Roadside oddities38.9109° N, 77.0341° W
Washington, DC
An ever-changing front-yard installation stages dolls in elaborate seasonal scenes that have become a neighborhood landmark.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Roadside oddities in District of Columbia
Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Roadside oddities45
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities38.8913° N, 77.0299° W
Washington, DC
Horatio Greenough's seated George Washington depicts the first president in a toga-like classical pose that startled 19th-century viewers.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9335° N, 77.0007° W
Washington, DC
The enormous basilica contains dozens of chapels, domes, mosaics, crypt-level spaces, and stylistic variations under one roof.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9172° N, 77.0288° W
Washington, DC
The exterior of Ben's Chili Bowl carries a large mural honoring prominent Black cultural figures, turning a restaurant wall into a public-art destination.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities38.8898° N, 77.0097° W
Washington, DC
A little-known Capitol storage space preserves ornate leftover floor tiles from 19th-century renovations; access is not part of ordinary public wandering and should be treated as special-access only.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.8997° N, 77.0221° W
Washington, DC
A pedestrian scramble at 7th and H Streets lets people cross in every direction at once and is decorated with Chinatown-themed street details.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8804° N, 77.0120° W
Washington, DC
A former church covered in large-scale murals and used as an arts venue, making it one of the most visually unusual buildings in Southwest D.C.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8989° N, 77.0377° W
Washington, DC
Fossilized remains of an ancient bald-cypress swamp have been found beneath downtown D.C.; modern bald cypresses in Lafayette Square mark the strange buried landscape.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8898° N, 77.0090° W
Washington, DC
A small marble compass in the U.S. Capitol Crypt marks the traditional meeting point of D.C.'s four quadrants; it is reached on authorized Capitol visits.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.9376° N, 76.9845° W
Washington, DC
Beneath the Franciscan Monastery are reconstructed Holy Land shrines and catacomb-like passages that make this one of D.C.'s strangest underground religious spaces.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.9094° N, 77.0574° W
Washington, DC
A Georgetown iron fence has long been identified as being made from recycled gun barrels, though the exact origin remains debated.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities38.8877° N, 77.0472° W
Washington, DC
A sharp-eyed visitor can find the image of a German shepherd worked into the memorial's mural wall among the service scenes.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8943° N, 77.0214° W
Washington, DC
Behind plexiglass inside the Indiana Avenue Potbelly is a 19th-century open-cage elevator, long misidentified as an 1850s Otis but still a genuine antique machine.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9137° N, 77.0360° W
Washington, DC
The monumental Scottish Rite headquarters combines Egyptian, classical, and Masonic symbolism in one of D.C.'s most imposing esoteric buildings.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.9128° N, 76.9433° W
Washington, DC
A surviving tidal-marsh landscape and historic water-garden complex filled with lotus and water lilies inside the city limits.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8895° N, 77.0410° W
Washington, DC
Two small 'Kilroy Was Here' engravings hide within the World War II Memorial as nods to one of the war's most famous pieces of soldier graffiti.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8909° N, 77.0172° W
Washington, DC
I. M. Pei's East Building forms a 19.5-degree marble prow so sharp and tactile that architecture fans have turned the corner into a minor pilgrimage site.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8867° N, 77.0042° W
Washington, DC
Millions of physical catalog cards survive inside the Library of Congress as a monumental pre-digital information system; public access varies by area and tour.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.8968° N, 77.0263° W
Washington, DC
At Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership, a spiraling tower of thousands of books symbolizes the enormous literature written about Abraham Lincoln.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9317° N, 77.0012° W
Washington, DC
A quiet devotional garden tucked beside the Basilica offers a small, overlooked landscape of Marian sculpture and plantings.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8978° N, 77.0175° W
Washington, DC
Its colossal Great Hall and giant Corinthian columns make the former Pension Building itself as unusual as the architecture exhibits inside.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.9306° N, 77.0707° W
Washington, DC
Special tower climbs can reach the National Cathedral's bell room and spaces normally unseen by casual visitors.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.9419° N, 77.0656° W
Washington, DC
A clone descended from a clone of Isaac Newton's famous apple tree grows on the former National Bureau of Standards campus.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8937° N, 77.0278° W
Washington, DC
A National Park Service observation tower rises above the Old Post Office and contains the Bells of Congress, with free elevated views over central Washington.
- Access
- Open to visitors