Embassy Row

I often overlook and take for granted the history and beauty of Washington DC. As part of my personal initiative to learn more about the community I live in, I went with a group on an Embassy Row walking tour; what was pitched as a walk to Revel in the architecture along Washington’s grandest boulevard.

The tour began just outside the Dupont Circle metro stop, in a location I am all too familiar, as Dupont Circle is a nightlife hub. Not surprisingly, within two minutes of leaving the Circle, I found myself in a wonderland of beautiful buildings nestled among embassies I have never seen before. I was figuratively, and I suppose literally, in a foreign land.

The tourguide, a petite toady female named Terry with a quirky sense of humor, paraded us down this nouveau-riche thoroughfare, speaking to its heyday and its transformation to the current status as the home to many foreign embassies.

The expression most overused on the walking tour was As you well know. Similarly, the expression that made me most feel like a blockhead was As you well know, because inevitably, I didn’t ever know the bit of knowledge shared in the second part of the sentence. Credit for my favorite expression on the walking tour goes to the late Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who declared If you don’t have anything nice to say, sit next to me.

Interestingly enough, many of these ornate works of architecture made the home-to-embassy transformation during the Great Depression, with the families' fall from riches. Oddly juxtaposed to these stories stood the Greek embassy, or compound as it is known, because of its magnitude. I’m ready to make a down-payment on the Greek embassy. Last I heard, they were in the market for some extra cash.