Girl Power

The first item on today's itinerary was the 10:00AM ranger-led tour of Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. So after grabbing breakfast from the lobby this morning, we walked a few blocks east to the Metrobus stop at New Jersey Av NW & K St NW and rode the 96 Capitol Heights bus past Union Station to Massachusetts Av NE & 2 St NE (5 stops). It was a short walk south to Belmont-Paul (0.2 mile). 

☑ Unit #198

Because it was only 9:30AM, we decided to keep walking past the Senate Office Buildings to First St. NE, which brought us to the...

Supreme Court of the United States

United States Capitol

Library of Congress

Then we headed back to 144 Constitution Ave. NE to join the tour. The original house was built in 1800 and was used as a residence by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison. It was burned by the British Army when they captured the capital in 1814, and reconstruction of the present house was completed in 1820. Beginning in 1929, the National Women's Party (NWP) used this house as its headquarters. It was designated as a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2016.

☑ Unit #198

The deaths of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1902 and Susan B. Anthony in 1906 left the American women's suffrage movement without leadership and direction. However, when Alice Paul joined the movement in 1913, she helped to shift the focus of suffrage efforts from winning the right to vote on a state-by-state basis to the passage of an amendment to the Constitution. Alva Belmont, a wealthy socialite and committed suffragist, used her fortune and connections to advance the efforts of the National Women's Party. 

Top: Alva Belmont, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Bottom: Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott

Prior to our visit today, I have to confess that my knowledge of the history of women getting the right to vote was limited to Susan B. Anthony, the Seneca Falls Convention, and the Schoolhouse Rock song "Sufferin' Till Suffrage". We really enjoyed learning about Alice Paul from the ranger - what an extraordinary woman! 

After Woodrow Wilson was elected to a second term, the National Women's Party stood at the gates of the White House daily, holding banners asking the president to support the suffrage amendment. This continued even after the U.S. entered World War I, resulting in the arrest and imprisonment of over 150 women, including Alice Paul. In November 1917, Paul and several other women began a hunger strike to protest their treatment. Stories about them being beaten and force-fed in prison horrified the public and began to sway people's opinions in their favor. 

Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919...

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

...and it became law in August 1920 when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it. Interestingly (or sadly, depending on how you look at it), several states took *decades* to officially ratify the amendment: Maryland (1941), Virginia (1952), Alabama (1953), Florida (1969), South Carolina (1969), Georgia (1970), Louisiana (1970), North Carolina (1971), and Mississippi (1984).

After we finished the tour, we walked through the Senate Park over to the National Japanese American Memorial. Located in the triangle between New Jersey Avenue, Louisiana Avenue, and D Street NW, the memorial commemorates the patriotism of Japanese Americans during World War II.

"The Golden Cranes" stand in the center of memorial, with the names of the 10 War Relocation Authority incarceration camps inscribed on the wall surrounding it

Then we walked back to the hotel (0.75 mile) to fetch the car for our drive out to Georgetown. Our original plan was to visit both the Old Stone House (visitor center for Rock Creek Park) and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park Visitor Center for passport stamps and then find someplace for a quick lunch. But traffic in the area was horrible, so we quickly scrapped that idea. 

We continued driving on Macarthur Blvd. west into Maryland and decided to try Wagshal's Grand Bodega in Bethesda for lunch. Lucky find - yum!

Roast beef sandwich with Russian dressing & cole slaw
Chicken Caesar sandwich

After lunch, we hopped back in the car for the short 2.5-mile drive west to Clara Barton National Historic Site, arriving around 1:45PM. The ranger-guided tour of the first floor of the house started at 2:00PM.

☑ Unit #199

Located in Glen Echo, MD, this was Clara Barton's home from 1897 until her death in 1912. Built in 1891, it served as a warehouse for disaster relief supplies and then later as the headquarters for the American Red Cross, the organization she founded in 1882.

Currently the house itself is unfurnished, and the upper floors are closed due to structural concerns, so there wasn't much to see. According to the ranger, most of the artifacts are in storage until the site can undergo much-needed repairs and renovations.

Front and rear parlors

American Red Cross office

Dining room

Storage closet with relief supplies

Central hallway with views of the upper floors

Like our visit to Belmont-Paul this morning, hearing the ranger talk about Clara Barton and her lifetime of public service - from relief efforts during and after the Civil War to natural disaster aid, really impressed us both! Not only was she a humanitarian, she also advocated for the expansion of rights for African Americans and enfranchisement for women. Another remarkable woman! 

After finishing up the ranger program, we walked across the parking lot to Glen Echo Park. While not a stand-alone unit, it is managed as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Originally home to a Chautauqua Assembly in 1891, an educational summer camp for the study of liberal arts and sciences, it became a popular amusement park from the late 1890s until its closure in 1968. Since 1971, the National Park Service, in conjunction with the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, has offered year-round arts, cultural, and educational activities here.

We took the footbridge over Minnehaha Creek and headed to the visitor center to find the passport stamps. Unfortunately, the carousel was closed for the season, so we couldn't get a closer look at the 100+ year old attraction.

Visitor Center (left) and Dentzel Carousel (right)

Dentzel Carousel

Our pace over the past few days finally caught up to us, so by 3:30PM we called it an afternoon and drove back to the hotel for a well-earned nap. And for our last night in DC proper, we walked about a quarter-mile over to Founding Farmers & Distillers in Chinatown for dinner. 

Prime rib dip, vodka pesto shrimp linguine, and a hot fudge sundae

Most of the stamps today were duplicates of ones that we had gotten at other locations, so our tally didn't change much:

    Units: 65

    Stamps: 178

    Regions: 6