You are standing at the heart

Dupont Circle is the heart of a neighborhood roughly bounded by 16th Street, M Street, Florida Avenue, and Swann Street. As the westernmost circle on L'Enfant's 1792 plan, the large park was first called Pacific Circle. In the 1880s it was renamed for Civil War officer Rear Admiral Samuel DuPont, and in 1921 the DuPont family replaced the admiral's statue with the present fountain dedicated to the Navy, whose figures represent Wind, Sea, and the Stars as the three elements necessary to navigation. Of the mansions built around the circle from 1895 to 1905, only two remain: the Patterson house at 15 Dupont Circle, built in 1901-03, and the Wadsworth house at 1801 Massachusetts Avenue, built in 1903, both now private women's clubs. At 1400 New Hampshire Avenue stood the home of Senator George and Mrs. Phoebe Hearst; he made millions from mining, while she gave funds and time to DC education, including the National Cathedral Girls' School, and their son, publisher William Randolph, was a frequent visitor. Seer Jean Dixon lived at 1312 19th Street until her death in 1997. On December 12, 1955, a fire swept through a converted stable at 1730 New Hampshire Avenue, Northwest, badly burning seven people, including five firefighters, and firefighters saved two women, a young child, and a firefighter who became trapped trying to save yet another woman.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States