The Boy Scout Memorial is a bronze and granite sculpture honoring the Boy Scouts of America. It is located on the White House Ellipse on the site of the 1937 Boy Scout Jamboree. Built without any public funds, Boy Scouts raised all the money for the…

John Ericsson (1803-1889), a Swedish-born engineer, made inventions and improvements critical to the Union's naval success in the United States Civil War. In particular, his design of the USS Monitor, the first Union ironclad ship, represented an…

Honoring Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones (1747-1742), this memorial lies just off the Mall in West Potomac Park. As Captain of the ship Bonhomme Richard during the Battle of Flamborough Head during the Revolutionary War, Jones famously uttered…

Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Summerhouse so that visitors to the Capitol could sit and rest as they toured the Capitol grounds. It contains intricate brickwork, several windows, wrought iron gates, and seating space for up to 22 people. The…

Mary Ann Hall’s brothel was the largest and most luxurious of more than 100 known bordellos in Washington during the 1800s. Hall’s three-story establishment stood where the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is today. According to Union…

The current zero milestone dates from the spring of 1923, replacing a temporary marker placed on this site in President's Park in 1919. Originally intended as a central point from which to measure highway distances throughout the United States, the…

Built between 1832 and 1833, the Lockkeeper's House was the home of the toll keeper who collected tolls from those traveling along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Extension. Some accounts report that a resident lockkeeper and his family of 13…

The National Sylvan Theater, located on the grounds of the Washington Monument, was the first federally funded theater in the United States. The modest stage hosts 10,000 spectators who come to the Mall to enjoy more than 100 events hosted here each…

Generations of children climbed on Uncle Beazley, a fiberglass triceratops, who lived on the National Mall in front of the Museum of Natural History. For a slow-moving dinosaur, Uncle Beazley is widely traveled. Before coming to the Mall in the…