Sheridan-Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project
The Sheridan-Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project began in 2003 when a group of Sheridan-Kalorama neighbors answered the call of Cultural Tourism DC www.culturaltourismdc.org to form a committee to take on a challenging task: the restoration of the sixteen abandoned police and fire call boxes in our neighborhood. The Sheridan-Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project is part of a larger Washington, DC citywide call box artistic and historic restoration effort initiated by Cultural Tourism DC.
Go to What Is A Call Box? under the pull down menu for Call Boxes and Themes to learn more about these 19th century public phone boxes that were used by citizens to summon the fire department or by police on the beat to contact their precinct house. The call boxes became obsolete with the advent of the 911 system in the 1970’s.
The objective of the Sheridan-Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project was to create a “mini-museum” in each call box, combining local history and public art into a thematic journey through the history of Washington’s Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood, while highlighting some of the fascinating people who made their home here. As you explore this site, you will see that Sheridan-Kalorama residents included renowned architects and artists, former U.S. Presidents and Supreme Court Justices, and fascinating “women of influence.”
The results of the work are on daily display. The restored Sheridan- Kalorama Call Boxes invite all who pass by to pause and savor their evocative art – from original paintings to sculpture – while gaining an enhanced appreciation for local history. These once-abandoned call boxes have now become iconic sentinels for all that is contained within the rich tradition of Sheridan-Kalorama’s splendid history. Writing in the August 2, 2009 Washington Post, Philip Kennicott remarked that “few of the completed call boxes can compete with [those of] Sheridan-Kalorama.”
When the Sheridan-Kalorama Call Box Restoration Project was completed, over 100 neighborhood donors celebrated at a March, 2007 reception hosted at the residence of one of our Sheridan-Kalorama neighbors, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the United States. www.thaiembdc.org The Embassy occupies a restored mansion directly across the street from two restored police and fire call boxes.
We invite you to learn more about the history of Sheridan-Kalorama, view the art and a description of the theme of each of the sixteen call boxes, learn more about the featured artists, help us sustain the project, and find links to other Sheridan-Kalorama resources.