Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: 18th Street

In 1878, the Social Art Club, founded in 1875 as a literary society, moved from 1525 Chestnut Street to 1811 Walnut Street, the first house built on Rittenhouse Square by James Harper in the 1840s (with the marble portico). To celebrate its move, the organization changed its name to the Rittenhouse Club. Founding member Frank Furness redesigned the building, covering the red brick facade with white marble. In 1890, the club purchased 1813 Walnut Street and connected the two buildings' interiors. By 1900, the Rittenhouse Club was one of the city’s most fashionable retreats for men, described by one guide as a "junior ultra swell club." The author Henry James, who praised it for its "large friendliness, ordered charm and perfect peace," used to sit at a window and view this Square with his worldly eye. The club – long a bastion of white, male, Anglo-Saxon privilege, lost its clubhouse but continues to exist as an "inner club" of the Acorn Club, a women’s club – itself a bastion of white, female, Anglo-Saxon privilege. The building that formerly housed the club was recently demolished except for its facade, which now fronts a new high-rise condominium.

Facing Rittenhouse Square on the northeast corner is the former home of financier Alexander Van Rensselaer. It is one of the few splendid old mansions to survive demolition.The house was completed in 1901 at the corner of 18th and Walnut, it is the work of the famous Boston architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns. In 1898, Alexander Van Rensselaer had the good sense, and apparently the pedigree, to marry the recently widowed daughter of Anthony Drexel. The former Sara Drexel Fell is said to have paid for the house herself, hence the appellation Fell-Van Rensselaer house. It exemplifies the "Beaux Arts" style of architecture as applied to private residences. It is a beautifully balanced composition, erudite in its detail, gracious in scale and proportion, and totally appropriate to the lives of the people who built it. Besides finance, Mr. Van Rensselaer was a founder and longtime President of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as a Board President of Drexel Institute. His wife died in 1929, he followed her in 1933, after which the house remained shut throughout the Depression. In 1942 the estate finally rented it to the Pennsylvania Athetic Club rowing association. No doubt overjoyed to at last get warm bodies in the place, they probably took whatever the club could pay for rent. Penn Athletic’s tenancy wasn’t long term, however, and the house was soon empty again. Most recently, the building has been subdivided into luxury condominiums. The Alison Building next door contains the offices of the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund, the oldest life insurance company in the world (1717). Adjacent to it, at 1811 Walnut Street and also facing the Square, is the Rittenhouse Club, another of the city’s old and exclusive clubs. The author Henry James used to sit at a window and view this Square, too, with his worldly eye.

"O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears. America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea."

Santeria is a religion of the West African diaspora. It is based on native African traditions that were brought to the Americas by African slaves. Native American beliefs, Catholicism and the experiences of slavery merged with these African religions to form what they are today. Santeria developed in Cuba, although it can be found in many countries today, primarily spread through emigration from Cuba. The orishas are the gods of Santeria. In Yoruba mythology, Yemaya is the mother goddess, patroness of women, especially pregnant women. According to many stories, she was present at the beginning of the world and all life comes from her, including the Orishas. She is the owner of the waters and the sea. Her colours are blue and white like the waters. In particular, she is the mother of Chango, one of the most popular Orishas of the Yoruba pantheon. He is the Orisha of thunder, lightning, justice, manly strength and passion, and the fire dance. The owner of thr Bata drums, he represents dance and music, and symbolizes the joy of life, the intensity of life, male beauty, passion, intelligence and wealth. His colours are red and white.

Near the corner of 18th Street N.W. and Adams Mill Road (and now overlooking a Zipcar parking lot) stands a three-story mural titled "A People without Murals is a Demuralized People." Originally painted in 1977 by Chilean brothers and artists "Caco" (Carlos) and Renato Salazar (the first of whom studied at the Corcoran and founded the now-defunct Centro de Arte organization), the work is touted as one of the oldest and largest of DC’s few remaining Latino murals, the last beacon of a wider Latino artistic movement in the city. Informed by the artists’ interest in Picasso at the time, the cubist accents render the piece at once vivid and demure, simplistic and perplexing. "The flat, plain colors with thick outlines gave the figures more strength and, [like] poster art of the 70s, a more powerful view at [a] distance," says Caco in an e-mail regarding his original design. The geometric shapes and straightforward coloring were a practical decision, too. As the original Centro de Arte team worked with area youth to complete the piece, "Quality control was difficult … I had to develop a quick technique," explains Caco. The composition is divided into three distinct but complementary pockets of activity: one along the bottom row, depicting community festivities; a second in the upper left corner – home life in greater detail; and a third in the upper right corner, consisting of a dark and suspicious trio of figures. On the far left, a large, white, ghost-like figure (a Big Brother-esque Cyclops according to The Washington Post; the Holy Spirit according to Pineda) seems to hold the three pockets in place, balancing the images as the eye follows the "yellow brick road" that connects them all. Exposed as it was to the elements, the mural deteriorated during the twenty-five years following its creation. Through the support of the DC government and various community organizations, funding was secured to restore it over the course of three weeks in the summer of 2005, using latex and spray paints. Graffiti artist Juan Pineda repaired the wall and repainted the work.