria Cosway
harpist
on his mind

white column
and arch

— Lorine Niedecker, from “Thomas Jefferson“

Calculations

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Paving problem, FB Johnston, Library of Congress“6th Division mathematics class on a street paving problem,” Washington, D.C., ca. 1899, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Before she became immersed in the work of photographing old houses and gardens, Johnston was a photojournalist and a portraitist. In 1899, she became interested in progressive education and made a photo survey of students at public schools in Washington, D.C.

Peace flower

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Anti-war demonstrators, National Archives on flickr“Female demonstrator offering a flower to a military police officer,” West Potomac Park or Pentagon grounds, Arlington, Virginia, October 21, 1967, by S.Sgt. Albert R. Simpson, via U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.

Flower Power originated in Berkeley, California, as a symbolic action of protest against the Vietnam War. In his November 1965 essay titled “How to Make a March/Spectacle,” [Allen] Ginsberg advocated that protesters should be provided with “masses of flowers” to hand out to policemen, press, politicians and spectators. . . .

In October 1967, [Abbie] Hoffman and Jerry Rubin helped organize the March on the Pentagon using Flower Power concepts to create a theatrical spectacle. The idea included a call for marchers to attempt to levitate the Pentagon. When the marchers faced off against more than 2,500 Army National Guard troops forming a human barricade in front of the Pentagon, demonstrators held flowers and some placed flowers in the soldier’s rifle barrels.

Photographs of flower-wielding protesters at the Pentagon March became seminal images of the 1960s anti-war protests.

— Wikipedia, “Flower Power“

The Sunday porch: Le Droit Park

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Le Droit Park, 1974, Wash.DC, HABS, Library of CongressDetail of porch column, Le Droit Park, 3rd Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 1974, by Ronald Comedy for an Historic American Building Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Le Droit Park is an old Washington subdivision of “large freestanding houses and duplexes of related architectural design,“ located just south of Howard University. When it was built in 1873, it was restricted to white buyers only and gated, but a series of protests brought the fences down in 1891, and by 1920 its residents were predominately African-American and included professors, politicians, and artists.  The area suffered decline in the 1980s, but today its renovated homes are selling quickly, according to The Washington Post. The neighborhood is on the Heritage Trail, a self-guided walking tour developed by Cultural Tourism DC.

The home pictured above — with its distinctive porch columns — still exists.

Vintage landscape: wishful thinking

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Cross Manor, St. Mary's County, MD, Library of CongressCross Manor, near St. Mary’s City, Maryland, 1936 or 37, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Some big boxwood love. The house (with 110 acres) still exists and may be the oldest in Maryland.  Click here to see photos from 2013, when Ted Koppel lived there.