Memorials, museums, more govern a visit to the capital

Monday, April 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Here follows an opinionated listing of a few places to visit in Washington, D.C. The best advice about using the list -- and about touring the city in general -- may be: Don't try to do it all.

Another suggestion to make a family trek more pleasant: Prepare in advance for the need to eat and rest or play. A picnic is often a better deal than the crowded hot-dog stands and cafeteria concessions along the Mall. A game of catch in the generous open spaces can be a welcome change from museum-going.

Finally, look to the newspapers, the hotel's tips, and the casual suggestions of tour guides or fellow tourists for ideas about what sort of temporary happenings are gracing the town during your visit.

1. The U.S. Capitol

My idea of the best deal in town, best approached as a treasure house of stories about our past. Some of these will be self-evident in the statues and paintings of great figures. Some are obscure but as close at hand as the next guided tour.

More than your hosts in other public buildings, the Capitol's custodians make it clear that this is your property. And what riches, from the tile-inlaid floors to the cast-iron-supported dome.

You do have to use designated public entrances with weapon-detectors like the ones used in airports. And you must mind the off-limits signs. But otherwise, the place is remarkably wide open.

A guided tour is worthwhile for any first-time visitor. The offices of Senators Lincoln D. Chafee and Jack Reed give a limited number of tours, emphasizing local highlights. It's best to call ahead.

The guide may be able to swing you by the statue of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, a few yards from the Senate floor by a window overlooking the Mall. That lobby is often closed to the general run of visitors.

There's also a standard-issue tour conducted more frequently by official Capitol guides. Just wait on the rope line on the pavement of East Front Drive, which faces the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

Some highlights to watch for:

Nathanael Greene's statue in East Central Hall, steps away from the central entrance at the Capitol's East Front, facing the Supreme Court.

Colonial Massachusetts firebrand Samuel Adams stands nearby. Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop is in the Hall of Columns on the House side of the building.

The Crypt , so called because of a never-realized plan to bury George Washington's remains there.

One of the Capitol's most prominent works of art stars Oliver Hazard Perry, Rhode Islander, hero of the Battle of Lake Erie. The giant oil painting of the fight hangs over a stair between the second and third floors of the Senate side.

Freedom is the Thomas Crawford statue in Indian headdress that crowns the dome. Since the repairs and repolishing a few years ago (supervised by Rhode Island native Linda Merk-Gould) Freedom really gleams.

``The Apotheosis of George Washington,'' Constantino Brumidi's fresco of the father of his country encircles the inner wall of the Great Rotunda, 180 feet off the floor. The sight of George, cushioned in clouds and flanked by the gods of War, Industry and so forth. National Statuary Hall features a quirk of acoustics -- the whispering chamber -- that's worth asking a guide to demonstrate. Any tourist with the least interest in history will also get a kick out of studying the faces of notables from John C. Calhoun to Hawaii's first king, King Kamehameha .

It's worthwhile, by the way, to call ahead to your congressman or senator for a pass to visit the galleries overlooking the House and Senate chambers.

The Capitol, bounded by First Street, Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue, is about three blocks from the Capitol South Metro rail station, about four blocks from the Union Station stop. It is open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tours run during those hours weekdays; 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Guides are stationed around the building between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Sundays but no tours are offered.

General tour information (Recording): (202) 225-6827

Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, 505 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. (202) 224-2921.

Sen. Jack Reed, 320 Hart Senate Office Bldg. (202) 224-4642. Reed's website also features information for tourists planning a visit to Washington, including links to the National Park Service and the Metro public transit system. The website is http://reed.senate.gov.

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, 312 Cannon House Office Bldg. (202) 225-4911. His website is www.house.gov/patrickkennedy/

Rep. Robert A. Weygand, 215 Cannon House Office Bldg. (202) 225-2735. www.house.gov/weygand/tourreq.htm

2. The Summer House

This vine-covered retreat is so cunningly tucked into a corner of the Capitol lawn that you'll pass it by if you're not looking for it.

It was created around 1880 (by Frederick Law Olmsted, creator of such urban landscapes as New York's Central Park and the Butler Hospital grounds in Providence) as a place where visitors can find water and respite.

The sanctuary seems cool on the hottest day. The brick hexagon encloses a central fountain with three bubblers. Stone benches with carved armrests are built into the walls and shaded by an overhang of terra cotta tiles.

Through a doorway's arch peeks a postcard view of the Capitol. Through a wrought-iron window grille comes the sound of water splashing down a course of rocks in a tiny grotto.

A murmuring band of monks would not seem out of place.

As you look toward the Washington Monument from the Capitol's west face, the Summer House is on the north (or right) side of the grassy hill that slopes toward the Mall from the U.S. Capitol. It sits on a winding path that roughly parallels Constitution Avenue.

3. The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.

You don't have to be a connoisseur of the arts to love this quirky scattering of artworks in the out of doors. This relative newcomer on the Mall is a fine place to lounge and linger.

The sculptures include a large and slightly sinister-looking rabbit, a gigantic eraser by Claes Oldenburg, and a cartoonishly-colored house frame designed to play tricks of perspective on the eye.

One of the garden's most pleasing features is its arrangment around a central fountain that has rims wide enough for sitting upon and picnicking. (Less pleasingly, the designers found it necessary to isolate the place from its surroundings with a tall and forbidding wrought iron fence -- the only such barrier on the Mall.)

The new sculpture garden sits directly across the national green from the venerable Hirschorn Sculpture Garden, a favorite of generations of curious children.

Nearby are the formal floral gardens bordering the Smithsonian's tile-trimmed Arts and Industry Building and a big, old-fashioned carousel, with calliope. This chunk of the Mall is a prime space for kite-flying or playing catch.

The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is located at Constitution Avenue and 7th St., N.W. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. It is a short walk along the Mall from the Smithsonian Metro station.

4. Constitution Gardens

The first thing you will notice about this glade near the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is how small the red maples and white oaks and willow trees are.

The plantings are fresh because the place is new -- dedicated in the 1970s after the long-overdue razing of the tumbledown ``temporary'' military annexes erected during World War I.

Gentle slopes and meandering pathways encourage the visitor's inclination to move to the edge of the man-made pond. A wooden footbridge leads 10 steps to a modest island memorial to the signers of the Constitution.

The place is calm and modest; looming to the east is the Washington Monument, to the west is the Lincoln Memorial. Inlaid on the walkway among the magnolias are granite slabs. From the Carolinas to Massachusetts they are arrayed north to south in the geographic order of the 13 colonies. Engraved on the slabs are the holy signatures. John Hancock and Samuel Adams your family knows. But quiz them on this: Who were William Ellery and Stephen Hopkins?

Constitution Gardens are bounded by Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, N.W., by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and by the grounds of the Vietnam Memorial. The park is always open.

5. The Phillips Collection

America's first museum of modern art is a startling place. It presents treasures of Impressionism and Modernism -- Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party in the welcoming confines of his home between Dupont Circle and Embassy Row.

Through mid-May, the museum will feature this country's first major exhibition dedicated to the father of modern caricature, Honor Daumier. But the show reveals a versatile artist who ranged far beyond the political satire that once landed him in prison.

A word of warning: at least in my household, art appreciation is something of an acquired taste. The Daumier exhibit -- particularly the sculpted heads and prints that obviously prefigure modern caricature -- captivated the 10-year-old in our group for about three-quarters of an hour. The 7-year-old stayed interested for perhaps 30 minutes. Below that age, attention spans fell dramatically.

The museum does have one answer for families: occasional Saturday morning ``family workshops.'' Reservations are required.

The museum has all sorts of other special events, including Sunday afternoon concerts and Thursday lunchtime talks.

The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., N.W., is about two blocks from the Q Street entrance to the Dupont Circle station of the Metro Red Line. Admission is $10 for adults; $7 for full-time students and for those over 62; free for visitors 18 and under. It's open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; noon to 7 Sunday. It's worthwhile to telephone ahead to ask about crowd sizes. Telephone: (202)387-2151. Website: http:/www.phillipscollection.org

6. Rainy day wildcard: The Newseum

In case you had forgotten, we are in the midst of a presidential election year. The Newseum currently features an exhibit devoted to the coverage of campaigns past.

This museum is exactly what it sounds like, a series of exhibits devoted to the history and practice of news gathering. It is housed in and financed by the Freedom Forum, a nonprofit journalism foundation in Arlington, Va.

The Newseum relies more heavily on videos, push-buttons, and web clickability than some old-time print hounds might like. But I must report that my Cub Scout den happily endures 10 or 15 minutes in line to tape their own newscasts and weather reports.

And there are some kicks in summoning the electronic mockup of the headlines that appeared on the day you were born and in examining a giant blowup of the front page of this very newspaper and others from around the nation and the world.

The Newseum is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, about a block from the Rosslyn subway station of the Metro rail line. There are commercial lots nearby but on-street parking is limited. Admission is free. The Newseum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The toll-free telephone number is 888-NEWSEUM.

9. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

With this ambivalent listing, I set aside a longstanding resolution against promoting this monument, which in some ways is the city's most grandiose.

One of the more appealing aspects of Washington's municipal character is its reinforcement of the sense, so to speak, that ``this land is your land.'' Not only are the majestic buildings and parks as open, generally speaking, as the public library and the town green back home.

They are also assigned, to a degree that happily surprises reverent first-time visitors, to strenuous public use. Practically every grassy stretch of more than football-field size is a football field on evenings and weekends. Or a picnic spot or diamond for the local softball leagues.

The FDR Memorial, notwithstanding the president's famous admonition against a memorial larger than a desktop, ate up acres of precious green. The monument itself has, for me, the feel of a committee-designed project. Taken one by one, many of the features seem well-meant. For example, the coy glimpse of a wheel on the chair-leg beneath the FDR figure's unfurled cloak hints inoffensively at the polio that he never acknowledged. But together they are a hodge-podge of sculptures, waterfalls and quotations engraved on huge rocks. At least one of them, as the conservative columnist Charles Krauthamer has pointed out, is more than a stretch. That is the out-of-context quotation engraved in giant letters, ``I hate war.'' Well, fine. War is hell. But what an odd summary of the wartime leadership of Roosevelt.

All the same, there is reason to recommend the FDR Memorial. For one thing, people like it. The place it occupies is still lovely, the feel of its granite blocks is fine and the view of the Tidal Basin, framed by cherry trees, is fair. The waterfall down the faces of rock is satisfying to watch and hear.

For another thing, the authorities have finally heeded the alarm about the dwindling of the public's open space over the past two decades. Once the World War II Memorial is completed, between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, new rules will make it more difficult to build in the area.

The FDR Memorial is located in West Potomac Park, accessible by car through Ohio Drive, at the foot of the Memorial Bridge, and through the Thomas Jefferson Memorial grounds, near the 14th Street Bridge. The memorial is open from 8 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. The nearest Metro station is Smithsonian, a 15 to 20 minute walk