The small cottage which resides here was built in 1835 for the lock keeper who allowed barges to transfer between the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal extension from Georgetown and the Washington City canal. It is now used by the National Park Service to store landscaping equipment.
The Constitution Gardens, its little lake and surrounding landscaped gardens, were built in 1976 to commemorate the signers of the Constitution. The park was originally planned to be much larger but was toned down because of the costs. Today, the gardens and its lake are home to dozens of mallard ducks.
The site of the Constitution Gardens was once the home to the Main Navy Buildings complex. These temporary office buildings were created in 1918 for use during World War I. They were occupied again in 1932 by the Bonus Marchers who rallied in Washington to get the bonus pay Congress had promised them. The buildings were enlarged in World War II and continued standing until 1971.
More information regarding the Constitution Gardens can be found on the National Park Service's Constitution Gardens Homepage.
On the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences stands the 21-foot-high sculpture of Albert Einstein. The work, completed in 1979 by sculptor Robert Berks, shows Einstein holding a paper with his famous mathematical formulas and contemplating 3,000 'stars' (steel studs embedded in granite) in the universe. Small children can often be seem climbing onto the statue's lap.
