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The two Haupt Fountains flank the entrance to the Ellipse at 16th Street N.W. and Constitution Avenue. When a visitor stands in the park and looks outward toward the White House, the fountains provide the image that Lady Bird Johnson envisioned with her capital district beautification project in the late 1960s. When she was First Lady, Mrs. Johnson wanted to “frame the White House in water.” The original plan was to install four fountains at the Ellipse. As part of this effort, publishing heiress and philanthropist Mrs. Enid Haupt donated two fountains in 1967. Mrs. Haupt’s generosity is also evident with the Haupt Gardens that cover the underground Museum of African Art and the Sackler Museum adjacent to the Smithsonian Castle. When viewed in the opposite direction, the fountains frame the Washington Monument.
The fountains, created by James Hunolt and Gordon Newell, are 18-foot square granite monoliths with rough exteriors and a polished top surface. The 55-ton slabs were quarried in Morton, Minnesota and have pink and white feldspar crystals interspersed with their black biotite banding that reveals the structure of the original rock. Geologists estimate that the stone is over 3.5 million years old. Large dishes in the center of the polished surface contain jets that create the fountain of water. A plaque near the fountains is inscribed “Gift of Enid Annenberg Haupt, 1968
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Washington , DC
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