Daniel Webster

Memorial to statesman and orator Daniel Webster

On the west side of Scott Circle is a larger-than-life statue of New England statesman and orator Daniel Webster. Born in 1782, Webster led a distinguished political career as a representative from New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, and as Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore.

Close-up of a bas relief showing Daniel Webster debating the illegality of secession in the Old Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol

This statue was sculpted by Gaetano Trentanove, an Italian-American immigrant from Florence who settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The memorial to Webster was commissioned by his friend and fellow New Hampshirite Stilton Hutchins, founder of the Washington Post. Daniel Webster was best known for his oratory skills and his anti-secessionist politics (though not necessarily for his leadership skills or financial management.) The side panel on this memorial is a bas relief frieze showing Webster debating in the Old Senate Chamber in the U.S. Capitol. The topic: Why it is (was) illegal to secede from the Union.

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

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy Oy Oy!

The Embassy of Australia at 1601 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Located prominently on Scott Circle is the Embassy of Australia. It's a rather unpretentious building and while I've never actually seen anyone go in or out of it, I have seen plenty of Australian military attaches walking to or from it. Australia's ambassador to the United States is Dennis James Richardson. Prior to his appointment, he was Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (the equivalent of Britain's MI-6 or the U.S.'s CIA.)

According to the Australian Government's website, Australia has a population of more than 20.6 million and "is the only nation to govern an entire continent. It is the earth's largest island and the sixth-largest country in the world in land area." It is believed to have been inhabited for at least 60,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans. The first European settlement was established by Great Britain in 1788.

Memorial commerating Australia's worst
non-combat-related air crash of World War II

Located at the back of the embassy grounds and next door to First Baptist Church is this tiny memorial to causalities of a plane crash in Australia during World War II. On July 14, 1943, a B-17 Flying Fortress took off from Bakers Creek in Queensland en route to New Guinea. The passengers were American servicemen who'd been on R&R (rest and relaxation) in Australia. Of the 41 passengers and crew on board, only one survived--Koye Kenneth Roberts of Wichita Falls, Kansas.

The Bakers Creek Air Crash was kept a secret because the Americans and Australians didn't want the Japanese to know U.S. forces were in the area. The secret remained for many years after the war, as well. In 2006, through the efforts of surviving family members and buddies of the deceased, the Australian government erected a monument to this non-combat tragedy.

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

First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church--Tradition and Ecumenism since 1801

In 1801, Baptists began meeting in the U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C. A year later, several laypeople and a few ministers organized a church and declared its mission to "serve as an additional inducement to such as may feel inclined to remove to this City; as also to traveling preachers of that denomination to visit their Brethren and preach in this place."

Prior to this building, the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., (1328 16th Street NW) met in four other sites throughout the city, including the site where Ford's Theater is now located. In 1890, the congregation moved to its present location on 16th Street and in 1955 services were held for the first time in the sanctuary pictured above.


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

Homeopathy

Samuel Hahnemann, the Father of Homeopathic Medicine

Erected by the American Institute of Homeopathy, this statue of the father of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, sits on the eastern side of Scott Circle. Hahnemann was born in Meissen, Saxony, Germany, in 1755. He studied medicine in Leipzig, Germany, and Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Hahnemann was a visionary who was ahead of his time in the field of preventative health and human maintenance. He advocated behaviors for health and vitality that, at the time, were considered of no value. Among his advice to his patients and to his colleagues in the medical community: fresh air, bed rest, proper diet, sunshine, and proper hygiene. Hahnemann was also an advocate for the humane treatment of the insane and he discovered a test for detecting arsenic.

Hahnemann spent the bulk of his life vigorously researching, practicing and teaching homeopathy--the treatment of disease with small or diluted doses of natural substances that, in a healthy person, would produce symptoms of disease--until his death in 1843 in Paris. He lived to be 88.

Charles Samuel Niehaus sculpted this statue in 1910. The monument features a vibrant mosaic above the seated figure of Dr. Hahnemann. Beneath his statue are the words Similia Similibus Curentur: Likes are cured by likes. (To see a larger picture, click on the images.)

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