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Arlington Public Library

News

Eternal Truths

Artist: Lisa Fedon

Installed: 1999 – 2000
Materials: Bronze plate, perforated plate, and rod anchored into a brick wall, finished with tortoise-shell patina

EternalTruthsfedon

On permanent display at Central Library.

The sculpture was fabricated of bronze (plate, perforated plate, and rod). The finish is dark tortoise shell patina. All of the work was completed at Ms. Fedon’s studio in Pennsylvania and then transported to Arlington. The sections are anchored into the brick walls.

The artist, Lisa Fedon of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, was chosen through a competitive process by a jury of community representatives, local artists, and staff from the Library and the Public Art section of the Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division.

In her design, Ms. Fedon combined images taken by local high school photography students with her own photographic record of “life in Arlington.” The sculpture is funded by monies raised raised in the Campaign for Excellence, by the Friends of the Arlington Public Library, and by other contributions.

Learn more about this piece from Arlington Public Art.

Triumph of Literature

Artist: Alfred Ratinoff

Installed: 2000
Materials: Ceramic Tile

Created with ArtsWork students Jerryl Chandler, Brenda Keating, Julia Siple, Donna Xizo, Jerome Young and Jeannette Yue.

Triumph of Literature columbia pike

Permanently installed at the Columbia Pike Branch Library.

ArtsWork was a summer program for teens coordinated by Arlington Cultural Affairs from 2000 – 2003.

 

Howard Larson, Librarian and Volunteer (1930-2011)

Howard
Howard Larson, 2010

Howard Larson, retired Library staff member turned Library volunteer, died this fall, at the age of 81. 

Charles Howard Larson grew up in rural northeastern Indiana, attended the University of Indiana and served in the Army during the Korean War. After being discharged from the Army, Howard and his wife Nancy moved to Washington D.C., and then to Arlington, where they raised daughters Martha and Barbara. Howard worked several jobs before settling in at the District of Columbia Central Personnel Office, from which he retired.

Howard Larson, retired Library staff member turned Library volunteer, died this fall, at the age of 81. 

Charles Howard Larson grew up in rural northeastern Indiana, attended the University of Indiana and served in the Army during the Korean War. After being discharged from the Army, Howard and his wife Nancy moved to Washington D.C., and then to Arlington, where they raised daughters Martha and Barbara. Howard worked several jobs before settling in at the District of Columbia Central Personnel Office, from which he retired.

It was then that he started his second career, as a member of the staff at the Aurora Hills Branch Library. After almost 20 years with the Library, Howard retired - but instead of leaving the Library behind, he became a volunteer.

Four days a week, Howard came in at 9:30 a.m. to process the router - the list of holds, or items that need to be pulled from the shelves and sent to another library for customer pick up. During tax season, Howard was also in charge of ordering and coordinating all of the paper tax forms. His careful attention to everything he did, combined with long personal relationships with many Aurora Hills patrons, made Howard a well loved and valuable part of the Library's team.

Howard was also a member of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., where his dedication to good food and drink led to their upstairs kitchen being named after him, and where it was a point of pride for him to shovel their sidewalks after the unprecedented snowstorms of 2009 and 2010.

The staff at Aurora Hills remember Howard similarly for his love of good coffee, and miss sharing it with him four mornings a week.

Reed-Westover Project Earns Gold LEED Certification

The Reed-Westover facility, new home of the Westover Branch Library, has been awarded Gold Certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

In order to achieve a gold rating, buildings needs to receive 39 LEED points, through addressing issues of water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The Reed Westover facility received 40 points from the USGBC.

The project also preserved a portion of the original brick school building. Although not part of the final LEED rating determination, reusing existing structures is one of the “greenest” techniques available as it reduces construction waste and eliminates the need to use new construction materials.

Read more about this great green honor, and the design and building strategies that were utilized.

Tiffany Windows from the Abbey Mausoleum

From the Abbey Mausoleum to Westover

Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany

Installed: 2010
Created: 1930s, restored 2004
Material: Leaded stained glass

 

Permanently installed at the Westover Branch Library in 2010.

Many thanks to Cultural Affairs’ Public Art Program for helping the Library to procure the windows, as well as the previously installed granite finial. We hope that our patrons will enjoy seeing them!

Three other Tiffany windows rescued from the Abbey Mausoleum were installed at the Arlington Arts Center (now the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington) in 2004. From an Arlington County press release:

It was the type of discovery that makes an historian’s heart quicken. Three years ago, Arlington County staff rescued 13 stained glass windows from the Abbey Mausoleum, slated for demolition.

Upon closer examination, Cultural Affairs Division and the Historic Preservation Program staff discovered a signature pane on one of the windows that read “Louis C. Tiffany, NY” which appears to be authentic, based upon typical examples Tiffany’s signature from the period and consultation with several stained glass experts.

Today, three windows have been restored to their original beauty and installed at the Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd.

Twelve of the 13 original mausoleum’s windows had a simple geometric/floral composition. The 13th and largest window is religious themed, portraying Christ extending his hand in benediction. It is this window which contains the signature pane, which confirms, at minimum, this panel’s authenticity to the degree possible absent written documentation of the commission.

The window is dedicated to E. St. Clair Thompson, a wealthy Mason who was interred at the Abbey Mausoleum in 1933, and likely commissioned by his family, possibly with the rest of the geometric windows, in memoriam. The panel (as well as all the windows when originally removed from the Mausoleum in 2001) is severely damaged from years of vandalism and neglect and in storage until an appropriate mode of deaccessioning it may be determined.

The restoration and expansion of the historic Maury School for the Arlington Arts Center provided the windows with a new home. Three geometric windows were selected for restoration and installation at the Center and were successfully repaired with the use of matching glass fragments from the other Mausoleum windows that were damaged beyond repair. The windows now appear much as they did when they were first installed at the Abbey Mausoleum decades ago.

About Abbey Mausoleum
Built on a hillside overlooking Arlington Cemetery and the Potomac River in 1924, the Abbey Mausoleum was once a grand final resting-place for Washington, DC’s elite. The mausoleum, built by the United States Mausoleum Company from 1924 to 1926, was an impressive Romanesque style structure that neighbored Arlington National Cemetery and in 1942 was included within the grounds of Henderson Hall, the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters.

With its granite exterior, marble interior, and stained glass windows, the building was said to have resembled a cathedral. With the bankruptcy of the managing Abbey Mausoleum Corporation in the 1950s, the building fell victim to vandalism and neglect.

In 2000, the U.S. Navy gained ownership of the site, which it wished to redevelop. Based upon the mausoleum’s poor condition, the Navy decided to tear it down. They then assumed the enormous task of contacting the families of those interred at the mausoleum in order to relocate remains, a process which took several years. Arlington County was given the opportunity to salvage architectural features from the historic building, including the Tiffany windows.

Learn more from Arlington Public Art.

 

Abbey Mausoleum Finial

Finial Finds a New Home in Westover

Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany

granite finial abbey mausoleum Westover

Installed: 2010
Created: 1930s, restored 2004
Materials: Granite.

Permanently installed outside the Westover Branch Library.

What’s a finial? In architecture, it’s an ornament (carved in stone or wood, or cast in plaster) that is placed at the top of an arch. Ours was originally part of the old Abbey Mausoleum in Arlington.

Many thanks to Cultural Affairs’ Public Art Program for helping the Library to procure the finial, as well as the Tiffany windows.

 

About Abbey Mausoleum

Built on a hillside overlooking Arlington Cemetery and the Potomac River in 1924, the Abbey Mausoleum was once a grand final resting-place for Washington, DC’s elite. The mausoleum, built by the United States Mausoleum Company from 1924 to 1926, was an impressive Romanesque style structure that neighbored Arlington National Cemetery and in 1942 was included within the grounds of Henderson Hall, the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters.

With its granite exterior, marble interior, and stained glass windows, the building was said to have resembled a cathedral. With the bankruptcy of the managing Abbey Mausoleum Corporation in the 1950s, the building fell victim to vandalism and neglect.

In 2000, the U.S. Navy gained ownership of the site, which it wished to redevelop. Based upon the mausoleum’s poor condition, the Navy decided to tear it down. They then assumed the enormous task of contacting the families of those interred at the mausoleum in order to relocate remains, a process which took several years. Arlington County was given the opportunity to salvage architectural features from the historic building, including the Tiffany windows.

 



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