To counteract the AC, I sat for a few minutes in the SW Courtyard. After a very peaceful sit, I walked out and saw that the doors to the NW Courtyard were open! I have never seen this before. I walked in and saw this glorious courtyard, with its fountain flowing into a pool lined with red flowers. I was just thinking how the SW Courtyard could use some landscape maintenance, especially now in comparison to the NW Courtyard!
According to the Library of Congress:
According to the Library of Congress:
Since 1897, three of the four interior courtyards of the Jefferson Building have been filled. The east courtyards have become bookstacks; the southeast bookstack was completed in 1910, the northeast in 1927. The northwest courtyard is occupied by two special structures: the Coolidge Auditorium, built in 1925 for chamber music recitals and a gift of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and the Whittall Pavilion, given to the Library in 1938 by Gertrude Clarke Whittall to house five Stradivarius instruments she donated to the Library. A plaque commemorating Mrs. Coolidge and her gift is outside the entrance to the Coolidge Auditorium, on the ground floor. The names of four great composers--Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms--are inscribed on the outside wall of the Whittall Pavilion, above the windows and the stairs leading down to the interior courtyard.You can see the NW courtyard through the window to the right of the men's bathroom at the ground floor entrance to the Jefferson Building. Experiencing it in person is really wonderful.
