One day last year, I was out for a walk along Connecticut Avenue. This building, 2101 Connecticut Avenue, is a mile or so from my house. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed it in the six years I’ve lived in the area.
Developed by Harry Bralove (who also built D.C.’s Omni Shoreham Hotel) and Edward Ernst and designed by George T. Santmyers, it’s a large, fancy, old apartment building built in 1927. So the building’s been there a good, long time. I’d seen it. But I’d never seen it. Until that day…
…when I looked up.
At first I thought they were aliens. Then maybe evil sorcerers dressed in Ali Babian outfits.
But then I thought…
Are those…? Could they be?
Yup. Devil gargoyles. (Further research suggests some of them may be decorative structural supports known as atlantes.)
It amuses me tremendously that the Chinese embassy sits just across the street, well in range of those boulders being lofted by the devils. It’s even funnier that their proximity is purely coincidental.
Ahhh!! Those are awesome!!
Comment by Jenn 06.06.09 @ 6:55 am@Jenn: Aren’t they cool?!
Comment by soe 06.07.09 @ 12:26 amOh, so that’s what they are! I’ve gone back and forth as to whether they were gargoyles of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” weird big-headed aliens, or bakers with floofy hats. Devils with giant rocks never occurred to me. Thanks for investigating!
Comment by Sarah 06.07.09 @ 8:54 pm@Sarah: My pleasure! I was surprised by how little I could find on them online. I do like the idea, though, of someone constructing a building and adding floofy-hatted bakers to the roof. I would have to move in right away!
Comment by soe 06.08.09 @ 2:18 pmThese aren’t atlantes. There are, loosely, gargoyles. You won’t find much about them online – except at my blog which references a mention of them in a book. (Not everything is on the internet.) See http://terrymurray.blogspot.com/2008/07/gargoyles-of-washington-dc.html
Comment by Terry Murray 06.22.09 @ 11:11 pm@Terry: Thanks for the clarification and for the link to your site. I think it’s great you were able to get up on the roof for some close-ups. I, too, had seen references to the book you cited, but was feeling too lazy to traipse down to the library to seek it out.
Comment by soe 06.24.09 @ 3:08 pmI had the exact same experience you described last week, and I’d passed that building hundreds of times. They look much less evil from the sidewalk–I thought maybe they were women carrying baskets. Thanks for taking the pictures; it’s a really cool building.
Comment by stephen 07.19.09 @ 5:43 pm@Stephen: I agree that they’re much more imposing when seen from close up (or, in my case, through a zoom lens). Thanks for stopping by!
Comment by soe 07.21.09 @ 12:59 am