Sherman Circle is an urban park and

traffic circle A roundabout is a type of circular intersection (road), intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The N ...

in the

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

neighborhood of

Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex ...

at the intersection of Illinois Avenue, Kansas Avenue, 7th Street, and Crittenden Street NW. The circle is named in honor of

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

general

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

. Administered by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service. In addition to the park proper, the Rock Cr ...

unit, Sherman Circle (U.S. Reservation 369) together with four surrounding triangular parks (U.S. Reservations 436, 438, 447, and 448) covers and is considered by the

a "cultural landscape." What became Sherman Circle and the four surrounding reservations were first documented in 1889 as part of the original plat of Petworth. It was not until 1923 that the five reservations were created. The design by landscape architect Irving W. Payne called for installing concrete walkways and planting trees, shrubs, grass, and perennials to reinforce the individual sites' interconnectedness and their connections to the neighborhood. In April 1926, the Office of the Public Buildings and Public Parks graded and seeded the circle, which was also being considered as a possible location to relocate the

Bartholdi Fountain The Bartholdi Fountain is a monumental public fountain, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who later created the Statue of Liberty. The fountain was originally made for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is ...

. Sidewalks were added in 1929. In 1931, there was some discussion in the local press about moving the

General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument The General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument is an equestrian statue of American Civil War Major General William Tecumseh Sherman located in Sherman Plaza, which is part of President's Park in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The selection ...

from

President's Park President's Park, located in Downtown Washington, D.C., encompasses the White House and includes the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the Treasury Building, and grounds; the White House Visitor Center; Lafayette Square; and The Ellipse. Pr ...

to Sherman Circle to allow for the widening of E Street NW, but no action to move the monument was ever taken. During the planning of the

Washington Metro The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,Google Books search/preview

in the late 1960s, Sherman Circle was briefly considered as a location for a Petworth stop on a line that would have been routed from Columbia Heights under Kansas Avenue NW en route to Fort Totten. In 2012, 21 pedestrian lamps were added to the circle.

References

Squares, plazas, and circles in Washington, D.C. Streets in Washington, D.C.

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

Petworth (Washington, D.C.) {{WashingtonDC-geo-stub

See also

References