2011

Behold the hippopotamus! We laugh at how he looks to us, And yet in moments dank and grim, I wonder how we look to him. Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus! We really look all right to us, As you no doubt delight the eye Of other hippopotami. - Ogden Nash

When they were replaced in the 1970’s by the new 911 system, the ornate, wrought-iron emergency call boxes that still grace the streets of the District were an unwanted remnant of old infrastructure. Too heavy and burdensome to remove, they became increasingly derelict until many of them were weird windows on the city. Devoid of any mechanism or purpose, they were like faceless clocks, or little streetside shrines with no idols inside. Since 2002, however, the "Art on Call" project, created by Cultural Tourism D.C., has turned 122 of the 1860s-era fire and police call boxes into public pedestals for local art and quirky history markers. (Washington Post, August 2, 2009)