Washington Winter Show 2010

41 which let light into the front halls, the wrought iron fences and railings, the doorknockers. One of the fences on P Street is made from muskets from the Mexican war. Don’t miss Oak Hill cemetery’s gorgeous iron gates, and the beautiful little Renwick Chapel there. Admire the whimsical trompe l’oeil fanlight above the door at 3047 N Street. Grace and composure are in these small touches that charm. The tour de force little museum at Dumbarton Oaks, designed by Philip Johnson to showcase the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, is off the beaten track, but it is truly a visual delight. Johnson’s exquisite little round spaces surround a circle where a jet of water dances out of a basin of gray slate. Fat columns of gray marble support the light-filled domes; the spaces sing. Well, no, what they actually do is echo—mysteriously. Domes do that. It’s a scholarly museum, intended for a few visitors at a time. Reputed to be the most expensive building per square foot ever built, it’s a supremely elegant setting for small objects. Said Philip Johnson of his client, “Mrs. Bliss had an eye…she was the perfect client, with a perfect program, and all the money in the world.” The C & O canal is another oasis in the city. With ducks and herons and yellow iris blooming, its still water mirrors the clouds and the big trees so well that it’s hard to believe you are just a few blocks from a busy intersection. Trees For Georgetown, a citizens’ organization, watches over the handsome street trees that produce dappled shade so welcome in a Washington summer. Then, as summer advances, crape myrtles come into bloom in giddy bursts of cascading color like fireworks, light pink, dark pink, lavender and white—everywhere. In the fall, the ginkgos let go all at once their bright yellow leaves, creating the feeling that we are guests wading through yellow confetti at some grand cosmic wedding. There is an outdoor life; the gardens expand the living areas of the houses for six months of the year (Figure 9). The gardens are stylish, beautiful, that’s why we have a garden tour in Georgetown. It nourishes the soul. For the same reason there is a highly successful house tour; people want not just to live in Georgetown but also to see how other people there live. In a community with many Foreign Service officers coming and Figure 7: Colonel John Cox House detail, looking up five stories of back stairs. This row of houses was built by Colonel Cox, a longtime mayor of Georgetown who entertained the Marquis de Lafayette there in 1824. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HABS (reproduction number HABS DC, GEO, 37-28). Figure 8: Chimneypiece at Mackall Square. The house was named after the family of shipping merchants who built this Federal-style residence in various stages between the late 1700s and 1820. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HABS (HABS DC, GEO, 8-22).