Sculpture Garden National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art is a government museum, a gift from Andrew Mellon, interestingly enough it is not a part of the Smithsonian. It is an independent museum. It is free of charge like nearly all DC museums.  Across the side street is the sculpture garden and fountain.  In the winter the fountain is converted to an ice skating rink.  The Greek revival building in the background is the National Archives.

This is a great area for an evening stroll, it is down hill from Gallery Place, or Navy Memorial in the metro lines.  Gallery place, is named for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, a wonderful space that also contains a museum of contemporary American Art.  It is an amazing space, it served a hospital during the Civil War and among other things Walt Whitman volunteered there reading to the patients and writing letters for them.