OK, Layfayette isn’t actually in this picture since he’s on top of the pedestal. You’re looking at Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, and Louis Lebègue Duportail. Both were military leaders in the American Revolution.
Remember those tulip trees from last month? Well turns out they are not tulip trees, but Japanese magnolia or, more likely, saucer magnolia trees (a sturdier hybrid of Japanese magnolia and another tree.) Either way they’re trés beau when in bloom. That was a week ago — now comes the part when they make a huge mess and get tromped into goo on the sidewalks.
If you spend any time at all around Pennsylvania and 15th you know that tourists love to take pictures of the Treasury Building there on the corner. It’s a little funny because it’s just offices, and even the statue on the Penn Ave side is of a guy few have ever heard of save perhaps some economics and NYU wonks. (For the record, it’s Albert Gallatin, the fourth Secretary of the Treasury.) Yet the architecture, symmetry and scale make it the perfect quintessential “Washington” building, so you can’t help but take a quick photo. I probably have a dozen photos hiding in my Aperture library, and this morning I couldn’t resist … so now there’s one more.
In honor of the Irish holy day of binge drinking, the White House staff has turned the fountain on the Pennsylvania Ave. side green!
Buds on the tulip trees across from the White House are getting pretty big. Should only be a few more weeks before D.C. spring officially begins!