Fragment of Original 1935 Azalea Inscription. Dumbarton Oaks Archives (AR.OB.Misc.079).
In 2016, the Dumbarton Oaks swimming pool, bathhouse loggia, and the surrounding pavements and walls were completely renovated. As part of this project, the 1935 “Azalea Inscription” on the northwest enclosure wall was reproduced to replicate the original. Because the stucco background of the inscription was badly cracked and spalled, the inscription could not be restored but had to be replaced. To insure an accurate replacement, photographs and measurements were taken and drawings made. Also, the original 1935 Beatrix Farrand workshop drawing for the inscription was consulted to insure that the lettering would not have a mechanical, typographical appearance.
Fragments of the original inscription were salvaged and are now housed in the Dumbarton Oaks Archives.
The inscription was located next to a white azalea in the pool area:
Like the flash of a wing
I came upon
The loveliest thing
Since Avalon
White Blossoming
Azaleas wan
As a wounded king
As a dying swan
The verse is the fourth stanza of the poem Reprieve by Joseph Auslander (1897–1965). Auslander, a graduate of Harvard College, was a good friend of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss and would become the first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress between 1937 and 1941.
