Arguably obscure monuments in Washington, D.C.
The shrine to Samuel C.F. Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy, was a gift from the American Institute of Homeopathy. It was erected in 1900 and sits off one of Washington’s busy traffic circles. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of automobiles pass by that memorial every day and probably have no idea who that is and why he would be worthy of a memorial,” one tour guide says. (Richard Simon / Los Angeles Times)
The Temperance Fountain is one of a number of fountains placed in cities in the 1870s and 1880s by San Francisco dentist Henry Cogswell. It once dispensed water in an attempt to discourage drinking of alcohol. (Richard Simon / Los Angeles Times)
Swedish Ambassador to the U.S. Jonas Hafstrom, left, and Leif Brisfjord, president of the John Ericsson Society, take part in a ceremony at the John Ericsson National Monument in Washington on May 14, 2012, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of the Ironclads. Ericsson designed the ironclad Monitor. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images)
There is no statue of the late Sony Bono in the small park named after him, but it does have a few benches, grass, a Japanese maple and sheet music from the singer-turned congressman’s “The Beat Goes On” buried in an underground vault. A marker set in the ground reads, “In memory of my friend Sonny Bono. 1935-1998. Entertainer. Entrepreneur. Statesman. Friend.” (Richard Simon / Los Angeles Times)
