Contemplative Court - A Place to Pause
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
After the History Galleries, most visitors need a moment, and the museum built one in. The Contemplative Court on the concourse level is a calm, nearly empty room where water falls like rain from a round opening in the ceiling into a pool below.
The walls carry words from figures in the struggle for freedom, and benches line the edges. There are no objects to study and nothing to read beyond those quotations. It is meant simply as a place to sit, breathe and take in what you have just walked through.
The sound of the water fills the space and softens the crowd noise. Take a seat before you head upstairs, where the mood changes completely: the community and culture galleries on Levels 3 and 4 celebrate sports, music, film and art.
More on Wikipedia: Civil rights movement
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square