Day 94

Logan Circle / Shaw (August 4, 2020)

Back in Logan Circle and Shaw, we were once again joined by Ross along with another dear friend, Maggie, who lives in Shaw.

We started our exploration in the Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District, named after two nineteenth century property owners. It consists of a number of alleys bounded by 9th, 10th, M and O Streets. Today it is the home of a number of trendy restaurants, cafes and bars.

If you are craving a high end cocktail or two we recommend the Columbia Room, a hidden little speakeasy tucked into one of the alleys.

Next to the Columbia Room is one of the District’s highest rated restaurants, The Dabney. We hear that it is very good although we have never been able to get a reservation.

A number of the building have cool murals.

Including this one by local artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer called appropriately, Love.

From the alleys, we made our way west back into the Logan Circle neighborhood. We once again passed the Barbie Pond that we discussed during our last post. We were delighted to see that the display had been updated.

We also crossed 14th street where the John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was lit up beautifully by the late afternoon sun.

The sky itself was putting on quite a show.

We passed by the Embassy of Kazakhstan with its statue of the Golden Warrior.

The statue is of a Scythian warrior whose remains were recovered from a burial mound in Kazakhstan in 1969. The warrior was discovered wearing a gold-plated uniform, along with a gold dagger and sword, and pointed headdress with plaques of winged horses with horns, panthers, goats, and other animals. The Golden Warrior has become a symbol of Kazakhstan. The Washington D.C. statue, commemorated in 2006, is a replica of the Golden Warrior featured in the Independence Monument in the Republic square, in downtown Almaty. The legend goes that touching the statue in Almaty can bring you a life of happiness and prosperity. Hence many people, including lots of newlyweds, will come to touch the statue. The Kazakhstan Embassy welcomes you to touch the statue in front of the embassy to see if it similarly enhances your life.

We passed this building which was a little different from the ones we normally see during our walks

We also liked this little row house tucked in at an angle between other buildings.

We also passed the Mary McLeod Bethune house that was the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and was Bethune’s last home in the District.

Bethune, the daughter of slaves, went on to become a prominent American educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian, and civil rights activist. She founded the NCNW in 1935 and became a national advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt. It would take too long to recite all of her achievements here. Needless to say, she was a very impressive woman and we recommend spending some time getting to know her story.

We also passed the National City Christian Church on Thomas Circle. The neoclassical church was designed by John Russell Pope and completed in 1930. Apparently, his design was influenced by the St. Martin-in-the-Fields church that sits in Trafalgar Square in London. Certainly, it’s easy to see the resemblance between the two churches. Pope has designed a number of famous buildings around town including the National Archives, the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art. Among the church’s notable members have been two Presidents, Lyndon Baines Johnson and James Garfield.

Having spent some more time exploring Logan Circle we made our way back into Shaw where we passed the O Street Market.

The market now contains a thriving upmarket Giant Supermarket but has gone through some troubled times since it began life as a public market in the 1800s. In particular, the market gained some infamy in the 1990s when it was the site of a shooting. Five men entered the market on March 31, 1994 and fired more than 30 rounds killing one man and wounding eight others.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Shaw we highly recommend the O Street Inn, owned and run by our good friend and neighbor Charlet. It is in a great location and has been totally renovated recently.

We ended our walk back where we started, in the Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District as night was falling. Tucked into the alleys are some cool residences.