Tomáš Masaryk stands on Massachusetts Avenue across from the Embassy of Luxembourg, atop a granite slab. The monument is a gift from the Czech Republic, and was placed on its site in 2003, making it one of the newer monuments in the city. Masaryk was the first President of Czechoslovakia after World War I, when it broke from from the remnants of the defeated Austria-Hungary. This process was far from simple, but Masaryk was the cause’s champion, travelling Europe and the United States to convince the powers that be that the Czech and Slovak people needed their own state.
He was finally successful in late 1918, and he delivered a speech at the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia arguing for a free nation for those in central Europe. What would result would be Czechoslovakia, a nation that would then elect Masaryk to be their president. He would serve in that office, re-elected twice, until 1935.
The statue on the location is a Bronze statue carved in 1937, and then cast in 1968, but never put on display, and it sat in the archives of the National Gallery in Prague, until it was donated by the people of the Czech Republic to the US. The statue was erected in 2003 in the newly-renamed Masaryk Park just off Mass Ave.
Masaryk Park
Massachusetts Ave NW & 22nd St NW
Washington DC 20008
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
