By Theodore Fischer, Sidewalk
At
the center of Scott Circle, the convoluted intersection that slices
and dices traffic on Massachusetts Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue and 16th
Street, stands an equestrian statue of Gen. Winfield Scott (top picture)
– and therein hangs a tale. Sculptor Henry Kirke Brown originally
intended to depict Scott, a Mexican War hero and unsuccessful Whig Party
presidential candidate nicknamed "Old Fuss and Feathers," atop
the placid mare the corpulent general rode at the end of his career. After
Scott's relatives objected because generals were never shown riding mares,
Brown performed a sex-change operation before the statue was cast so that
Scott now sits, peering down 16th Street at the White House, atop a
steed complete with all stallion glory.
That's not the only reason to take a walking tour of this centrally
located but usually overlooked area. Two other impressive statues adorn
Scott Circle. To the general's right (the west) stands stern Daniel
Webster, the argumentative New Hampshire orator who served in the House,
in the Senate and as Millard Fillmore's secretary of state. The base bears
memorable quotes – "Our country, our whole country, and nothing but
our country" – and bronze tableaus of special Webster moments
including a speech to the Senate and a wildly successful stump speech.
On the east side of the circle, a massive wall flanks a contemplative male
figure seated beneath a dome of brilliant mosaic flowers. His name? "Hahnemann."
His identity? Unless you can translate the words inscribed beside him –
"Die milde Macht ist Gross," which is German for,
roughly, "mild strength is the strongest," and "similia
similibus curenter," which means "like is
cured by like" in Latin – there's no way to know. But go around to
the back of the monument and you learn that Christian Friedrich Samuel
Hahnemann (1755-1843) was a German physician, "a leader of the great
medical reformation of the 19th century" and "founder of the
homeopathic school," which tries to cure certain diseases with drugs
that would ordinarily produce symptoms of that disease. Although Hahnemann
never visited the United States, the American Institute of Homeopathy
erected the memorial in 1900 – 10 years before Congress established the
Commission of Fine Arts to curtail such dubious use of D.C.'s public
spaces.
Opposite the Hahnemann installation stands the imposing gray mansion whose
distinguished occupants have included Alexander Graham Bell; Levi P.
Morton, vice president under Benjamin Harrison; and Elihu Root, a senator,
secretary of state under Theodore Roosevelt and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate. Today the edifice is headquarters of the National Paint and
Coatings Association.
Although most of Scott Circle is bordered by modern high-rise apartments,
several buildings befit its location on the doorstep to the Massachusetts
Avenue Embassy Row. There's the '50s moderne Tunisian Embassy on
the southeast edge and, at the top of the circle, the Australian Embassy,
fronted by a black slab sculpture depicting an emu and a kangaroo.
The gleaming new Philippine Embassy stands at the corner of
Massachusetts Avenue and Bataan Street, aptly named after the Philippine
site of the death march during World War II. Bataan Street and Corregidor
Street – which memorializes another Philippine battle – on the east
side of Scott Circle were two anonymous byways that received historic
designations in 1961 at the request of the Philippine ambassador. Scott
Circle is just loaded with surprises like this.
See also: Inside Scott Circle |
