PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE TOUR
The purpose of this introductory self-guided tour is to
start you thinking about Washington
on more than one level. There are layers to this city: history and architecture
are two. (There are others we will discuss – politics the most obvious, of
course -- as we go through the semester.)
What I hope to get you started doing is to look behind the
facades, or the everyday surface reality of Washington. You will have plenty of time to
deal with the everyday reality of Washington
in your internships and daily life. You need to stop every so often and drink
in your surroundings, look up and notice details you can miss as you rush to
the Metro, and also at times dig deeper to appreciate the persons and events
that made this city famous.
This is important not only to those doing Cultural Heritage
but for all of you: get under the surface in your analyses about Washington politics,
just as you will do here when you walk the streets. It will deepen your
appreciation of the city.
As you walk the route outlined here, refer to this guide. I
will point out various sites and discuss their importance architecturally and
historically. Many great people have walked the streets you will walk today.
This has truly been called a “city of nostalgia”. The stories I will tell you
run the gamut: about the famous, not so famous and infamous … literary as well
as political … intrigue, adulterous affairs, scandal and even … murder!
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
We will start at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street NW
(Metro Farragut West).
Emerging abruptly out of a busy intersection with M Street
in the west in Georgetown, Pennsylvania
Avenue bisects the entire city of Washington and
the rest of the District of Columbia
to its southeasternmost border. It is arguably the most famous street in the
world, creating in its pathway the political center of the city. That pathway
is not always the broad and straight one so often pictured in newspapers and on
television. It is crooked and broken up in places, a couple of those places
important to this narrative of the avenue.
For example, the avenue that you see on this corner, as you
look towards the White House. Once a busy four-lane thoroughfare, it was closed
completely after 9/11 while city officials and the Secret Service decided what
to do to protect the White House and still preserve some access to the area for
tourists and city workers. In 2005, it was finally reopened as you see it now:
a pedestrian street blocked off by security booths and barriers at each end.
Why are we only looking at one part of a very long avenue on
this tour? The part we will examine is the best-known and will take in sights
that will be familiar to you from books, pictures, TV shows and movies.
Our tour also follows the route first set out by an alum of
KSU (’39) and one of the founders of WPNI, Frances Richardson. Living in Washington with her husband who worked at the World Bank,
Fran always believed that the city offered a treasure of information and
potentially life-changing experiences for Kent State
students. Along with a few other alums who lived here in the 1970s, she was
instrumental in setting up the WPNI. For more than 30 years, Fran welcomed a
succession of students and program directors to the city, and helped us all
adjust and feel comfortable here. Part of her self-imposed responsibility for
the program was to conduct a walking tour that followed pretty much the path we
will today. Always done the first week of the program in January, Fran bravely
marched us along, through good weather and horrible, pointing out the sights
along the way. I went along each year as director when I first started in 2002,
furiously taking notes and marveling at her enthusiasm and her knowledge of the
city.
When she got nearly into her nineties, Fran decided that the
walking tour was too much for her, and she passed it along to me. What you will
read builds on what she would tell us as we walked along.
This tour description is dedicated to her.
EISENHOWER EXECUTIVE OFFICE
BUILDING
Start at the Eisenhower
Executive Office Building, on the southeast corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Up until 2002, it was known as the Old Executive
Office Building, and even now you might catch
long-time Washingtonians refer to the “OEOB” rather than its actual acronym,
the EEOB. One of the great buildings of Washington,
it is French Second Empire in design, very gaudy. The architect was Alfred B.
Mullet, an English immigrant. He chose this style to complement the building
behind you on the northeast corner of the intersection, the Renwick Gallery, which is in the same
style and had been built 20 years previously. French Second Empire is known for
its ornate exterior, and especially its steep (mansard) slanted roof. The
mansard roof became popular in France
in large part for tax purposes, of all things: the government taxed buildings
based on the number of stories and the roof hid the fact that there were
perhaps several stories to the building not evident from the street, and tax
surveyors.
At the time the Renwick was built, it was known as the Corcoran Museum
after its benefactor, financier William Wilson Corcoran, and it is significant
as the first art museum in Washington.
Corcoran was a southern sympathizer and had to leave the building unfinished to
flee the country. When he returned after the war, he wanted to show his loyalty
to the country, and made sure the museum was finished. It opened to great
success, so successful that the small building here couldn’t hold all the
collection and the public, and so was moved down 17th Street a few blocks to
what is now the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Well worth visiting one day. Also worth a visit is the Renwick Gallery, a real gem of a small museum, now part of the
Smithsonian complex. It is named, by the way, for its architect, James Renwick.
Back to the EEOB. Architect Mullet worked 17 years to build
the masterpiece, and all the time felt overworked and underpaid. He even had to
sue the government for back pay after it was done, and the stingy government
told him to get lost. Despondent, Mullet shot himself. His ghost is now said to
haunt the two miles of corridors of his creation.
The building is very significant for the history of Washington. At different
times in American history, as the country has grown westward, there have been
various calls to move the national capital from the East Coast to the middle of
the country. The last major attempt in the 1860s, to move it to St. Louis, almost
succeeded. But supporters of the city of Washington, buoyed by a public that
had begun to appreciate the city as a symbol of national unity after the Civil
War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, got Congress to spend a huge
amount of money to build this building in 1870.
When it was finally finished 18 years later, it was the
largest office building in the world. That sheer size and splendor finally
helped to kill the movement to relocate the capital out of Washington. It was called the State, War and
Navy Building when it was built because it
housed those departments of government. As the federal government grew, those
departments had to move out and occupy their own building complexes. Since the
middle of the 20th Century, the EEOB has been the primary residence
of the members of the Executive Office of the President (EOP): offices such as
the National Security Advisor, the National Economic Advisor, the Office of
Management and Budget and others.
Some notable rooms in the EEOB where history was made:
The office of Oliver
North, the army colonel who was at the center of the Iran-contra scandals
of the 1980s. North spent late nights here with his secretary Fawn Hall
shredding documents.
The office where Richard
Nixon taped most of the conversations that later became critical to the
Watergate affair. Most people think this taping was done in the Oval Office,
but the acoustics were better in the EEOB, and Nixon preferred working there.
His secretary Rose Mary Woods was famous for the 18 minutes missing from one
tape, which many suspect she erased while working on preparing the tapes for
the Supreme Court. She remained loyal to Nixon throughout Watergate and
afterwards. She stayed in an EEOB hideaway office until the Ford Administration
made her leave. There she had kept a kind of shrine to Nixon that included his
glasses on her desk, a half-filled wastebasket and half-smoked cigar.
General Douglas
MacArthur was the building superintendent at one point; he designed the
flower planters that flank the main entrance.
The US
government was heavily involved in tracking down Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar. In 1993, when he was
discovered and finally confirmed killed, a call came in from the CIA to NSC
Chief Richard Canas in the OEOB. Elated, he walked to White House next door to
give the news to President Clinton.
Continue walking east on Pennsylvania Avenue.
BLAIR HOUSE
Blair House, on
your left at 1651 Pennsylvania
Ave. with the long green walkway awning, was
bought by the government in 1942 as a place for foreign leaders to stay when
they visit the White House. Some say this happened because Eleanor Roosevelt
became tired of having a succession of guests stay at the White House, which
was so busy during FDR’s administration that at least one historian called it
“Grand Central Station”. The White House is, after all, a family home too, and
she was protective of her husband’s health and the family’s privacy. The story
goes that the last straw for Eleanor was the night she ran into Winston
Churchill walking in a hallway in his robe and pj’s, and she asked him where he
was going. He said, “To see Franklin.”,
and she replied, “No, you’re not. You kept him up half the night as it is. Let
him sleep.”
When doing extensive renovations on the White House, Harry
Truman lived in Blair House. In fact, the renovations were so extensive and
took so much time that Truman spent almost his entire term of office in Blair
House.
Check out the National Park Service sign in front of the
house and read about the assassination attempt there on Truman in the 1950s.
Members of a movement for Puerto Rican independence tried to carry out the
assassination. A security guard and both assassins were killed on the pavement
in front of Blair House.
Blair House was (and still is) the main residence not only
for state leaders but for personal guests of the President and First Family.
During your stay here in Washington,
if you read of a visitor to the White House, they likely will be staying there.
WHITE HOUSE
Walk towards the White House. Behind the gate and fence in
the corner to the right, between the EEOB and the White House, you will see paraphernalia
that journalists use to broadcast their stories using the familiar scene of the
White House as the backdrop.
You undoubtedly have read much about the White House. There is no need to add
much more now. But as you stop in front
and look at it, a couple of thoughts:
Do you know what the original name for the White House was?
For all of its history until the 20th Century, it was known as
either “The President’s House” or “The Executive Mansion”. It wasn’t until 1901
that Teddy Roosevelt officially changed the name to White House, because it had
become popularly known as this. It is the oldest public building in Washington.
As you look at the White House, imagine what might have
happened on 9/11/01. No one is certain, but now most experts agree that the
plane that hit the Pentagon was actually heading to the White House. The large
and leafy trees you see around the mansion likely protected it. The terrorist
pilot couldn’t spot it in the trees, so he went to the next noticeable target:
the Pentagon.
The White House is full of history, of course. A few
personal stories of presidents:
The first occupant was the second president, John Adams.
When he and his wife Abigail arrived in 1800 the house was not quite finished.
Thomas Jefferson brought simplicity to the presidency
after three terms of George Washington and John Adams, both of whom were rather
stiff and formal in public. Instead of riding in a carriage with six white
horses, as the two previous presidents did, Jefferson
rode horseback everywhere around the capital. He answered callers at the White
House himself, rather than using a servant. And he often did this in his
slippers. His political enemy James
Callender, editor of a scandal sheet that first broke the news of his affair
with his slave Sally Hemmings, once stood outside the White House and shouted
insults at the president.
Now, a few more pleasant thoughts. You may know of famous
renovations of the White House done under the direction of Jackie Kennedy. But you may not know that the first real
renovations were carried out earlier on two major occasions.
The White House was a rather staid and even dilapidated
place as residence until Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901
(after the assassination of Ohioan William McKinley). TR brought children, life and activity to the
White House – and the public loved it. His children had to have pets, so the
White House lawn saw lots of dogs, cats and ponies… and even a white bear.
Their daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth grew up there, and was famous for her
rambunctious ways. She had a garter snake she called “Emily Spinach”, which she
liked to pull out to liven things up at dinner parties. TR and his wife decided
the house needed renovations, so they completely gutted the building and
remodeled it. They made the inside spectacular, especially the East Room for
ceremonies, which the president loved. Alice
once said that her father wanted to be “the bride at every wedding and the
corpse at every funeral.”
The White House offices were crowded into the basement and
residence when TR took office, so he built the West Wing for office space. TR
has also become known as the first president to invite a black man to the White
House for dinner, Booker T. Washington. The act seems commonplace now, but at
the time was very controversial. Especially southern newspapers excoriated him.
The next great renovations were carried out by Harry Truman. The renovations improved
the White House until it is truly a beautiful place now. But is it livable? Not
according to some Presidents:
§
It is often referred to as “loneliest place on
earth”;
§
Lyndon Johnson dubbed it “Lonely Acres”;
§
And Truman called the Oval Office “the crown
jewel of the penal colony”.
Look at the top of the White House. When Jimmy Carter was
President one of his house guests was Willie Nelson. Those were his “bad boy”
days, and it is said that one night Willie crawled up on the roof of the White
House to smoke pot. While up there, he marveled how all roads led to the
capital … or, as he said, “the center of the world”.
LAFAYETTE
PARK
Now turn around and take in the view of the pretty little
square behind you. It was first known as the President’s Park after the White
House was built, and was wild and forested. When Pennsylvania Avenue was cut through
during Jefferson’s administration, the park
was cut off from the White House. The
street you see now was no more than a muddy thoroughfare, and stayed that way
for many years.
The park is named for the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution. It
got that name following Lafayette’s visit to Washington in 1824 when
he stayed in the White House. So many people came to get a glimpse of him that
they overflowed into the park. The event became part of Washington
lore and it was known informally as Lafayette
Park until given that designation
officially after Lafayette’s
death in 1834.
On that 1824 visit and tour of America,
Lafayette was given a pet alligator by someone
in Florida.
When he arrived at the White House and stayed as guest, he didn’t know what to
do with it, so they kept it in the East Room. It is the only known instance of
an alligator staying in the White House.
Lafayette’s statue is to the right. It shows him
petitioning the French National Assembly for aid for the American war, aid
which became critical to the war effort. Notice that he appears to be carrying
clothes and there is a statue of half-naked Columbia who appears to be offering him a
sword. The statue of course is serious and well done, but the arrangement has
been the butt of Washingtonian jokes: as if to say, “Here, give me back my
clothes and I’ll give you your sword.”
Positioned at each corner of the square are other foreigners
who were critical to the war effort on behalf of America during the revolution.
Check each of these out as you circle the square on this tour.
The equestrian statue
of Andrew Jackson in the center of the square is the first equestrian
statue of any size in the US.
It is partly made of the metal from brass guns captured by Jackson during War of 1812 at the Battle of
Pensacola, FL. The cannons at the base were captured at the Battle of New
Orleans.
So near the White House and the center of Washington life, Lafayette Square has seen much history.
It is the traditional last stage of every presidential
inaugural, which start on Capitol Hill and proceed down Pennsylvania Avenue and end after the new
president has had a chance to watch the parade with family and friends at a
reviewing stand at the White House. This tradition started with Jefferson’s second inaugural, which was a very simple
affair compared to the extravaganza it has become since.
Look around the square and you will see a number of
well-preserved buildings. They are what is left of the dignified Federal-style
homes that were erected mostly in the 19th Century as Washington was growing
and becoming a more significant city in the life of the nation. As the federal
government grew in importance this land, mostly forested at the time, was
cleared and homes were erected for the Washington wealthy who took up residence
to be as close to power as they could. The buildings fell into disrepair in the
20th century and were mostly marked for demolition when Jacqueline Kennedy took up the effort
to preserve them in the early 1960s. Much of the history and architecture of
this part of the city is owed to her efforts.
As you walk away from the White House on the left side of
the square, you will see, at 708
Jackson Place, the Trowbridge House. The elegant
townhouse, built by a mathematician in 1859, has six fireplaces, classic
American furniture and decorative arts, a 14-member staff and one small
condition for staying there: you have to be an ex-president. Plans are underway
to have it renovated for use as a bed and breakfast and office for
ex-presidents, and to connect it through a series of passageways to the Blair House
back around the corner. The staff will help the former presidents in their
research and work. Funds are being raised now; for $1 million you can get a
named plaque for a major room; or a staircase for $500,000.
Walking further along Jackson Place, at the far northwest side
of Lafayette Square,
you will find the Decatur House. The
first private home on what was then President’s Park, the Decatur house was built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the “Father of
American Architecture”. Emigrating from England
after the Revolution, Latrobe became the nation’s first professional architect,
working for the new government on parts of the Capitol Building
and the White House. His genius was in the way he brought together classical
design with concepts borrowed from French and British traditions, resulting in
the first truly American architecture.
Stephen Decatur was a naval war hero who at one time in the
early 19th century was one of the most famous men in America. His
exploits throughout his career, and especially during the War of 1812, showed
him to be a selfless and brave patriot that the young nation very much needed
to hold up as an example. When he and his young wife moved into the home, they
were the sensation of the young capital, and they responded by entertaining
lavishly.
Decatur
died rather young, in a duel. It happened not in Washington
but in nearby Bladensburg, Maryland,
the favorite dueling site when such practices were outlawed in Washington. His death
was a shock to the nation and focused attention on Lafayette Square, where he was brought
after the duel, and where he died in his home.
Dectaur’s widow couldn’t afford to keep the house, and it
was sold. Subsequent owners down through the years have included former
president Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay, Senator from Kentucky and sometimes
called “The Great Compromiser” for his work in the Senate to try and stave off
the Civil War.
The Decatur house is well
worth a visit for its view of early 19th century American
architecture and furnishings, as well as for the exhibits of Decatur’s life.
HAY-ADAMS HOTEL
As you turn right away from the Decatur House and walk along
the northern border of Lafayette
Park along H Street, across
the street on the left you will see the exclusive Hay-Adams Hotel. It has served for more than a century as the hotel
of choice for mostly wealthy visitors to the city, often friends of the family
that occupies the White House, and its rooftop has become one of the most
desirable spots for well-heeled receptions, with the most exclusive view of Washington, looking down
on the White House. That may be too expensive for you; take a look inside for a
free view of one of the more famous lobbies in Washington. And, if you have time, money and
the inclination, you might try their very good and up-scale afternoon tea
service in the lobby: finger sandwiches and scones in a great setting to do
some people-watching.
The building actually started as the separate mansions of
two of the more interesting men of Washington, John Hay and Henry Adams.
After their deaths, the mansions were eventually bought and fused into the one
building that is now the hotel.
John Hay came to Washington
as a young twenty-something to work in the administration of Abraham Lincoln as
one of his personal secretaries, then stayed on to become a statesman,
diplomat, author and journalist. Working there during the bitter time of
history caused by the war, Hay became more of a friend and confident to the
president than a mere secretary, sharing in some of the most difficult times of
his administration. He was present at Lincoln’s
death after being shot at Ford’s Theater. His diaries and writings have been
mined by historians and form much of our views of Lincoln. Hay went on afterwards to become
Ambassador to the UK and
Secretary of State in the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, where he was,
among other things, instrumental in forging the open door policy towards China and the building of the Panama
Canal. He died in 1905 and is buried, of all places, in Lakeview Cemetery
in Cleveland.
Hay was a friend of the writer Henry Adams, leading them to
construct the mansions next to each other that later has become the hotel.
Adams, a descendant of the famous political family that produced two
presidents, resisted going into politics and instead became an author and
historian. His autobiography, The
Education of Henry Adams, is more than simply an autobiography. It is an
inquiry into the forces that are shaping the modern era, and is considered to
be one of the most important non-fiction books of the 20th century.
It is well worth a read.
Another of his works is well worth a read, although it is
harder to find. His fictional work Democracy
is a brilliant satire on political life of Washington in the post-Civil War period.
Speaking of books about Washington, you might consider several that
would be fun to read and would extend your knowledge of this important city.
Gore Vidal has a series of fictional books that are based on America’s role in the world, several of which center
largely on Washington: Washington DC,
Library of Congress and Lincoln. (In the very well-written
latter book, John Hay plays a prominent role.) Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age is a novel that ridicules
the leading political and business figures of the city during a time of
economic expansion and unbridled greed.
ST. JOHN’S
CHURCH
As you continue along H Street and the northern border of Lafayette Park,
you will see on the corner of H and 16th
Street the “president’s church”, St. John’s Church, with its distinctive golden bell
tower. Started through funds raised by local Episcopalians, the church was
built in 1815 to be “suitable and convenient for the worship of chief
executives and their families living in the White House”, and has since become
one of the most prestigious churches in Washington.
Every president from Madison
to George W. Bush has worshipped here, no matter the president’s personal
denomination. (By the way, more have been Episcopalian than any other
denomination, 12; the others: 8 Presbyterian; 4 each of Baptist, Unitarian, and
Methodist; 3 “Nonspecific”; 2 each of Dutch Reform and Quaker; 2 Disciples of
Christ and one Congregationalist.)
Inside the church, Pew #54 – nine rows from the altar – is
traditionally reserved for the president. It is marked with a small brass
plaque. It was chosen by Madison, who wanted to be treated as a regular
parishioner and with no special place of honor. Abraham Lincoln worshipped here
during the dark days of the Civil War. Lyndon Johnson came the day after the
assassination of JFK. Bill Clinton, on a snowy day, walked over from the White
House in flannel shirt and jeans. George W. Bush, whenever he is in town,
prefers the 8 am Sunday service. Typically, he will arrive by motorcade and
with a Secret Service detail that enters and sits nearby. Bush attended the
all-black Lincoln Park United Methodist when he first became president, but
left after one service. It is said that he didn’t like the fact that people
there got up and sang and danced to a live band.
The architect for St.
John’s is the inimitable Benjamin Henry Latrobe. The
church interior has the same domed ceiling and clean lines as the White House,
also his work. He wrote his son after finishing the church: “I have just
completed a church that made many Washingtonians religious who had not been
religious before.”
Continue walking around the square to its northeast corner.
Before leaving Lafayette Park, we will consider its connection to Ohio politicians,
including two of our state’s presidents, and a couple of assassinations.
The house on the corner of H Street and Dolley Madison Place was once owned and
occupied by Mark Hanna. He was the titular head of the “Ohio
mafia”, all friends and supporters of President William McKinley of Ohio. As president,
McKinley would often walk over here from the White House and spend time meeting
with his friends, discussing politics, drinking, smoking and playing poker. He
spent so much time there that it became known as “the little White House”.
Hanna was a major political figure in Ohio, a “kingmaker” who decided to help
McKinley in his run for the presidency against William Jennings Bryant in 1896.
Today the campaign he ran as manager
is considered the forerunner of the modern political campaign for its adroit
use of publicity, its overall national plan, its strategic use of issues, its
amassing of campaign funds (McKinley outspent Bryant 12 to 1) and especially
the candidate's own speech making.
Now walk towards the White House on Dolley Madison Place. Let’s take a look
at a couple of the most notorious episodes in the history of this small park.
Next to the Taylor House (you will see a plaque), now
occupied by offices, was the location of the home of Representative Dan Sickles
(NY). It was in front of that long-ago destroyed home, in broad daylight in
front of witnesses, Sickles shot and killed his friend Philip Barton Key, son
of Francis Scott Key, in the most notorious event in the history of Lafayette Square.
What led to this?
Key was having an affair with Sickles’ wife, Teresa. This
was a real betrayal, not only because of the infidelity, which was bad enough,
but also because the two men were close personally and politically; for
example, Sickles got Key his appointment as Washington’s district attorney.
Key and Teresa had a pre-arranged signal for their
rendezvous. He would walk through Lafayette
Square, stop in front of the house, pull out a
handkerchief and wave it. If the coast was clear and the husband out, she would
let him in. It seems that everybody in Washington
knew of the affair except Sickles, until he got an anonymous letter one day and
started to make inquiries. He confronted his wife at home and there was a
terrible scene.
The next day Key, not knowing any of this, came strolling
around the park as usual and stopped in front of the house, pulling out his
handkerchief. When there was no response he left, but he came back later two
and three times. This last time he was met by the family dog, who came bounding
out, barking. Key reached down to pet him, all the while waving his
handkerchief wildly. Sickles then came racing out of the house and shot Key
several times. He was taken to a nearby house and died later.
This, however, was not the end of the story. It becomes stranger
still, as the fortunes of the impulsive Congressman Sickles followed a
definitely roller coaster trajectory.
First, he was acquitted of murder, even though it all
happened in broad daylight in front of many witnesses and he had voluntarily
turned himself in. The trial was a sensation at the time, dominating headlines
of the nation’s newspapers for weeks. Sickles assembled the 19th
Century equivalent of a “Dream Team” of eight lawyers to defend him. Using for
the first time in US
court history the temporary insanity (“irresistible impulse”) defense, they
managed to get him off the hook. By the end of the trial, the public was
definitely on Sickles’ side, and the verdict was met with great acclaim, even
resulting in a small parade on Pennsylvania
Avenue.
Despite all that, Sickles nonetheless later reconciled with
his fickle wife. Unfortunately for him, doing that meant an immediate plunge in
his public image. It got so bad for him that he had to leave Congress.
But his reputation was once again revived during the Civil
War. He became a Major General for the Union side, fought in the battle of Gettysburg, and lost a
leg. Not at all the squeamish sort, he had his leg brought back to Washington, where it is
still on display in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. He became a
national hero for his war service. As for the further ups and downs of his
life: his wife died young, he remarried, then served again in Congress. After
such an eventful and risky life, he died a natural death at the ripe old age of
94.
Before leaving Lafayette
Park, consider one last
near-encounter here that almost resulted in another assassination, one that was
nonetheless carried out not far from here later. This one involved another Ohio president, James
Garfield.
Garfield came into office as
the dark horse candidate of the Republican Party, not well known outside his
home state of Ohio
or even his native northeast corner of the state. That’s right, he comes from
our section of the state, living most of his life within a few miles of Kent.
He was born in Orange, a small town north of Kent and east of Cleveland
near Chagrin Falls, in a humble log cabin (the last
president with that distinction in our nation’s history). An exact replica of
the cabin can be visited there.
James as a young boy wanted to go to sea, but during an
early job working on a canal boat on the Ohio & Erie Canal he discovered
sea sickness, which convinced him that he should stick to the land. He excelled
in his studies, eventually becoming the first in his family to get an advanced
degree, when he graduated from Hiram
College. He went on to
teach there and eventually to become its president. He served with distinction
in the Civil War, and afterwards was elected to the Ohio legislature and then to the U.S.
Senate.
His campaign for president was known chiefly for its sedate
quality in comparison to modern campaigns (which, as we know, started with
McKinley later). In those days, it was considered unseemly to put oneself
forward in campaigns, and Garfield followed that
custom, traveling little around the country and instead relying on talks he
gave from his farmhouse in Mentor.
Given on the broad front porch of that house, these became famous as the “front
porch” speeches. By the way, this house like his boyhood cabin is also a
National Historic Site and can and should be visited. It is of special interest
because his wife Lucretia, deciding on his death that his papers should be
preserved, managed to raise funds to construct a beautiful library, the forerunner
of today’s more famous presidential libraries.
A vigorous, capable, well-educated and intelligent person,
Garfield came into the presidency well positioned to make a mark. Historians
and political scientists look at his hopes for his presidency, especially in
reviving the faltering Reconstruction of the South, and felt that he might have
had a significant impact on the rights and well-being of African-Americans in
general and former slaves in particular.
But it was not to be. He was cut down by an assassin only
six months into the presidency. And in a paradox of history, he made his
lasting impact on American politics and government through that assassination.
How could that be?
In those days, a major part of the job of the president was
in overseeing the process of patronage – handing out jobs in the administration
to political supporters. Candidates for these positions thronged the White
House, especially in the early days of an administration, and took up an
inordinate amount of time of the busy chief executive. Garfield in particular hated the process,
writing soon after occupying the White House that “the personal aspects of the
presidency are far from pleasant.” He decided that the process should be
rationalized, and he started discussions with Congress on ways to do this.
One of those candidates for patronage was one Charles
Guiteau, a strange little man but a strong supporter of Garfield during the campaign who felt he
should be rewarded for his efforts. Considering the openings, he decided he wanted
to be Consul to France
… this despite the fact that he did not speak French, had never been to the
country and had no diplomatic experience. His attempts to get the job naturally
failed and, as he stayed for weeks and then months in Washington hoping to get better results, all
the while running out of money, he descended into a psychopathic state. He
decided his predicament was the fault of Garfield
and, knowing that Vice President Chester A. Arthur was an avid dispenser of
patronage during his career as a New York politician, Guiteau hit upon a plan:
the way to get satisfaction and do the country some good in preserving an
important part of politics, was to do away with the president.
He purchased a handgun near Lafayette
Park and, not knowing how to use it,
would walk down 15th
Street past the White House to the banks of the Potomac and practice. Since carrying and using handguns
was common then, even in the city, it did not attract attention. In those days
before the swampland was filled in to create the Lincoln and Jefferson
Memorials, the river was much closer to the Mall area. In an eerie way, it is
very likely that Guiteau’s practice shots may even have been heard in the White
House by his intended target.
Guiteau stalked the president around Washington for several weeks, trying to
gauge the best time to carry out the deed. He frequented Lafayette Park,
and would often see the president walking the grounds of the White House and
the park, frequently alone in those days of little security for even the chief
executive. On Friday evening, July 1, 1881, Guiteau saw the president leave the
White House and he got up from his bench in Lafayette Square and followed him as he
walked across the park to visit the home of his Secretary of State and friend,
James Blaine, across H Street
on 15th Street.
Guiteau walked along Madison Place
behind Garfield.
As Guiteau testified later at his trial, “I was several yards behind him … it
was a splendid chance. I walked along on the opposite side of the street from
him … The pistol was in my hand and in my pocket.”
But he couldn’t get up the nerve to do it. He knew that the
next day, however, the president was to leave Washington by train and fearing his chances
would be over, he went to the Sixth
Street station and there shot him. As it turned
out, the wounds were not fatal, but the care Garfield received by his doctors was
atrocious, and he died in the White House after lingering for more than two
months after the assassination.
The nation was transfixed by the assassination and lingering
death and Garfield
became a heroic and tragic figure. This no doubt helped to win passage of the
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, the political outcome of the assassination,
which established the system of hiring, firing and maintaining government
bureaucrats of the civil service that we know today.
A statue of Garfield
can be found at the bottom of Capitol Hill, bordering the west side of the
National Mall. It looks across the Mall to the exact location where he was
assassinated, the site of the old Baltimore
and Potomac Railroad station, now the site of the National Gallery of Art, near
where we will end our tour.
Continue across Pennsylvania
Avenue from Lafayette
Park and walk east past the Treasury Building. Notice again that this is one
of those places where the broad and straight Pennsylvania Avenue is broken up,
dividing to go around both the White House complex and the Treasury Building.
The latter got its place of distinction following a dispute in the Jackson administration
over where this important part of the executive branch of government should be
located. Legend has it that the old general, angry with Congress, deliberately
chose the building's site next to the White House to obscure the view to
Capitol Hill. Some in his administration, trying to be diplomatic with the
legislative branch, disagreed with putting it there. It is said that, disgusted
with all the debate, Jackson
stalked out of a cabinet meeting and, limping over to the site, stuck his cane
in the ground and declared the dispute over. Thus, its location here.
The massive granite building occupies two city blocks.
Tourists often mistake the statue in the front as Alexander Hamilton, the first
Secretary of the Treasury. Actually, it is of Albert Gallatin, one of his
successors. Hamilton’s
statue is on the other, north side of the building.
Its façade is Greek Revival, popular at the time of its
building in the early 19th century, reflecting the optimism and hope
of the time of the new nation to establish the kind of democracy that hearkens
back to its founding in ancient Greece.
If you recall the image of the Acropolis in Athens, you will see its echoes here. The
style is best-exemplified by the Ionic colonnade on the east side (around the
corner on 15th Street),
which has 30 monolithic columns, each 36 feet high. It took more than 30 years
to complete the entire building and several architects worked on it, including
Thomas Walter, the designer of the Capitol dome, and our friend Alfred Mullet,
who completed his part of the building before starting his personally ill-fated
work on his masterpiece, the EEOC, on the other side of the White House.
Cross 15th
Street and continue south. Look down at the
pavement as you walk and you will spot bronze medallions of some famous
Americans. Hollywood
has its Walk of Fame for showbiz celebrities; these medallions in the nation’s
capital honor “stars” in the field of public service. Called “The Extra Mile”,
the walkway honors worthy Americans other than government officials who made
major contributions to our society. You may see Clara Barton (founder of the
Red Cross), Harriet Tubman (who led slaves to freedom on the Underground
Railroad), Cesar Chavez (who unionized migrant workers in the 1960s), among
others who went the extra mile to help their fellow Americans. Who else is
there?
On your left, between G and H Streets, you will see the
elegant Beaux-Arts façade of the venerable Old Ebbitt Grill. This is one of the
more famous eateries in Washington,
and the site of my first food-stop suggestion. As you are doing the tour, you
may find yourself hungry, so I will give several suggestions along the way for
food. The Old Ebbitt Grill is fanciest and priciest, although at lunchtime and
with care you can get away with a good meal for only around $10. And it is a
place not to be missed ... either now or when your parents come to visit and
you want to show them a bit of the Washington
scene.
The Old Ebbitt Grill is the one of the oldest continually-operated
eating establishments in Washington, and its location and attention to the food
made it a favorite of presidents from Grant to TR. Nowadays it is something of
a tourist trap, and can be extremely busy, but it still a favorite of locals and
is a great insider-Washington-spotting place because it is still serves good
food and serves it pretty well. And the décor is fun. It is a huge place, so
take some time to wander around and see the paintings on the walls, the wood
carvings in the bar area and the airy courtyard in the back.
There is no particular dress code at the Grill. In late
spring and summer when the tourists come the dress code for lunch gets pretty
casual, but you may feel more comfortable if you dress better than street
casual, considering the crowd that may be in from nearby White House offices
and you might spot a future boss.
Continue down 15th
Street where it rejoins Pennsylvania Avenue. Hang a left. Cross 14th Street.
On your left is the Willard
Hotel.
WILLARD HOTEL
You
exchange nods with governors of sovereign states; you elbow illustrious men and
tread on the toes of generals; you hear statesmen and orators speaking in their
familiar tones; you are mixed up with office seekers, wire pullers, inventors,
artists, poets, posers … until identity is lost among them … It could more
justly be called the center of Washington and the Union than either the
Capitol, the White House or the State Department.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne, 1862
The most famous hotel in Washington, the Willard has played
an important role in the social and political life of the city. It was here in
February 1861 that delegates from the north and south met and tried in vain to
find a compromise to keep the Union together.
It was also here in its lobby, a favorite meeting place of politicians and
their backers, that the term “lobbyist” was born.
The pricey hotel with its elegant lobby of today was not
always so grand. And neither was the city of Washington, which if you can imagine as you
look down a busy and packed Pennsylvania
Avenue, was in the pre-Civil War era little more
than a large town with muddy streets, wooden walkways and ramshackle homes that
bordered the avenue.
The hotel and its city of that time were described thusly by
New York lawyer George Templeton Strong: “Of
all the detestable places Washington
is first. Crowd, heat, bad quarters, bad smells, bad fare, mosquitoes, and a
plague of flies transcending everything within my experience. The Devil surely
reigns here and the Willard
Hotel is his temple.”
(Considering that description, what have you got to complain about with today’s
Washington
traffic and the Metro?)
The Willard truly did fall on hard times in the twentieth
century, and for a time was even boarded up and left unoccupied. Extensively
remodeled in the 1980s, it has regained its splendor and is now one of the
in-places to stay for celebrities, guests of politicians and wealthy tourists.
It is a favorite of mine, too, for its afternoon tea, which
rivals the Hay-Adams. Served in the famous lobby, and not too expensive, tea is
a pretty fun way to show off a bit of Washington
to parents. And you can wow them with some of the hotel’s history that I
recount here.
One interesting side note of history to start: the
Confederacy also had its influential hotel, the Spotswood, which was also
located no more than a few hundred feet from its Capitol. One writer of the
time described the two: “The Union had its
government offices and so did the Confederacy. But the real action went on at
Willard’s in Washington and at the Spotswood
Hotel in Richmond.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne called the Willard “the real State Department.”
Important guests and visitors to the Willard have included:
Abraham Lincoln,
who spent 10 nights here from his arrival in Washington until his inauguration. He
arrived early on the night of February 23, 1861, whisked into town by
detectives of the new Pinkerton Agency that had been hastily pressed into
service to protect the president, who had already gotten numerous death
threats. Lincoln
stayed in Parlor #6, a nice suite, which cost $78 a night then (nowadays it
likely would set you back $800-$1,000). He paid the bill with his first
paycheck as president. Lincoln
watched his inaugural parade from the hotel. About a month later, Jefferson
Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederacy. In another strange
mirror image of the time, Davis
stayed at the Spotswood Hotel.
Ulysses S. Grant
stayed at the Willard in 1864. A description by an author of the time captured
his arrival: “a rumpled, stocky man in uniform entered the Willard Hotel,
trailed by a 14-year-old boy carrying his cane … and asked for a room. The
clerk, who had seen lots of famous people, didn’t recognize him, and said
casually, ‘Maybe I have a room at the top.’
‘That’s fine.’ The clerk looked
at the name and went ‘bug-eyed’ at the signature: ‘U.S. Grant and son.’ ‘You may have the presidential suite, sir.’”
When Grant later came down for dinner, everyone in the lobby rose and
applauded.
Grant had come to Washington
from the battlefield to receive his fourth star as general. The designation he
received from Lincoln
of “Lieutenant General” was the first since George Washington. He was named the
head of all Northern armies, at that time 500,000 troops, the largest army in
the world.
Julia Ward Howe:
writer, fervent abolitionist, suffragette and supporter of the Union cause,
stayed at the hotel in the spring of 1862. Visiting a Union army camp, a friend
suggested she write some poetry about the visit. As she told it later, she
awoke early the next morning with the then-well-known tune “John Brown’s Body”
in her mind, and scrawled words to paper. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was
finished in a couple of hours. “I like this better than most things I have
written,” she said later. It became her best remembered lyric.
Martin Luther King
Jr. wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech here when he stayed in 1963, just
before the famous March on Washington.
Mark Twain ate
often at the Willard while he lived nearby at 14th and F Streets,
1867-8. At that time the young Twain was secretary to Senator Stewart (NV). It
was an unhappy experience: the two clashed often because Twain spent more time
working on a book than doing the Senator’s work. Let that be a lesson to you budding
interns who hope to get ahead in professional life in Washington. Of course, if you are working on
a book as good as Twain’s became, Innocents Abroad, you might get away
with it.
Walt Whitman came
by infrequently: he couldn’t afford the restaurant, but met with friends and
politicos in the lobby and once famously had his hair and beard cut in the
barber shop. The “good grey poet” came to Washington
from his native Long Island, New
York, trying to find his brother fighting in the Union Army on the
Virginia
front lines of the Civil War. He saw terrible things there, and was determined
to help the soldiers. Returning to Washington,
Whitman stayed in the city throughout the rest of the war as a nurse and as a
clerk in the Paymaster’s Office, then at the corner of New York and Pennsylvania Avenues.
Other famous writer guests of the Willard: Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens and Nathaniel
Hawthorne.
FREEDOM PLAZA
Across the street in front of the Willard is Freedom Plaza.
Conceived as a part of the redevelopment plans for Pennsylvania Avenue
in the 1970s, Freedom Plaza is a paean to the city of Washington and its history. Around the edges
of the plaza are quotations about the city, from Whitman to Woodrow Wilson.
But it is one of my favorite places in Washington chiefly because of the
centerpiece of the plaza: a copy of L’Enfant’s Plan of Washington. Look around
you as you walk through the plaza and you will see the old map of the city that
was drawn up in 1791 by Pierre L’Enfant, the French engineer designated by
George Washington to lay out the Federal
City. The plan L’Enfant
conceived, after spending only a few weeks riding on his horse around the
marshes and forests of the Maryland and Virginia countryside of
that time, was followed largely by city planners. The Washington of today is virtually the city
L’Enfant conceived more than 200 years ago. A remarkable and prescient feat.
OLD POST OFFICE
Continue down Pennsylvania
Avenue towards the Capitol. Take in one of the more famous scenes of the
avenue: its broad, tree-lined expanse that leads to the Capitol, a scene
familiar to millions of people around the world.
On your right, on the corner of 12th Street, is the Old Post
Office.
The tallest building in Washington at 315 feet, the Old Post Office
is sometimes called “Old Tooth” because of the shape of its famous clock tower.
It was the first “skyscraper” in the city because it was the first major
steel-frame building, when built in 1899. And it is the only “skyscraper”
because Congress has decreed that no building should be higher than the Washington Monument. It was also the largest indoor
space in the city when it was built, although it was later surpassed in this
distinction by the National
Building Museum
(which itself is pretty spectacular inside … I usually duck in there for a
coffee on the way to our briefings at the nearby GAO, so you can check it out
then). Now the new Convention Center has the largest indoor space.
Cross the street and check out the statue in front of the
Old Post Office. Who is it and why is it placed here? Correct answers will get
great rewards during a contest in class.
The Old Post Office is also the site of my second lunch
suggestion. Inside there is a pretty good food court, in the spectacular main
hall. After eating, check out the elevators up to the tower, where there is an
observation deck, with some of the best views of the city.
You now know what the tallest building is in Washington. What is the
tallest structure? And what building is
the highest point above sea level? Correct answers to these will also get great
rewards during quiz contests in class.
As you continue up Pennsylvania
Avenue, reflect on the fact that for most of its
history, well into the 19th century, it was little more than a muddy
footpath, not the grand avenue you see today or that was envisioned by L’Enfant
in his original plan. As the federal government grew, so did the avenue. But
its growth was not smooth. Even as the government grew to huge proportions in
the 20th century, and as a consequence more people moved into the
city to work here, the avenue and indeed most of the city grew rather
haphazardly. Pennsylvania Avenue,
even after it was paved in the early 19th century and then
maintained in the 20th century, was still home to a hodge-podge of
office buildings, tacky storefronts, sex shops and liquor stores. It took John
Kennedy, actually riding down the avenue during his inaugural parade in 1961,
to notice how ugly it had become. “It’s a disgrace,” he said and then
commanded, “Fix it.” Nevertheless, it took more than a decade after his
assassination to make it happen, through the efforts of several
administrations.
On your left after you cross 10th Street you will see one
of the better-known, but nonetheless what many would consider one of the uglier
buildings of Washington, the FBI
Building. Built in the 1970s, its design exemplifies a style of
architecture known as the New Brutalism: exposed concrete with little
embellishment. Stand back and look at the entire building, or at least what you
can see of it since it covers an entire city block. What does it look like to
you? According to the Bureau itself in its literature, it is to convey the idea
of “a central core of files”. And thus the building was created to house the
ever-expanding bureau, a huge headquarters that centralizes the records of more
than 50 field offices all over the US. It has since even outgrown this
building; much of the training and operations units of the FBI have been moved
out to its Quantico, Virginia, campus and offices. We used to
take the tours of the FBI
Building on WPNI, but
ever since 9/11 it has been closed up to tours. Perhaps soon …
NAVY MEMORIAL
The last stop on the tour is the U.S. Navy Memorial in Market Square, on
the left side of Pennsylvania
Avenue between 7th and 9th
Streets. This was the traditional end of the tour that Fran Richardson gave,
and I thought always a good place to stop because by now you are probably
pretty tired or ready to eat or go on your own to do other things, or all
three.
I like the memorial a lot because it is simple and
straightforward, telling the story of the US Navy in a statue of a single
sailor standing on a map of the world. With the waterfalls and flags all
around, it seems to capture the spirit and reality of the navy. If you are
interested in learning more about the navy and have time, you can check out the
Naval Heritage Center behind the
memorial.
What to do now? If you want to head out quickly home or to
other points in Washington,
you are at the Navy Memorial Metro Station.
However, you are centrally located to do lots of things in
DC. Things to see and do, as well as places to eat in the area include:
Right across from you on Pennsylvania Avenue is the National Archives, which houses the
Charters of Freedom: the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of
Independence. Well worth seeing to remind you of the documents that set up the
government we are studying this semester. And there is a cool mural in the
rotunda with the documents that portrays all the Founding Fathers. You can also
sign up to do research at the Archives. Along with the Library of Congress, the
Archives would be a great place for research which could put you in touch with
original documents and primary sources (professors love that in papers that
students write …).
Or, from the Navy Memorial, continue up Penn Avenue to 6th Street and turn right and
you will see the National Gallery of Art.
One of the world’s great museums, this is Washington’s
equivalent of Paris’ Louvre and Madrid’s Prado. It
houses a phenomenal collection of art from classical to modern, all in two
buildings: the original West Building which has the mostly classical stuff and the
more contemporary East
Building with its
collection of moderns.
The National Gallery of Art also has one of the better food
courts on the Mall, in the Cascade Café which is underground between the two
buildings.
The National Gallery of Art is on the Mall, which has most
of the museums of the Smithsonian complex, so from here you can continue on for
more great museum-going.
If art or museums are not your thing just now, you can have
a burger at the Hard Rock Café (from the Navy Memorial, go back up Penn Avenue
to 9th,, hang a right and go up to E Street). Afterwards, make sure
and see Ford’s Theater, the place
where Lincoln
was assassinated, which is just a block away on 10th Street between E and F.
Or, after Hard Rock, if you are in the mood for art, you
could check out the great National
Portrait Gallery with its wonderful portraits of the presidents and other
famous Americans, on F Street
between 7th and 9th Streets.
Further along Penn
Avenue from the Navy Memorial is of course the Capitol Building. We will see lots of it during
the semester, mostly the inside. Weather permitting, I will do a Capitol
Exterior Tour that will take in the sights of what has been called the “most
beautiful building in the world” and its equally beautiful grounds … with its
surprisingly numerous statuary of persons from one familiar state in the United States.
But that is for another day …