Last Saturday, I took my students on a trip to the National Arboretum. While walking the grounds (admittedly, this was my first trip there), I suddenly felt like I was living in Turkey again, where one frequently encountered architectural ruins from ancient Greece dotting the landscape. Seeing something like that here, in the states, was a little surreal.
Turns out the sandstone columns were quarried for use at the Capitol. However, architectural revisions rendered them superfluous. An arboretum benefactor, Earl Garrett, made it a mission in the early 80s to find a home for these columns and Russel Page (who was friendly with Garrett) sited them, shortly before his death.
More on the columns and their adjacent planting in the days to come.
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