Eight of the structures now house the stories of women who made history in the city.
Local artist Charles Bergen retrofitted each call box with a cast-iron sculpture of a notable woman and a plaque that tells her story, then repainted the structures in bright colors. Some of the call boxes also have metal sculptures on top that symbolize the subject's accomplishments.
"In D.C., while there are lots of sculptures of men and allegorical sculptures of women, there are not many sculptures of actual, real women that you can put a name to," Bergen told WAMU when he received the commission last year. The $177,000 project was organized and funded by the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities and the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.
Bergen worked with urban historian Mara Cherkasky of Prologue DC to select women to profile. They landed on eight women from a variety of fields including music, education, journalism and community activism. Interns from the city's Marion Barry summer youth employment program helped out with the designs.
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