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POLLY wanted to live in D.C. ever since she and her husband Mike drove 450 miles right down to the Mall one spring day in the 1970s and couldn’t find parking. They turned around and left in frustration. Like the Terminator, Polly swore she’d be back. Polly grew up in Newport, RI, then moved to Columbia, SC with her husband Mike in 1980. While raising her family, she got degrees in PE and art history (both degrees seeming to anticipate whatever she’d need for Washington Walks). Later, she taught in a technical college, worked for a professional gardener, and interpreted Spanish for a local agency. Several years ago, Polly looked around and, seeing that their children had grown, persuaded her husband to find a new job in D.C.
Favorite book:
Grand Avenues by Scott W. Berg. This is a great story of the genesis of our beautiful city through a biography of its original designer, Pierre Charles L’Enfant.
Polly leads:
National Mall Memorials: The Backstory
The White House and Lafayette Park