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Box #4
Box Location:
South side 1732 Mass. Ave.

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 You are standing at the edge of Embassy Row, which proceeds along Massachusetts Ave. from 16th St. almost to Wisconsin Ave. at Observatory Circle. This boulevard of grand mansions, row houses, and embassies, represents the finest realizations of L’Enfant’s Baroque vision of grand vistas and diagonal avenues for the new nation’s capital.

 The majestic Beaux-Arts building nearby, now the Uzbekistan Embassy, (left) was built in the early 1900s as a residence for a wealthy sportsman, Clarence Moore. Legend has it that he sailed to England in 1912 to acquire foxhounds for the Chevy Chase Hunt Club (later Country Club) but died on his return aboard the Titanic. (The dogs made it safely on another boat.) The home was bought by Mabel Swift of the Chicago Swift family, owners of one of the nation’s largest meat-packing companies of the early 1900s. The building later served as the Embassy of Canada. Johns Hopkins University’s renowned School of Advanced International Studies stands next door.

To your left across the avenue stands the Brookings Institution, built in the 1950s on the site of Henry Cabot Lodge’s house.

This call box is sponsored by:
Rosely H. and Robert E. Greenlee, Margaret Stosik

A graduate of Virginia Tech in studio art and marketing, Ann Marie Ferramosca teaches and exhibits her paintings throughout DC.

 More info: Artist Website

Fire Fact | January 16, 1892

Box 318 sounded at 2:55 pm for a fire in the Church of the Covenant, southeast corner of 18th and N Sts., where President Benjamin H. Harrison was a parishioner. News of fire spread quickly to the White House, and President Harrison raced over to witness the battle. Fortunately the church survived somewhat blackened but intact.

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 By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.
Engine Company 1 (above) responded to the fire at the Church of the Convenant

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.