Meridian Hill Park

This guide to Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. follows stonecarver John Joseph Earley, who inherited his father's workshop in 1906 and was hired to make plain concrete look like carved Italian stone when the park's budget left no room for real marble. You'll hear about his method of mixing colored pebbles into wet concrete and scraping the surface by hand before it set, and the years of failed tests through 1915 and 1916 before a full-size trial finally convinced the park's overseers. Run your hand along the wall behind you and you can still feel the pebbles his crews exposed one section at a time.