Ward Circle

Ward Circle is a traffic circle at the intersection of Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues in Northwest, Washington, D.C. The circle, totaling 30,243 sq ft (2,809.7 m2), is owned and administered by the National Park Service through its Rock Creek Park unit.[1] On three sides is the campus of American University, while the fourth is occupied by the Nebraska Avenue Complex, home of the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. The circle is centered around a Statue of Artemas Ward, which was donated by Harvard University.[2] Ward Circle was constructed for the sculpture.[3]

Ward Circle
Ward Circle and Katzen Arts Center in 2006
NamesakeArtemas Ward
TypeTraffic circle
OwnerDistrict of Columbia
Maintained byDDOT, National Park Service
LocationWashington, D.C.
Coordinates38°56′16″N 77°05′09″W

Sculpted from bronze by Leonard Crunelle at a cost of $50,000,[3] the statue was unveiled on November 3, 1938[4] by Maj. Gen. Ward's great-great-great-granddaughter, Mrs. Lewis Wesley Feick.[5] It shows Ward, the first Commander-in-Chief in the Revolutionary War, atop a granite pedestal in a Continental Army uniform.[4]

Located on the west of the circle, the home of American University's School of Public Affairs was named for and is still sometimes known as Ward Circle — in 2017, the official name was changed to Kerwin Hall after former university president Cornelius M. Kerwin.[6][7] On the North side of the circle is American University's Katzen Arts Center.

General Ward's story: After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, it rapidly became apparent to the Patriot side of the colonists that they needed to, somehow, organize simple farmers with shotguns into a well-disciplined Army...to counter the trained,uniformed Redcoats the king would be sending to enforce dominance of the Tory side.

So the Patriots organized local "Committees of Safety", which togetherchose the popular Artemus Ward of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts as their Commander in Chief.

Ward chose Cambridge to be their headquarters,.. specifically inside the 'Hastings House' formerly owned by Harvard's food manager. (No longer extant, this house was located between today's Ames Hall of Harvard Law School and today's traffic underpass between that and Harvard Yard, to its south. It later became the home of the Oliver Wendell Holmes family, until its demolition by Harvard.)

It was there that 1,200 men gathered, the day before their march to fortify Bunker Hill via shovelling deep defensive ditches...the night before that now-famous Battle.

Shortly after, whebbthe Declaration of Indpendence was signed in Philadelphia, George Washington of Virginia was appointed Commander-in-Chief...and Ward, second-in-cpmmand.

Ward, who was in ill health, gladly welcomed Washington to Cambridge. After Washington and Knox forced the British to evacuate Biston. Washington moved South to future battles in New York,leaving Ward in charge of defending his North.

Today, there is NO statue of Ward in his Cambridge headquarters. The one hete in D.C. and anither in Ward, Pennsylvania are, apparently, the ONLY ones honoring our first commander...of what soon became the U.S.Army.

This traffic circle is very busy, with many accidents, sadly requiring the statue to be glimpsed only briefly...or photographed from afar. But you can remember him as you whiz by!

See also

References
  1. "Reservation List: The Parks of the National Park System, Washington, DC" (PDF). www.nps.gov. National Park Service; Land Resources Program Center; National Capital Region. August 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  2. "Details Drafted for Ward Circle". Washington Evening Star. March 13, 1933. p. 17.
  3. "Monuments, Statues and Memorials: Rock Creek Park". National Park Service. April 10, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  4. "General Artemas Ward (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  5. "General Artemas Ward Monument Historical Marker". hmdb.org. June 16, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  6. Samsel, Haley (June 27, 2017). "Ward Circle Building now named Kerwin Hall". The Eagle. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  7. Cassell, Jack C. (May 23, 2017). "Board of Trustees Spring 2017 Meeting Summary" (Press release). American University. Retrieved February 27, 2018.


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