Richmond: Bricks & Mortar

Richmond's original train terminal, now the Science Museum.
The building was designed by John Russell Pope, who also designed
The National Gallery of Art and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

These are just photos of some buildings I stumbled upon going from one site to the next along Richmond's Broad Street.

Lucky Strike Factory in the warehouse district. It's now the site of new start-ups.

Original advertising on the side of an old, brick building on East Broad Street

Richmond's original City Hall. The current City Hall is an unattractive minimalist
monstrosity of concrete and glass. This building is much more intriguing and reminds
me of the City and County Building in Salt Lake City.

Richmond's old City Hall is near the Confederate White House and adjacent to the Virginia State House. Richmond's current mayor is L. Douglas Wilder who was also Virginia's governor and the first African-American governor in the United States.

I hope you've enjoyed this tour of Virginia's capital city! It's only a snapshot, but well worth the visit. I know I'll be going back again. And soon!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 5/08

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church: A congregation in the Greek Orthodox tradition

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church (4335 16th Street NW) is a Greek Orthodox congregation and is next door to Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church on 16th Street. St. George's is named for 3rd century A.D./C.E. soldier and martyr George of Anatolia. George refused to renounce his Christian beliefs and was tortured and beheaded in 303 B.C. Today, he is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia and an annual feast day--April 23--commemorates his martyrdom.

Although St. George's Church has a well-developed website, it doesn't provide a specific history of the congregation or its building. Nevertheless, the church appears to be actively engaged in the lives of its parishioners and they in the life of the church. In addition to the traditional parish council, the church also has a choir that sings Russian and Byzantine melodies and a cantor who chants in Arabic; the Fellowship of Saint John the Divine where, according to the church's website, "If you exceeded your teen years, (and you no longer know everything), the Fellowship is where you want to be for your continued self development both socially, as well as spiritually"; and the Ladies Myrrh Bearing Society. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

East Potomac Park: Seagulls

Seagulls in a row on a railing on the Potomac River

I took (and am including) this photo not just for the line of sight,
but for the view of Washington National Cathedral on the horizon.
The cathedral is more than five miles from the point where this photo was taken!

Solitary seagull in silhouette at sunset

Don't you just love a good alliteration? I do!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 5/08

East Potomac Park: Chestnuts

Chestnut trees in bloom in May...

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 5/08

Rock Creek Park: Bridges

Foot path over Rock Creek

Rock bridge on Beach Drive over Rock Creek

Old bridge abutment

This is the last of the Rock Creek Park Series. Hope you've enjoyed it!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 4/08

Smart Dude

Profile of Albert Einstein sculpture at the National Academy of Sciences

This one is for Cowbark of Boston Daily Photo who correctly guessed what was in the pictures in last Friday's entry. This statue of Albert Einstein is on the north side of Constitution Avenue across from the Lincoln Memorial and on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences.  Installed in 1974, this 21 foot, 7,000 lb (3.2 mtons) statue of Einstein was sculpted by Robert Berks. Berks also sculpted Civil Rights activist Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, as well as a bust of President John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Einstein in a comfortable sweater and Birkenstocks, 

holding a sheaf of paper with his famous theories inscribed on it

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in 1879. During his youth, his family moved to Switzerland and, upon his graduation from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, he obtained Swiss citizenship and sought a post as a teacher. Unable to find a teaching job, he took a job in the Swiss Patent Office. While engaged at the patent office, he develop most of his great works and theories. Eventually, he taught in various posts around Switzerland. In 1914, he became a German citizen, but in 1933 he renounced his citizenship in protest against the policies of the Nazi Party and emigrated to America. He accepted a position at Princeton University as Professor of Theoretical Physics and became a U.S. citizen in 1940. He retired from Princeton in 1945.

Don't you just wanna hug him or sit in his lap? 

Most people do when they visit this memorial to 

one of science's preeminent minds.

Einstein is best known for his Theory of Relativity (E = mc2). In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of photoelectric effect." This preeminent scientist was a rather reclusive man who enjoyed classical music. He was twice married and had three children and two stepchildren. Einstein died in 1955 in Princeton. He was cremated and his ashes scattered, but before that pathologist Thomas Harvey removed Einstein's brain without his family's permission. Harvey hoped that neuroscience might one day discover what made Einstein so brilliant. This monument in Washington to one of the greatest minds in science is incredibly popular, particularly with high school tour groups. It's a great site for a group photo and it's the only monument in Washington you can sit or climb on without being yelled at, ticketed, or arrested!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 5/08

Azaleas Galore

White azaleas are the only ones that photograph well in black and white.
As for the other two pictures, I was going for an old, washed-out, antique look with these.

Azaleas in red. The variety on the left is named "Sambo" and is a deep maroon.
This photo doesn't do it justice. (None of these do really.)

Azaleas in oranges. These were some of the most stunning specimens in the collection.
The variety on the right is named "Great Balls of Fire"!

Azaleas in purples. In the photo on the right,
the azaleas are also complimented by wooden hyacinth.

Azaleas in groupings along sunny and shaded paths.

The azalea collection at the National Arboretum is currently at peak for many of the trees and bushes. If you get a chance, make the time to visit. And for those of you with allergies, just consider this blog a public service provided for your enjoyment without all the misery!

I think this is the last of the spring color I'll be posting. Honestly, you must be sick of it already!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 4/08

Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury--itinerant preacher and leader of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in America

In 1771, an itinerant Methodist preacher from Staffordshire, England, named Francis Asbury set foot in the United States and began preaching in this new frontier. Despite the outbreak of the American Revolution with Great Britain, Asbury stayed in the American colonies and was the only Methodist minister to do so. In 1784, John Wesley appointed Asbury and fellow Methodist preacher Thomas Coke as co-superintendents for the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.

For more than 30 years, Asbury was the primary leader of Methodists in this country. Until his death in 1816, Asbury traveled an average of 6,000 miles a year--the equivalent of traveling roundtrip from coast to coast--preaching and establishing congregations up and down the eastern U.S. During his tenure, the Methodist church in America grew from 1,200 members to 214,000 with 700 ordained ministers in their midst. In 1921, a statue by sculptor Henry Augustus Lukeman was erected in Francis Asbury's honor in a triangular spit of land at 16th Street and Columbia Roads NW on the edge of the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods.

Three churches and a Masonic temple
intersect at the top of 16th Street and Columbia Road:
Unitarian, Baptists, Unification, and Scottish Rite Freemasons

If you stand in front of Asbury's humble monument and look south, you can see three of the churches that have been featured here in the last couple of weeks: All Souls Church, Unitarian; National Baptist Memorial Church; and the Unification Church-Peace King Center. (Tucked behind the latter is the Scottish Rite Temple.)


Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Thunderbirds

The Thunderbird Marching Band from Timpview High School in Provo, Utah,
performing at the National World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C.
(To see larger photos, click on the images)

I spent my childhood and teen years growing up in Utah. Provo, to be exact. Not that I have any plans to live in Utah again, but I do keep up on the news from the Beehive State by reading the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News. It was in the latter the other day that I found an article announcing that the Thunderbird Marching Band from Timpview High School in Provo had been selected to march in tomorrow's National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. In addition to the parade, they're also performing at several other sites around the city this weekend.

Timpview H.S. marching band at the World War II Memorial
with the Lincoln Memorial in the background

I attended Timpview my freshman year of high school and likely would have graduated from the same if my family hadn't moved to Orem the summer of my sophomore year. While I made good friends at my new high school (Mountain View), my affections remain with Timpview mostly because all of the kids I grew up going to school and church with from the age of 3 until 14 were at Timpview.

Random shots of the Timpview High School Marching Band (click on images to enlarge)

That's a long way of telling you that this morning, I went downtown to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall to hear the Timpview Thunderbirds Marching Band perform! It was fun to see these young men and women, who were required to take a special history class at 6:15 in the morning for a semester and who had to memorize all of their musical numbers, play at this beautiful memorial. A special thanks to Dr. David Fullmer for requiring such high standards from these students.

Honoring and meeting the veterans of our armed forces.

A special hello to Kim Davidson, Julie from Bethesda, and all the other nice folks I met today at the World War II Memorial, as well as Parker Kelly and his mom, Kahliel.

Parker Kelly, who plays the baritone horn
in the Thunderbird Marching Band,
and his mom, Kahliel, at the end of the concert.

Congratulations, Thunderbirds! And enjoy your time in Washington and Gettysburg!


Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 4/08

Garth

Quiet corner in a Garth, Washington National Cathedral

Wednesday's picture featured the colannade on the northeast corner of Washington National Cathedral. As an anonymous commenter pointed out, the garden beyond the colonnade is called a Garth. This, then, is the Garth on the northeast corner of the cathedral. The entire Garth is actually much larger than this. I just liked the tree and tower in this particular corner of this lovely garden. I can only imagine how lovely it will be in the spring.

And I thought Garths were just country singers and math teachers. (I had a math teacher in high school named Garth Dennis Gooch. In addition to teaching math, he was also a farmer. That's like gardening, right?)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 1/08

Sa'laam A'leikum

The minaret of the Islamic Mosque and Cultural Center
on Massachusetts Avenue NW

Located on Embassy Row, the Islamic Mosque and Cultural Center of Washington is the main mosque in Washington, D.C. The center is across the street from the Embassy of Turkey and the Embassy of Japan and just east of the Embassy of Great Britain and the Naval Observatory--the official residence of the Vice President of the United States.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 11/07