Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0362Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a sunken pound surrounded by plants and bushes, a states is featured prominately at the edge of the water. Above the image "27" is printed, below the image "32262 A Corner of the Aztec Sunken Gardens, Pan-American Union Bldg., Washington, D. C." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
32262
A CORNER OF THE AZTEC SUNKEN GARDENS, PAN-AMERICAN UNION BUILDINGS, WASHINGTON, D. C.
It is largely owing to the genius of Major L'Enfant, in drawing up the original plans on Washington with a widely-spaced network of avenues laid diagonally over the checkerboard arrangement of north-and-south and east-and-west streets, that the city possesses such a large number of nooks and corers which are small, yet full of intimate and unique beauty. Such spots are to be found all over the city, in the circles, the tirangles and the other irregularly-shaped plots of ground where avenues and streets intersect, as well as in places which have been more deliberately chosen for park purposes. usually the cnetral feature is a state of some eminent American, a fountain or a memorial monument, or pherpahs merely an artistic grouping of well-trimmed shrubbery andbeds of many colored flowerss. But whatever may be tis adornment, such a spot is quite sure to be sufficiently attractive to draw the attention of the visitor and cause Washingtonians living in its neighborhood to utilize the benches around it as resting places when the shadows grow long in the summer afternoons. Probably in no other places so well patronized by the people as they are in Washington; in this as in a good many other respects the city is suggestive of the capitals of Europe, espeically Paris.
The particular beauty spot in which we are now standing happens to be in the Aztec Garden of the Pan-American Union Building. The walls of the pool and terrace, the statue and the vases which we see give the keynote to the spirit of aboriginal American art in which the place is concieved. The statue is a reproduction of a highly-prized Aztec stone carving of the god of Flowers, and is popularly known in Washington as the (unreadable) Indian.
Copyright by Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection