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Box #15
Box Location:
NE corner Mass. Ave. & 20 St.

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on Map

Development in the neighborhood got its first boost in 1871 when the Board of Public Works, under the leadership of Alexander “Boss” Shepherd, installed sewers, paved roads, extended gas pipes and planted trees here and in select other neighborhoods. Speculators bought up land, and the bold began to build.

At 2000 Massachusetts Ave., note the red Victorian mansion built in 1881 by the perennial GOP presidential candidate James G. Blaine and later owned by George Westinghouse, inventor of the airbrake. At 2020 Massachusetts Ave. (left) stands the one of the most expensive private houses ever built in DC, the Thomas Walsh mansion—since 1954 the Indonesian Embassy. Walsh, a miner, struck gold in Colorado. His daughter Evalyn married into the McLean family, owners of the Washington Post; a colorful, generous lady, Evalyn is remembered as the last private owner of the Hope Diamond, now in the Smithsonian Institution.

The dignified Beaux-Arts mansion at 2009 Massachusetts Ave. was home to Nicholas Longworth, speaker of the House (1926-1931), until his death in 1931, and to his wife Alice Roosevelt Longworth until her death in 1980.

This call box is sponsored by:
The Cosmos Club Historic Preservation Foundation

Remembrance by  Steve Hoglund:
“I first met Eric when he was painting an oil of the fountain and proposed buying it. I later commissioned more oils—mostly of Dupont Circle area historic mansions. When he was strapped for funds, I bought other paintings as well. I wanted to organize a show for his artwork, but then learned that he had taken his own life.”

More info, email: Steve Hoglund

Fire Fact | January 1, 1891

Box 319 sounded at 11:35 am for a fire in the residence of Hon. James G. Blaine, who had been defeated by Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1884. Nearly the entire DC Fire Department soon arrived to defeat the blaze that threatened the Blaine Mansion at 2000 Massachusetts Ave.

FIRE ALARM BOXES such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (on round topper sign shown above) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.
2000 Massachusetts Ave., the former Blaine Mansion

Fire Department information and images courtesy of Capitol Fire Museum
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Art on Call is a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development District Department of Transportation.

This community project is also supported by Dupont Circle Citizens Association and The Dupont Circle Conservancy, Inc. and generous donations from community residents and businesses.

©2005 Dupont Circle Call Box Project No reproduction or distribution of any site content without consent of author.Links to this or any other page on the site are permitted. No hyperlinks to pictures are permitted, query info@dupontcirclecallbox.com for copying permission.