Landscape Information
An original component of the L’Enfant Plan for the Federal City of Washington, which applied a Baroque system of radiating, mostly diagonal, avenues with a superimposed grid of orthogonal streets. Divided into four quadrants, emanating from the centrally located U.S. Capitol, the intersection of the diagonal and orthogonal streets creates a network of geometrically- and irregularly-shaped public spaces known as “reservations.” Reservation No. 153, Logan Circle, is a 1.8-acre park formed by the intersections of Rhode Island and Vermont Avenues and 13th and P Streets, NW.
As the Federal City expanded during the late nineteenth century, prominent businessmen and statesmen built the distinctive three- and four-story townhouses that still surround Logan Circle and line the avenues leading into it. Constructed mostly from 1875 to 1900, the facades are unified examples of late Victorian and Richardsonian architecture. The park-like setting of the circle features lawns, shade trees, bench-lined walks and, as its focal point, a bronze equestrian statue, dedicated in 1901, of Major General John Logan. A Representative and Senator from Illinois, and brief resident of Logan Circle, he was honored by Congress when it renamed the circle in his honor in 1930. Today, the area represents an almost unchanged example of a prosperous, late nineteenth-century residential neighborhood. The Logan Circle Historic District, including the circle and eight neighboring blocks, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
