Another Random Marker

This one sits, buried in the bushes on a triangular shaped piece of neutral ground, between the Ellipse and the White House. This one is "In memory of John Saul, Horticulturist, born Castlemartyr, County Cork, Ireland, December 25, 1819, died Washington D.C. May11, 1897."

"Who was he?" you ask, other than a horticulturist? He was "Founding Member and First Chairman, Parking Commission of the District of Columbia, 1872-1897."

In 1872, before the automobile, parking had become so bad in the district that they needed a Parking Commission. Sine the founding member was the horticulturist who was, at one time, in charge of landscaping the touristy areas of D.C., I'm guessing that people were parking their buggies on the gardens and lawns of the National Mall. The horses might have been eating the flowers and trees. He had to step away from his seed business for a moment, and do something -- anything! -- to stop the destruction of the green space.

Then, at some point, someone thought to put up a marker to him, complete with his image.

Actually, just before I stumbled upon this marker, I had been thinking how nice green spaces are in cities. I grew up in a place that have very few public green spaces. Every inch of land had to be private property, "improve" by concrete or construction, or both. Manhattan amazed me with its use of parks. Parks that people actually used because they were so nice. Green spaces in cities can be so unexpected and releiving. I was thinking that D.C. has this here, at the Mall and in other places as well; and then, this.