Historical Markers in Adams Morgan, District of Columbia
Washington and Vicinity
Washington(2211) ► ADJACENT TO WASHINGTON Montgomery County, Maryland(691) ► Prince George's County, Maryland(575) ► Alexandria, Virginia(338) ► Arlington County, Virginia(403) ► Fairfax County, Virginia(683) ►
Touch name on this list to highlight map location. Touch blue arrow, or on map, to go there.
By the 1890s the Rock Creek Railway Company's new electric streetcars made it easy to commute across town. The "country" settlements of this area became "suburban." One streetcar line followed 18th to Calvert Street, passed here, and then . . . — — Map (db m130701) HM
Painted in 1977, A People Without Murals Is A Demuralized People is the oldest and only mural remaining in Adams Morgan created by a group of Latino immigrant artists. It was brought back to life in 2005 by Sol & Soul, a D.C. . . . — — Map (db m112851) HM
Three dramatic religious structures dominate this corner. They are among some 40 religious institutions lining 16th Street between the White House and the Maryland state line.
Many serve as unofficial embassies representing the . . . — — Map (db m152206) HM
A legendary figure of 'Solidarity' - the socio-political movement that initiated the fall of communism in Europe. One of the 100 women who defined the last century, according to the American newsweekly Time.
She worked hard her whole . . . — — Map (db m200391) HM
In 2013, Howard University archaeologists, working with concerned citizens, completed a seven-year survey of Walter C. Pierce Community Park. Their goal: to identify and protect two 19th Century cemeteries--the Colored Union Benevolent . . . — — Map (db m112588) HM
'Everyone saw in this music, as in the clouds, something different for himself' — Fιlicien Mallefille
Chopin created the genre of the piano ballade. Before Chopin, the name ballad referred in music not to works for solo piano, but to . . . — — Map (db m150239) HM
Across the street you can see the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center. It opened in 1977 on the former sites of Morgan Community School and Happy Hollow Playground.
Both the Adams and Morgan elementary schools became "community schools" . . . — — Map (db m130703) HM
Calvin T.S. Brent (1854-1899), believed to be Washington's first African American architect, lived here briefly in the early 1890s. (His other residences have been demolished.) Brent began practicing in 1875 and after a two-year apprenticeship and . . . — — Map (db m129528) HM
Jacek Bogucki continued to document the subsequent Canoandes expeditions. He eventually settled down in Casper, Wyoming where he established a video production company and lives there with his wife and their son.
Zbigniew Bzdak would . . . — — Map (db m190157) HM
On May 3, 1791, the Parliament (Seimas) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth adopted the first modern constitution in Europe. It was the second such document in the world, only preceded by the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution of May 3 . . . — — Map (db m175129) HM
The first crossing of the Colca Canyon became not only an important achievement in the history of exploration, but also opened up the canyon and its beauty to the world. This, in turn, contributed to the acceleration of the economic and social . . . — — Map (db m190156) HM
You are standing in front of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania.
The Spanish Baroque style mansion is all that remains of what was once a duplex, or double, embassy building designed by George Oakley Totten for Mary Foote Henderson's . . . — — Map (db m82711) HM
Embassy of the Republic of Poland
A Beaux-Arts Beauty
You are now standing in front of the longest-serving embassy building among Washington DC's more than 180 diplomatic missions: the Embassy of the Republic of Poland. . . . — — Map (db m82636) HM
'His etudes for piano are masterpieces'
— Hector Berlioz
Chopin's twenty-four Etudes contained in opuses 10 and 25, gathered into cohesively composed cycles of twelve pieces, and the Trois nouvelles ιtudes constitute a new . . . — — Map (db m150236) HM
Traversing the Colca Canyon did not mark the end of the expedition. A month later, the Canoandes'79 team set off again in search of the destination that gave birth to their original expedition: Argentina. The group reached Argentina and Tierra . . . — — Map (db m190152) HM
'The airy mood of a moment assumes a shape and form – although it becomes a trifle, it conceals the most delicate feelings in such cheerful, playful attire'
— Ferdinand Hiller on the Impromptu in A flat major, Op. 29 . . . — — Map (db m150248) HM
A social activist, recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, who during World War II saved approximately 2,500 Jewish children.
She was born in 1910 in Warsaw. As a little girl she learned the Yiddish language . . . — — Map (db m200394) HM
The first woman to sail around the world solo. Sailor, traveller, and naval architect. Often referred to as 'the first lady of the oceans'.
She remembered her circumnavigation not only as an interesting chapter in her life, but also for . . . — — Map (db m200428) HM
Banker Archibald McLachlen and Smithsonian Institution naturalist George Brown Goode developed Lanier Heights in the early 1890s. Goode laid out streets and encouraged Smithsonian colleagues to purchase lots. McLachlan built the elegant . . . — — Map (db m130704) HM
During the Civil War (1861-1865), the Union Army Carver Hospital and barracks occupied Meridian Hill. The facilities attracted African American freedom seekers looking for protection and employment. By wars end, a Black community had put down . . . — — Map (db m130705) HM
Since 1924 this mansion has housed representatives of the Republic of Lithuania, even during the 50 years when the country was occupied by the Soviet Union.
In the late 1700s, the Russian Empire annexed Lithuania's territory, ending the . . . — — Map (db m82751) HM
A distinguished surgical pioneer who performed the first full face transplant in the United States.
'If you have dreams, you have to be stubborn, and then you can achieve something. Nothing happens overnight', says Professor Maria . . . — — Map (db m200399) HM
Physicist and chemist. The first and only woman in the world to receive the Nobel Prize twice, as well as the only scientist honored in two different fields of the natural sciences.
She was recognized as one of the greatest scientists of . . . — — Map (db m200396) HM
'Remarkable details reside in his mazurkas, and he also found a way to render them doubly interesting, performing them without a supreme degree of softness, in a superlative piano, barely feathering the strings with the hammers'
— . . . — — Map (db m150241) HM
Long before Europeans arrived, Meridian Hill was a sacred place for Native Americans. As recently as 1992, a delegation of Native Americans walked across the continent to this park to mourn the 500th anniversary of Columbuss arrival. They were . . . — — Map (db m130706) HM
As you look up the hill, you can see Peter C. LEnfants 1791 plan for Washington ended up here in front of you at Boundary Avenue, now Florida Avenue. Back then, when people walked or rode in horse-drawn vehicles, it was hard to climb this . . . — — Map (db m130707) HM
'unlike anything else in their overall character, backfilled by the name of the works, nocturne, not admitting of tones in any colours other than dreamy, dark.' Gottfried Wilhelm Fink
The nocturn is a genre often . . . — — Map (db m150246) HM
A prize-winning artist recognized by the Berlin magazine Bazaar as one of the 12 best painters in Europe.
It was said of her that she didn't paint the eyes but expressions, not lips but a smile or a sob. She could detect the inner . . . — — Map (db m200401) HM
An outstanding prose writer and essayist. Winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature and The 2018 Man Booker International Prize for the novel Flights. A lover of nature, animals and other people.
In Olga Tokarczuk's books, objective . . . — — Map (db m200420) HM
A passion for kayaking and a great desire to learn about the world are the two main reasons why a group of students from the Krakow Academic Kayaking Club "Bystrze" mobilized all the efforts and resources to get to South America. And it was not . . . — — Map (db m190141) HM
The Ontario Theatre played a notable role in the history of the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Built for the K-B theater chain in 1951 in a contemporary Modern style, the Ontario began operations as an upscale first-run movie house, hosting local . . . — — Map (db m189086) HM
Park Tower
2440 Sixteenth Street, NW
Built 1928
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior — — Map (db m132726) HM
Polish women were among Europe's first to gain electoral rights. They came from various backgrounds, differed in education, experience and political views, but shared one goal - to win equal rights for women and end their banishment to the . . . — — Map (db m200390) HM
'They enclose the noblest traditional sentiments of Old Poland. [ ] They mainly contain a combative element, but the courage and valour are tinged with serenity – a characteristic property of this knightly nation' — Ferenc Liszt . . . — — Map (db m150240) HM
🌍 the name of the man who discovered that the Earth revolves around the Sun?
☢️ And do you know who was the only woman to win the two Nobel prizes?
Do you know . . . — — Map (db m200379) HM
'If Chopin had composed nothing but the preludes, he would still deserve immortality' — Anton Rubinstein
Copin completed his 24 Preludes, Op. 28 in the years 1838-1839, but the ideas probably date back to earlier years, possibly even . . . — — Map (db m150244) HM
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan marked the 100th visit to Washington Hilton by a sitting U.S. President. Reagan had been invited to speak in the International Ballroom at a meeting of the North America's Building Trades Unions. Upon . . . — — Map (db m93218) HM
Paddling the Colca Canyon included more than thirty-three days of exploration and struggle with 94 kilometers of rushing mountain river squeezed between high rock walls that shut out the sunlight from the bottom of the abyss. Without any . . . — — Map (db m190150) HM
Canoandes returned to the Colca Canyon four more times. Under the auspices of National Geographic, the group organized kayaking trips twice in 1983, followed by further trips in 1985 and 1991. The aim was to prepare photographic material from the . . . — — Map (db m190151) HM
This hill, with its sweeping views of Washington and the Potomac, has tantalized visionaries since the 1800s. But few of their plans have been built. In 1873 businessman and city commissioner Thomas P. Morgan (whose name survives as part of . . . — — Map (db m93415) HM
'How should gravity array itself when jest is already darkly robed?'
— Robert Schumann
In the tradition of the genre, the scherzo, which in Italian means 'joke', altered in terms of forms and function, although it retained its . . . — — Map (db m150238) HM
Furs by Gartenhaus and truffles by Avignon Freres. Hand-crafted ice cream from Budd's. Beginning in the 1910s, such neighborhood favorites occupied the commercial buildings to your right developed by Sanner and Barr. These fashionable shops . . . — — Map (db m130708) HM
"I knew him when he was drafted for the war, and I knew him when he came back ... He had a soldier's clothes on when he came back, with a gun, canteen, knap sack and blanket."-- Lloyd Mudd, testifying to U.S. Pension officials about Enoch . . . — — Map (db m112866) HM
Solidarność (or Solidarity) emerged in Poland in 1980) as the first free, independent labor union in the so-called Eastern Bloc, i.e. the Soviet sphere of influence, which included the USSR and much of Central . . . — — Map (db m163276) HM
'Music it is not' — Robert Schumann on the finale of the Sonata in B flat minor
Chopin composed four sonatas over the course of twenty years. They differ in both musical language and forces (the first three are for solo piano, while . . . — — Map (db m150243) HM
'Now the little songster,
Lost to vision mortal,
Earth's lament unending
Bears to Heav'n's bright portal'
— Stefan Witwicki, except from the song 'Wiosna' ('Spring')
Chopin invested his nineteen extant songs for voice and . . . — — Map (db m150249) HM
Named in honor of
Edward Kennedy Ellington
1899-1974
Native Son
Composer - Performer - Playwright
International Statesman of Goodwill — — Map (db m67913) HM
The lively scene around you began with an arts movement in the 1950s. Musicians, dancers, and artists found centrally located 18th Street attractive as declining rents made it affordable.
Early on, jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd brought fame . . . — — Map (db m152207) HM
The large building to your left is Adams School (1930), built for white students when the DC Public Schools were segregated. An Americanization School taught immigrant adults and children the English language and American culture here from . . . — — Map (db m184988) HM
There is a river that flows from Andean slope in Peru at 4,886 meters above sea level down to the Pacific Ocean. The river travels 388 kilometers and its sections are called Pacco Pacco, Chilimayo, Colca, Majes, and Camana. Along the section of . . . — — Map (db m190140) HM
The Envoy
is a designated D.C. Landmark
and is placed on the
National Register of
Historic Places
by the
U.S. Department of the Interior
Built -- 1916
Restored -- 1981 — — Map (db m135080) HM
May 18, 1981, marks the beginning of the descent of the Colca. Two kayaks and a raft are immediately carried away by the fast Colca current. The bed of the river is lined with boulders of various sizes, polished smoothly by rushing water. . . . — — Map (db m190142) HM
Canco is a Collaguan settlement located at the point where the Colca Canyon opens up in a short stretch of almost 100 kilometers, allowing exit or entrance to the canyon. For Canoandes, Hacienda Canco means the opportunity to replenish food . . . — — Map (db m190145) HM
On June 8th, after a few days' stay in Canco, the group returns to the Colca in a repaired raft. Canoandes continues its journey deep into the Colca Canyon. The water in the river is clean, almost transparent. The route seems to be clear of . . . — — Map (db m190147) HM
Maria Skłodowska-Curie, born in 1867 in Warsaw, was a visionary scientist whose discoveries paved the way for effective cancer treatments and created the foundations of several scientific disciplines.
Maria Skłodowska-Curie was . . . — — Map (db m175121) HM
This is the heart of Washingtons Latino community. Once centered here and in nearby Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights, the community now extends throughout the region.
As early as the 1910s, the Mexican, Ecuadoran, Cuban, and Spanish . . . — — Map (db m130709) HM
1950s
This building was the site of Washington's Ontario Theatre, a local cinema that played a notable part in the area's history. Accomplished theater architect John J. Zink, best known for designing the art deco Uptown Theater in . . . — — Map (db m114770) HM
In 1947, the building on your left opened as the National Arena, a public roller rink and bowling alley. It also hosted professional wrestling, roller derbies, and rock concerts. In 1986 it became the Citadel Motion Picture Center, where . . . — — Map (db m130710) HM
Before there was "Adams Morgan," this crossroads lent the neighborhood its name: "18th and Columbia." Here you could catch a streetcar to just about anywhere and buy nearly anything.
But back in 1922, 18th and Columbia witnessed a tragedy. . . . — — Map (db m130711) HM
[Marker depicts individuals in historical fashion styles in DC from the 19th and 20th centuries.]
Elizabeth Keckley
Dressmaker
1818, Dinwiddie, VA ~ 1907, Washington, DC
"Art still has . . . — — Map (db m163274) HM
The charming Victorian rowhouses you see along 18th Street are an Adams Morgan signature. But they were nearly lost in the 1960s in the name of progress.
During World War II, thousands flooded Washington to work for the government, . . . — — Map (db m130712) HM
The Rock Creek Valley, once home to Native Americans, had attracted European settlers by 1703. Before he became president in 1825, John Quincy Adams purchased Adams Mills on Rock Creek from his cousin. The mills, just down the hill, processed . . . — — Map (db m130713) HM
'Aristocratic from the first note to the last' — Robert Schumann
Only eight Chopin waltzes were intended by the composer for publication. They include both striking concert waltzes of the brillant type and also sentimental . . . — — Map (db m150242) HM
The first woman to reach the summit of the most dangerous mountain in the world - K2. The first European woman to conquer Mount Everest. One of the greatest climbers in history.
At the top of Mount Everest she left a small stone brought . . . — — Map (db m200429) HM
The ninth woman in the world and the first Polish woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The inventor of new literary genres based on humour, irony and grotesque.
The Nobel Committee awarded Wisława Szymborska the Nobel Prize . . . — — Map (db m200402) HM
'Among his new works is to be a Concerto in F minor, worthy of standing alongside works by the foremost musicians of Europe' — Eugeniusz Koźmian
All of Chopin's works with orchestra represented a sort of portfolio accompanying . . . — — Map (db m150251) HM
This property has been
placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
circa 1905
— — Map (db m164266) HM
