Monumentality in Microcosm

In constructing a historical timeline of development for the triangle parks as a system, several sites exemplify how improvement often targeted a few parcels to the exclusion of all others. For example, the program of city beautification initiated by Ladybird Johnson in 1968 rendered marked changes to Reservations 154 and 163, NW. These make up two of the four ‘Attached End-Point’ triangle parks located off Logan Circle. The midcentury updates at Reservations 154 and 163 contrast with the 19th- and early 20th-century trappings of Logan Circle itself. A photograph from 1970 by Ronald Comedy shows the modernist arrangement of container plants and treewells in the foreground, while the equestrian statue of General Logan atop its beaux-arts pedestal marks the center of the circle beyond. A recent site visit to Logan Circle revealed Ladybird-era redesigns as very much intact.