D&C's DC: Elton Cemetery

The abandoned, neglected cemetery is something some folks think of with delight, something to explore, an adventure waiting to happen. It's either a great spot for sketching or a great spot for black magic rituals, and everything in between.

Recent, I visited Elton Cemetery, a forgotten burying ground that's the only remnant of the long-gone town of Triadelphia, which now lies drowned under the waters of the Triadelphia reservoir in Maryland.

 Elton Cemetery is small and decaying; I first visited it about 10-15 years ago and recall more stones standing than there are now. Go visit if you want to take some fun photos or some notes for a scene in your story.

Elton Cemetery is located in the Triadelphia Recreation Area. If you're in DC, take Georgia Avenue north, through Silver Spring, Wheaton, Olney, and Brookeville. (Brookeville is a charming village worth exploring; park the car on a side street and take a stroll.) Once you pass the intersection with New Hampshire Avenue (Rt 650), turn right on Triadelphia Lake Road (signs will point to the recreation area). The road goes sharply downhill to the boat ramp and parking for the recreation area; don't go there. Instead, just before it dips, there's a parking area on the right. Park there and follow the trail, which leads to Elton Cemetery.

You can also find it by taking Rt 97 south from I-70. If so, I still recommend going south to Brookeville to look around. Great area.
 

This abandoned garden store is along Georgia Ave, south of Elton Cemetery. I couldn't help but stop and take a photo.

This is one of those hidden areas of the U.S. that may disappear in future years...go visit if you can.

D&C's DC: The House of the Temple

The House of the Temple is a huge Masonic temple in DC that is the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction. Completed in 1915, the building apes the appearance of that Wonder of the Ancient World, the Tomb of Mausolus, and is full of berserk and beautiful Egyptian-influenced architecture. This building is one of those great lesser-known tourist spots, and they welcome visitors and encourage cameras. I've visited it twice and both times found a great relaxed chummy welcome there, a contrast to the baroque and very formal atmosphere there.

A sphinx in front of the building.

From the rear.

And now a bunch of photos of the interior...just feast your eyes on that sumptuousness.

The Temple will be featured in the upcoming film version of The Lost Symbol; my guide seemed pleasantly surprised when I dismissed Dan Brown's books as poorly written (my honest feeling) and expressed my skepticism of conspiracy theories. We did have a fun tour and my guide had an irreverent sense of humor that was most appealing. It's gorgeous but also unreal, like you stumbled on the set of an old movie set in Atlantis, and you keep expecting to see Lionel Atwill or Boris Karloff to come around the corner and demand you as a sacrifice.

The House of the Temple is open for tours Monday thru Thursday; it's closed Fridays and weekends. A small admission is charged, unless you're a Mason and then admission is free. It's an architectural marvel and worth checking out when you visit the nation's capitol.

D&C's DC: The Two Titanic Memorials

About a month ago I attended a picnic sponsored by SASI (The Society for the Advancement of the Steamtopian Ideal), which was fairly steampunk/Victorian/jazz age gathering. It was honoring the sinking of the Titanic, and we actually had a brief memorial ceremony that included dropping flowers in the channel. It was actually a very nice time; the folks were very friendly and charming, and I can't wait to have another opportunity for a get-together.

But the main thing for this blog was that the picnic was held at the Women's Titanic Memorial, located along DC's waterfront. It's something not a lot of people are aware of; a number of locals I've spoken to were unaware there was a Titanic memorial.

Designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Witney, it was funded by $1 donations from over 25,000 women in America. Authorized by Congress in 1917 and completed in 1918, it was actually mothballed for a while because of delays in developing the location. It was finally erected in 1931 at the foot of New Hampshire Ave, along the Potomac River, but was dismantled and moved 35 years later to make room for the Kennedy Center. It ended up where it is now, at one end of Washington Channel Park.

It was specifically meant as a memorial to the men who gave their lives so the women and children could get in the lifeboats, and funded and designed by women in a gesture of thanks to their memory. It's actually quite lovely, and as is obvious, James Cameron used the pose in the movie.

I heard comments from another attendee about another memorial that was on the Ellipse, so I decided to do some detective work and track it down. And last weekend, I found it.

Behold the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain! Located on the northern part of the Ellipse, near the South Lawn of the White House, this is easily a very overlooked memorial that I think most folks don't even know is there, or if they do notice it, think it's just a decorative fountain with no real meaning. But there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

Designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French, it memorializes two men, Maj. Archibald Butt and Francis Davis Millet.

Archie Butt, seen above, was a former journalist who joined the Army and became a distinguished soldier, fighting valiantly in the Spanish-American War and becoming a top military aide to Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. He wrote several novels and was a popular figure in Washington government and social circles. By all reports he was an affable, polite man, overflowing with charm and personality, and who won friends easily. I've read that he was something of a dandy, with a keen appreciation for art and antiques.

This is Francis Davis Millet, who was a noted artist and muralist. He did many murals in public buildings around the country, and was also the superintendent of decoration at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He is credited with inventing the first form of spray paint, and was involved in a number of world's fairs. He was also a writer and journalist.

This martial figure honors Butt....

...and this sombre muse honors Millet.


Butt and Millet were, at the very least, best friends and roommates. They lived together (in a mansion at 2000 G St NW), entertained together, traveled together. Butt was a lifelong bachelor; from what I was able to find out, Millet was married, but it was in name only and the two lived apart.

I know what some of you are wondering...so, were they?

It's hard to be 100% sure, but the considered opinion of many modern historians is that Butt and Millet were lovers. Millet was known to have had affairs with other men; Butt had something of a reputation for being popular with the ladies but it turns out that he was just polite and charming and not a lothario by any means. One website I found said that maybe they weren't actually a couple, but the historian was satisfied that both men were gay.

But still, they were very popular in DC, which may have had a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" attitude toward bachelor gentlemen who lived and went about together. Popular enough to have friends finance this memorial and petition Congress to have it erected on the Ellipse in 1913.

Butt had been caught between Roosevelt and Taft in political and personal issues, and his health had suffered as a result. His trip to Europe with Millet was meant as a recuperative holiday with a quick side trip to Rome, where Butt delivered a letter from Taft to the pope. They were on their return voyage on the Titanic when...well, you know what happened. Millet was last seen helping women and children aboard the lifeboats; his body was recovered and he was buried in East Bridgewater, MA. Stories differ on Maj. Butt; some say he was heroically loading the women and children as well, but more authoritative sources say that he merely sat in the smoking lounge, calmly watching everything, and making no move to save himself. His body was never recovered; in DC there's a cenotaph for him in Arlington National Cemetery and a plaque in the National Cathedral, and a bridge is named after him in Augusta, GA.

When I visited the fountain, tourists were passing it by, not even noticing it. The men's names and dates are carved on it; the Titanic is not mentioned. I snapped my photos, laughing at the birds splashing in the water. I knew nothing of their personal lives until I researched them later that night. Then I was shaking my head sadly at the irony...at a time when same-sex marriage is a huge debate, when mere acknowledgement of a gay relationship is cause for controversy, there's been a fountain bubbling quietly for almost a century that honors at least one gay man, and perhaps even a gay couple, who died heroes.

When you visit DC, find time to stop by, reflect on how far we have and haven't come as a culture, maybe leave some flowers, and go home to think.

D&C's DC: A Visit to Hillwood

It's been entirely too long since I've done one of these, so I'm going to make up for some lost time.

The Hillwood Estate is one of the more interesting, off-the-beaten path sites in DC. It was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune, founder of General Foods, and with one-time husband E. F. Hutton the developer of Birdseye Frozen Foods. When she was married to Joseph Davies, the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union during 1937 and '38, she lived in Russia and used her sizable fortune (she was, after all, the wealthiest woman in America) to purchase tons of Imperial Russian jewelry and treasures that would have otherwise been destroyed and melted down. These treasures were later kept in her DC home Hillwood, where she lived from 1955 to her death in 1973; with rare foresight, Miss Post (she resumed her maiden name after her fourth and last divorce) intended her home to be a museum after her death, and had hired a private curator and security experts.

It's a fascinating spot to visit, located in a ritzy residential neighborhood, very quiet and not the easiest place to reach by public transport (but it is possible). Security is very strict, and unsurprisingly so; the treasures are staggering and include a crown and a Faberge egg, and photography is forbidden inside the museum. (You'll have to check out the official website, or visit the place yourself.

But, when I was there, I took copious photos of the grounds and gardens, which are quite impressive...

Outside the main building.

An intriguing urn outside the house.

The equally intriguing entrance to the gardens. That ivied arch promises so much...

Perhaps the most aristocratic, and Frenchest, sphinx you'll ever see.

Inside the parterre garden, very French and very formal.

Diana! Goddess of the hunt! And probably a reflection on Post's independent spirit.

Some of the lovely roses.

 Post's ashes reside in the base of that pillar, which is planted in the middle of the rose garden.

 An honest-to-goodness putting green!

 Post's "Friendship Walk" concludes in an overlook with four pleasant statues.

 The Japanese Garden occupies a steep hillside; this is looking down from the top.

 A pagoda in the Japanese garden, which also has quite a few Chinese influences. Asian garden, perhaps? Is "Oriental" too out of fashion?

 Kwan Yin peeks out from the Japanese garden.

 Ack! A lotus pond! Look out for murders!

 This path leads to Post's private pet cemetery.

 A most distinguished-looking lion overlooks the Lunar Lawn, the site of many glamorous garden parties in Hillwood's heyday.

 Through the humid summer haze, you can just make out the top of the Washington Monument from the Lunar Lawn. An interesting reminder of the ideals of democracy, as seen from the portico of someone who lived like royalty.

 An interesting astrological lamp near the Lunar Lawn.

 And there's a greenhouse, full of orchids....

...and bonsai!

Touring Hillwood leaves one with all sorts of odd feelings. Post was criticized for taking so much of Russian cultural heritage out of the country, but you can't argue that by doing so she was preserving it for future generations. (Many priceless Russian treasures are now undoubtedly irrevocably lost, unless sitting in the vault of some Bondian collector villain.) And while I'm no fan of the Bolsheviks, it's easy for me to understand why there was a revolution when I see the wealth and glitter the upper classes bedecked themselves in, paid for with the sweat and blood of the workers. Of course, if it wasn't for the wealthy patrons, would great art exist? One of the great unanswerable questions. And while Post lived like royalty, she gave freely to many charities and intended from the start to leave Hillwood to the public as a museum.

Hillwood is still a great place to visit; they actively reach out to the local gay community (using the slogan "Where fabulous lives!") and have a number of gay-oriented events, as well as hosting other eccentric get-togethers, like the Seersucker Social that was organized by the local group Dandies & Quaintrelles. Admission is $15 for adults but when you consider the value of the collection that's actually pretty cheap.

When I wrote about Tudor Place, I compared it to a gracefully-aging old lady, clinging to her ways but keeping pace with the times. Hillwood is an exuberant grand dame who practically overwhelms you with her fabulousness, and leaves you feeling a bit enervated but also quite impressed. Both these ladies are worthy of a call when you're in town.

The Phantom Recital: The Ruins of Ys

Our European holiday continues, and we're making a stopover on the wild coasts of Brittany.

Our group has checked into an inn in a fishing village, and some go to the beach, some ramble the town, and I'm taking off to sketch on the headlands, and anyone who wants to join me is welcome.

In the evening, as we gather in the inn's dining room to share experiences, a well-dressed gentleman comes by. Oh, we are the Americans he's heard about? He lives in the mansion near the town, won't we do him the honor of being his guests tomorrow night? We accept, enthusiastically.

We dress in the best we brought with us, and the evening is lavish. Wonderful food, good conversation, our host and his household are gracious and welcoming. He tells us legends of Ys, a sort of French Atlantis, a city off the coast that was flooded when a mysterious stranger convinced the princess Dahut to open the gates of the dike that kept the sea away from the city. That stranger was the Devil, and the opened gates destroyed the city...

Our host invites us into the parlor where he plays the piano for us...



Strange visions flood our minds; we all see sunken cities, artifacts of the long-deceased lying around, the skeletons of ancient ships, artifacts from all over the ancient world. It's a strange, surreal experience.

Would we like to go on his yacht in the morning? Why, yes, of course, we all say....and what adventures await us?

Megaliths at Carnac, in Brittany.

Brittany is on my list of Places To Go, and everything I've read is that it's a lovely place with a folklore and culture uniquely its own. Ys is a real legend, one that's been recycled and retold numerous times, and inspired not only the Debussy piece above, but also an entire opera by Edouard Lalo. I've always been intrigued by the stories and folklore of the region; every so often you can come across a piece by Anatole la Braz, who was a doctor who collected Brittany's bizarre folklore, which makes for vivid and memorable ghost stories. Breton music has all the familiar elements of Celtic music, but with its own twists. And last year, doing a little research, I found out my family name may very well be Breton as well. This may be Fate.