. goingoutguide.com . friday, october 30, 2020 Weekend

D.C.’s Mass appeal: An ode to a road Take a trek up Massachusetts Avenue, the most elegant — and fascinating — street in Washington, D.C. 10

Katherine Frey/The Washington Post

CASUAL DINING ON EXHIBIT MOVIES The Petworth ramen shop Poster artist Absurdly Well and In “Come Play,” a being in Menya Hosaki will soothe your the creators of 3 installations a smartphone app beckons appetite and your soul. 6 draw on today’s politics. 13, 14 a young boy to join him. 16 10 11 EZ From the Cover EZ

Neighboring the houses of worship we find some unexpect- ed flair. From the top of the circle, A thoroughfare you’ll just catch a glimpse of the Washington Plaza Hotel, de- signed by the modernist maestro Morris Lapidus, best known for several Miami Beach hotels with a fount (Lapidus also designed the fun Capitol Skyline Hotel in South- west). of enticements and Think you know this short stretch of roadway? Think again. Traverse Massachusetts Avenue and you’ll be Curiosities are hiding in plain sight here, including memorials rewarded with an array of intriguing stops to Samuel Hahnemann, the Ger- man physician who developed BY MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN homeopathy, on the east end of Scott Circle, and orator/politician arly one morning last month, I stood on a red curb outside the Daniel Webster to the west (check D.C. Jail and prepared to walk what my great uncle Aaron called out the intricate bronze panels E the most elegant street in Washington: Massachusetts Avenue. below Webster’s statue). Pop into For years, Aaron walked to work along Mass, from just below the the courtyard of Johns Hopkins British Embassy, where he parked his car, to his office downtown. As his University’s School of Advanced wife, Paula, tells it, he was often accompanied by a furrier named International Studies, where Zlotnik, whose store, at 12th and G streets NW, was guarded by a giant you’ll find a segment of the Berlin white bear. Paula remembers stopping by her husband’s office one day Wall. It’s also a nice place to and finding a collection of hubcaps, learning that he had picked them picnic. So is Dupont Circle, up on his walks. “You have no idea how many hubcaps are lost along named after Union Naval officer Massachusetts,” he told her. Samuel Francis du Pont — whose Aaron, a businessman, philanthropist and writer who was born in statue has long since been re- the District, loved this street. When I learned, years after his death in placed with the circle’s now icon- 2000, that he’d dreamed of walking the entire length, I adopted his ic fountain and three marble never-completed mission as my own. This summer, I biked the avenue figures representing sea, wind from the River to Goldsboro Road and back, 22 miles. I and stars. Squint your eyes at the buried my nose in history books and learned about a time when PNC Bank branch on the north- livestock roamed freely north of Massachusetts and when the road was Congressional Cemetery through October. Continuing view of another architectural first such public venue in the west side of the circle, occupying just 4 miles long. British author Anthony Trollope wrote of the avenue 1801 E St. SE along a residential section of Mas- gem: the Capitol building, re- District.) Adorned with ornate Surrounded by several notable two limestone buildings built in in 1862, “Go there, and you will find yourself not only out of town, away Our tour of Massachusetts Av- sachusetts, you’ll pass Lincoln flected in the station’s glass marble carvings, and recently churches, this neighbor of the 1923 — one with massive win- among the fields, but you will find yourself beyond the fields, in an enue starts about a block south of Park, a popular neighborhood doors. (Yes, the station’s public renovated through a partnership livelier Logan Circle is a dividing dows — and you can see into the uncultivated, undrained wilderness.” the Stadium-Armory Metro. But green space with two notable me- bathrooms are open.) Just the between Events DC and Apple, point between office buildings to past, when the building was an

Part of Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan, Massachusetts is among the before we get started, detour to morials: one commemorating other side of North Capitol the Beaux-Arts building is now a the south and a largely residential automobile showroom. It’s a ves- the washington post widest and longest roads in the District. It passes through three of the nearby Congressional Cemetery, a Black educator Mary McLeod Bet- Street, you’ll find two lesser- mixed-use cultural center, hous- neighborhood to the north. Con- tige of the days when Connecticut

2020 city’s quadrants, around more than a half-dozen traffic circles — one, beautifully restored National His- hune, and the controversial Eman- known memorials in a city ing the DC History Center and a ceived as a memorial to peace and Avenue was lined with car dealer- , , , is in a disconnected 1.5-mile segment of roadway east of toric Landmark and the final cipation Memorial, depicting packed with them: the Holodo- flagship Apple store. Don’t miss reconciliation following the Civil ships, and a reminder of our 30 the Anacostia — and past some of the most notable addresses in the home for many notable figures, Abraham Lincoln and a kneeling mor Memorial to the victims of “The Light of Knowledge,” a War, the nearby Luther Place Me- ever-changing city. Open year- city. Deborah Shapley, founder of Restore Mass Ave, an organization including journalist Cokie Rob- Black man. the Ukrainian famine-genocide sculpture over the entrance, cre- morial Church was founded in round on Sundays, the Dupont created to improve the landscape along (home of several erts, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, FBI carried out by Joseph Stalin; and ated by Philip Martiny (once an 1873; its first pastor was an aboli- Circle farmers market is wildly embassies along Mass), told me that the avenue once boasted a double Director J. Edgar Hoover, compos- Union Station the Victims of Communism Me- assistant to Augustus Saint- tionist. Stroll around the grounds popular, as is DC Bike Party, a

october row of majestic American linden trees on each side of the street. er John Philip Sousa and Push-Ma- 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE morial. If you’re in the mood for a Gaudens). Outside on the grass, and gardens, and look for delight- monthly evening ride around , , Planted in the late 1800s, the trees sheltered promenades, buffering Ta-Ha, the Choctaw Indian chief Next up is one of the city’s most side excursion, the Metropolitan Bhakti Yoga offers yoga classes. ful door paintings depicting St. Washington that sets out from pedestrians from the dusty roadway. Since 2006, RMA has planted who served with Andrew Jackson elegant Beaux-Arts buildings: a Branch Trail, a paved bike path (Online registration is required.) Francis of Assisi (with a Dalma- the fountain. It’s truly one of the hundreds of new trees and saved others from removal. during the War of 1812. Congres- beautifully renovated transporta- that follows the line of the old Before you leave the neighbor- tian), St. Martin (Luther King, Jr., most enchanting public events in . friday

friday By late September, I was ready for my walk. Starting at 7 a.m., I sional is known not only for its tion hub for train, bus and sub- B&O Railroad, runs 4.5 miles hood, dominated by the nearby that is) and St. Dorothy (Day, the the city. (Find updates on Face- . strolled unhurriedly. I completed the walk in seven hours, stopping for impressive collection of historic way travelers that opened in 1907, from Union Station to Franklin Walter E. Washington Convention social activist). Symbolic head- book.) lunch and detours; I’ve listed many of my discoveries below. Sidewalks funeral sculpture but for its be- consolidating the tangle of un- Street NE. Center, look around for other small stones on one side of the building line both sides of the avenue, except for the far end in , where loved K9 Corps — a private dog- sightly and dangerous railroad surprises along Mass: a memorial honor young people who have Embassy Row ,

you’ll find footpaths on just one side of the road. Whether you walk or walking program composed of tracks that once crisscrossed the Carnegie Library to the pioneering labor leader Sam- been killed by D.C. police. Another There is, perhaps, no better october bike, be adventurous: Explore alleys and peruse pocket parks. hundreds of dues-paying mem- city. As you approach the main 801 K St. NW uel Gompers between 10th and prominent Thomas Circle church embodiment of the District’s cos- Halfway through my walk, I met up with Paula, a young-spirited bers and joyous off-leash dogs. entrance and look up, you’ll see Just past Chinatown, we arrive 11th streets, and, across 11th, a is the National City Christian mopolitan character than the octogenarian wearing a pink sweater set. I could hardly wait to tell her During this phase of the pandem- “The Progress of Railroading,” six at Mt. Vernon Square and the bronze statue of English orator and Church, designed by John Russell stretch of Mass between Dupont Photos by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post

what I’d found near the Observatory. ic, the cemetery is open most days massive granite statues created Carnegie Library, a gift to the statesman Edmund Burke. Check Pope and regularly attended by and Observatory circles, where 30 “A hubcap,” she said, laughing at the happenstance, “See? Aaron CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: People walk by the fountain in to K9 Corps members as well as by Louis Saint-Gaudens (brother public from industrialist Andrew out the yellow house at 1107 Mass: President Lyndon B. Johnson. the flags of numerous embassies ,

wasn’t making this up!” Dupont Circle; roses bloom in Bishop’s Garden at Washington visitors who purchase a K9 day of the more famous sculptor Au- Carnegie, and the District’s first It was built in 1840 — a rare Stained-glass windows memorial- might be identified — at least by 2020 Visit some of these suggested stops — or improvise — to create your National Cathedral; a statue of Samuel Hahnemann at Scott pass ($10). The cemetery also of- gustus Saint-Gaudens). Pause public library. (It opened in 1903 pre-Civil War structure on the av- ize LBJ with a NASA rocket and eagle-eyed viewers — from afar.

the washington post washington the own memories along one of the city’s grandest avenues. Circle; dogs frolic in a fog-shrouded Congressional Cemetery. fers guided weekend tours just before you enter and take in a as a desegregated building — the enue. Medicare symbol. continued on next page 12 EZ From the Cover

from previous page dawn redwood. During World War I, the government used the The Indonesian Embassy is campus for chemical warfare lab- among the more impressive of oratories and proving grounds; the grand mansions along this the McKinley building became strip — once considered remote the birthplace of the Army Chem- and rural — when it was built in ical Corps. A more peaceable 1903 as a 60-room home for spot: the Ilene Zatkin-Butler philanthropist Thomas Francis Garden. Across Mass Avenue is Walsh. In the next block you’ll the school’s Katzen Arts Center find the lavish Anderson House, and American University Mu- built in 1902 and now headquar- seum (currently closed), with a ters of the patriotic organization cascading, terraced fountain, Society of the Cincinnati. Detour benches, gardens and several down the alley behind the house outdoor sculptures, including to see some of the original stables three from Jules Olitski’s “Cy- — now home to Gold Leaf Stu- clops” series. dios, a framing, art-conservation and gilding business — and you Wesley Theological Seminary can imagine guests arriving by 4500 Massachusetts Ave. NW carriage for an extravagant soi- Massachusetts Avenue is dot- ree. Cross the street and spend a ted with more than a dozen few moments in a lovely park churches and religious institu- dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, tions: Look for Washington He- memorialized in bronze at 21st brew Congregation’s 24-foot-tall and Q streets. Behind 2201 Mass, steel stainless steel menorah, along 22nd, you’ll find a curious midway between Washington structure with a green pitched National Cathedral and Ameri- roof — almost resembling a tiny can University. A little past AU in chateau — that, in 1900, was the the Spring Valley neighborhood, District’s first permitted garage. you’ll find Wesley Theological If you’re on foot, look out for the Seminary’s particularly inviting beautifully painted historic po- campus, boasting a shady court- lice and fire callboxes along the People enjoy a late-day stroll along Little Falls Stream Valley Trail, a 3.5-mile paved path that runs yard, bell tower, large grassy sidewalk. One of the most distinc- perpendicular to Massachusetts Avenue in Maryland’s Montgomery County. lawn, picnic tables and a bronze tive examples of architecture in statue of John Wesley, the found- this neighborhood is the Islamic Having known the name Kahlil road. While the Naval Observa- Mass and Wisconsin — one of the er of the Methodist Church and Center, evoking the buildings of Gibran from my childhood — my tory, which has been home to city’s highest points — is an the religious school’s namesake. 15th-century Egypt, and among mom kept a copy of the Lebanese every vice president since Walter architectural treasure. (Stone If you have kids in tow, seek out the first such institutions in the American poet’s “The Prophet,” Mondale, is not currently open to carvings include a Darth Vader the popular nearby playground Western Hemisphere. on her nightstand — stumbling the public, it offers a fascinating grotesque; bring your binocu- at Friendship Park at 45th and on the hidden Kahlil Gibran Me- public tour that should resume lars). It’s also home to some of the Van Ness (better known to locals Lover’s Lane and morial Garden was like running after the pandemic. Continuing most beautiful public grounds in as Turtle Park). If you need to Normanstone Trail into an old friend. Located at the on Mass, you’ll pass the nuncia- the District, originally developed fuel up, stop at Millie’s, which Massachusetts Avenue might end of a small bridge just north of ture — the Vatican’s embassy — by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. has a popular kid- and dog- be the last place you’d head to for 30th Street, and largely unno- where the Pope stays when he Stunning and fragrant in any friendly patio and ice cream/ a walk in the woods, but there are ticed by motorists, the garden visits D.C. Don’t miss the mum- season, the Bishop’s Garden fea- takeout window. enough trails that intersect with features a striking bronze bust of and-pumpkin market at Saint So- tures cedars and fig trees, roses it to offer an unexpected hiking the writer, a star-shaped foun- phia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, that bloom until November, an Little Falls Stream Valley Trail sampler. North of Glover Bridge, tain, benches and such quotes, at 36th Street. 18th-century English bronze sun- and Capital Crescent Trail which crosses over Rock Creek, carved in stone, as: “We live to dial and a finial that fell from the , the rare look for the dirt path to Lover’s discover beauty. All else is a form Washington cathedral in the 2011 earthquake. roundabout without a statue, Lane on the south side of the of waiting.” If you need to plug National Cathedral Follow a stone footpath through straddles the D.C.-Maryland bor- street. Follow the shady trail back into the real world after this 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW the oak, beech and maple trees of der. As you continue into Mont- downhill about a third of a mile to serene pit stop, sync your watch Completed in 1990, after 83 Olmsted Woods, one of the few gomery County, you’ll pass resi- reach Dumbarton Oaks Park, against the U.S. Naval Observa- years of construction, the neo- remaining old-growth forests in dential neighborhoods and come Montrose Park and the paved tory’s Master Clock, just up the Gothic structure at the corner of the city. You’ll find a quiet and to Little Falls Stream Valley Trail, portion of the trail, which contin- secluded amphitheater with a 3.5-mile paved path that runs ues uphill to R Street. Slightly curved stone walls and grassy perpendicular to Mass between

2020 farther up Mass, just past the tiers, a perfect spot for reading or Little Falls Stream Valley Park, to , , British Embassy, Normanstone contemplating. Just across Mas- the south, and Norwood Local 30 Trail is a half-mile hike down to sachusetts from the cathedral, Park to the north. It’s more scenic Rock Creek. In the stretch be- discover Bryce Park, a multilevel on the south side of Mass — the tween the two trails, stop at 3000 green space that’s easy to miss trail is clearly marked with a sign Massachusetts to look at the Mc- from the window of a whizzing — where you might see foxes,

october Cormick House, designed by car. Named for British Ambassa- owls and ducks. The pathway , , John Russell Pope in the manner dor James Bryce, the park hosts runs parallel to the Capital Cres- of an Italian palazzo, and now DC Tai Chi classes and private cent Trail, which runs between home to the Brazilian ambassa- instruction with swords or Georgetown and Bethesda on the

friday dor. Also between the two trails, spears. Drop-ins are welcome for former rail bed of the B&O Rail- . the South African Embassy’s stat- beginner classes. road. (It’s easy to miss if you don’t ue of seems to see the trail going over Mass on a look across the street toward the American University bridge, just a couple hundred feet British Embassy’s Winston 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW north of the Little Falls trail.) Churchill memorial. The latter — Beautifully landscaped, the Shortly after the trails, find Nor- with his fingers raised in a V for AU campus is an arboretum — man’s, a beloved produce stand victory — stands with one foot on with more than 3,000 trees, in- that’s been in this spot for 25 British soil and one on American. cluding a scarlet oak from the years. The stand is open daily university’s founding as a Meth- until the end of October, with Kahlil Gibran Photos by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post odist school in the 1890s, and squashes, apples, beets, pump- Memorial Garden A statue of John Wesley sits on the grounds of Wesley Theological such unusual varieties as the kins and fresh cider.

the washington post washington the 3100 Massachusetts Ave. NW Seminary, whose campus has a shady courtyard and a bell tower. Korean cherry, maidenhair and [email protected]