If you find yourself on Capitol Hill in this heat wave, you can find some relief at a bit of a strange-looking piece of D.C. history.
“Oh yeah, it’s much cooler, outside it’s just scorching hot,” he said.
Julio Ndaogmo, who works nearby, told WTOP he goes there all the time and swears by it: “Look at the weather, it’s about 98 right now. Here it feels about 80.”
The Summerhouse is constructed in the form of an open hexagon. At its center is a bubbling fountain that people used to drink from — but not anymore. But it sure feels good to plunge your hands in it on hot days like we’re having.
Alexa Bautista, of Woodbridge, stopped by and dropped her hands into the cool bubbling fountain. “It feels amazing,” she said. Her friend Ariana Lopez thinks it’s a “really cool spot.”
“It’s like 80s outside, but in here about 20 degrees cooler,” she said.
In 1879, Congress appointed Frederick Law Olmsted, who also developed Central Park in New York, to make improvement to the Capitol grounds. The Architect of the Capitol’s website said Olmsted included the Summerhouse because visitors to the Capitol Building complained they could not find water or a place to rest during their visits.
The fountain in the center of the building originally provided drinking water piped from a spring. It has six small metal fittings around the fountain’s upper perimeter, with chains that are believed to have held drinking cups or ladles.
Now, the site has three drinking fountains connected to the city’s filtered water supply that provide drinking water. The central fountain is used only for display.
WTOP’s Diane Morris contributed to this report.
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