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Box #18
Box Location:
SE corner 17 & S Sts.

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At 1740 New Hampshire Ave. (below) stands the Dove House (1898). The private home has been converted into a 12-unit condominium, including a single unit with a loft in the former high-ceilinged ballroom.

The Art Deco Carlyle Suites at 1731 New Hampshire Ave., built as the St. Charles Hotel, was a campaign center for both major parties in 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term.

Along New Hampshire Ave. from this call box to Dupont Circle are nearly a dozen embassies and as many headquarters of national organizations—all in mansions built around 1900.

A block east at 1720 16th St. is the Toutorsky House, built 1892-94 for Associate Justice Henry B. Brown. In the mid-1940s Golda Meir lived there while working for Israeli statehood. Later Basil Toutorsky operated a music academy from the house.

This call box is sponsored by:
Jack Hills and Ken Senior, Jefferson Moulds and Brent Anderson, James E. Jarboe, Sr., In Memory of Ronald A.F. Alvarez

”My imagery comes from my life experiences, the colors, from my heart. I lived in Dupont Circle for 15 years and I traded my photographic skills for dance classes at Joy of Motion. Many of those photos were of the fountain at the circle.”

More info: cornelia.atchley@verizon.net

Fire Fact | January 29, 1922

An alarm sounded for roofs collapsing on nearby dwellings at 18th and T Sts. Only one fire officer, George S. Watson, was able to respond and found no casualties. All other area companies were at 18th St. and Columbia Rd., NW, removing the hundreds of injured and dead from the Knickerbocker Theater, whose roof had collapsed from the weight of a massive snowstorm.

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 By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.
George S. Watson

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.

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