Meridian Hill/ Malcolm X Park crescent place and 16th street nw
long before europeans arrived, Meridian Hill was a sacred space for Native Americans.As recently as 1992 , a delegation of Native Americans walked across the continent to this park to mourn the 500 th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival.They were received by environmentalist Josephine Butler,a champion of park preservation. Europeans named the hill for Commodore David Porter’s grand Meridian Hill house ( 1815 ),which straddled the route of the prime meridian (today’s 16 th Street).Americans used this meridian as a starting point for mapping the continent until 1884 ,when it was replaced by the Greenwich (England) Prime Meridian.President John Quincy Adams lived in Porter’s house in 1829 . Landowner Mary Foote Henderson persuaded fed- eral officials to build the elaborate,European style, 12 -acre Meridian Hill Park across 16 th Street from her mansion.Its starlight performances drew audi- ences until the park began declining in the 1950 s. In the 1960 s it became a staging ground for political demonstrations,and in 1970 activist Angela Davis unofficially renamed it Malcolm X Park.Neglected by official Washington, the space became a scene of crime and vandalism.Then in the early 1990 s, Friends of Meridian Hill and others worked with the National Park Service to evict criminal activity and restore the park as a cultural center. As you proceed to Sign 3 ,don’t miss three land- marks: the Envoy,at the corner of Crescent Place (once Meridian Mansions,home to congressmen and diplomats),and 1624 and 1630 Crescent Place, both designed by John Russell Pope,architect for the Jefferson Memorial.
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