Only recently did I notice the roof terrace atop this building at the northwest corner of Florida and Georgia Avenues NW. It would make an excellent spot for restaurant seating.

Check out these photos of the new neon sculpture outside the new Shaw Library.

Photos by M.V. Jantzen

The LeDroit Park Civic Association will meet on Tuesday, September 28 at 7pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church (623 Florida Avenue NW – enter on U St). All neighbors are welcome and encouraged to attend.

During first week of September, we saw groundbreaking ceremonies for both the park and the Howard Theatre. Construction managers for both projects will present at the Civic Association meeting to detail the construction timeline, address neighborhood questions, and discuss job opportunities for residents.

Also learn about the upcoming LeDroit Park Community Day and the Howard University Homecoming, both set for late October.

Don’t forget to renew your annual membership (or join for the first time) if you haven’t already. Dues are $15 per household ($5 for seniors). You can even pay online!

Yesterday we posted the three-part oral history interview with Mrs. Lauretta Jackson.  It turns out that another neighborhood resident, a professional documentarian, is about to start filming a 30-minute documentary about the neighborhood.  When it’s finished, the program will air on DCTV, the District’s public access channel.  We’ll let you know when it airs.

In the meantime, are there any facets of LeDroit Park you want to know about or you think might be interesting to feature?

Remember when we wrote about this mural a few days ago? Well, local arts blog ReadysetDC provided some more details. The mural is titled “Scout” and was painted by native Washingtonian Kelly Towles.  Filmmaker/travel writer Sebastien Tobler made this movie about the mural and the subject of childhood exploration.  Very cute.

SCOUT from Kelly Towles on Vimeo.

The Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library opened yesterday. We took a quick look inside this afternoon and will have a thorough report later this week.  Our initial impressions were positive.  The new library, though offering the limited collection of a branch library, houses it all in a pleasant, bright, airy building.  The new library contrasts sharply with its previous brutalist incarnation that resembled a prison for mischievous books.

Drop by and check it out.

A new mural graces the side of a house near Twelfth and W Streets NW.  The mural’s bright colors and cartoonish theme have provoked us to think about murals.

Over the past few years, more stunning public art has adorned the sides of Washington’s buildings.  Murals in Washington’s neighborhoods, unlike our national monuments and museums, are usually local in subject matter and local in intended audience.

In the mural above, bright colors strike the view because they dominate vast expanses of the canvas.  The background is plain white, but that actually enhances the rest of the colors— the corn yellow hair and flesh, the turquoise hat, the brick-red bandanna.  This palate is no shrinking violet.

The mural’s cartoon illustration style differs drastically from traditional painting. Notice the lack of gradients; the colors are not blended. The shapes are filled in solidly as they are in a coloring book. As a result there are no shadows and no obvious sources of light.

The subject matter is whimsical, but cohesive. The children on the left are watering flowers in the most cumbersome way.  One girl strains to hold up another girl on her shoulders.  The girl on the bottom exhibits an expression on her fact that confirms the strain placed on her deeply arched spine.

On the right, a boy dressed like a vagrant in the winter places one hand against the edge of the painting to support himself as he kneels down to inspect a plant on the ground.  His left hand on the edge of the painting and the fact the the flowers and grass merge with the grassy field beside the painting subtly call attention to the physical location of the painting.  It’s not obvious at first, but this mural is in fact well suited for its location.

* * *

We can contrast this mural with our very own masterpiece in LeDroit Park, “This is How We Live”, another brilliant work, but of a different sort.

The most striking feature of the LeDroit mural is that it makes clear that it is a neighborhood mural.  The mural is composed of four scenes skillfully merged into one cohesive work.

The upper-left corner depicts a wreath of tree foliage surrounding the bell tower atop Founders Library on Howard University.  The wreath-lined cameo honors the university as a prize.

The lower scene of the LeDroit mural depicts the corner of T Street, Sixth Street, and Florida Avenue.  The scene here is an autumnal entry to LeDroit Park featuring the historic McGill architecture on the 500 block of T Street.  Our entry gate, a recent addition to the neighborhood, serves as a prominent architectural feature.

The top-right corner features children looking at the viewer— a neighborhood image as children tend to spend much of their time near home.  To their left is a view of the Capitol from Pennsylvania Avenue NW.  The inclusion of the Capitol is a nod to Washington’s national identity.

The pixelated seams between each scene are unusual, yet successful, methods of merging different subjects. Pixelation is a product of the Digital Age and at first appear out of place in a mural employing traditional portraiture and landscape panting. Nonetheless, the pixelation in our mural is a skillful work of transition.

What do you think of these two murals?

If you haven’t heard, Cookie’s Corner at the Second and Elm Streets NW is now open for business. It’s somewhat like the LeDroit Park Market, which is owned by the same person, but Cookie’s Corner will serve pizza in addition to sandwiches.

We, like others, are a tad disappointed with the inclusion of a curtain of bulletproof glass at the counter.  Then again, it’s easy to issue that criticism if you’re not the person who has to staff the counter.

We paid a visit on Tuesday and were informed that food service begins this weekend.

Zipping through the City Paper we came across this mention of two glamorous LeDroit Park residents— a peacock and a peahen— discovered on the 500 block of U Street.

“A person claiming to be the owner of the birds did not know they were illegal to own,” according to the Humane Society. The owner surrendered the birds, which were relocated to a sanctuary in Virginia.

At least it’s a more innocuous form of fowl play.

The trees at the LeDroit Park gate are budding and will soon bloom. It seems like only yesterday we were shoveling mountains of snow. In case you forgot all about that, here’s a cool video account of our recently departed winter: