Message from Bonnie Mangan, Conference Coordinator

Notes on getting around during the conference

We will be traveling to our Friday workshops and Saturday Field Trip on Metro, so we must plan our trips with the precision of Civil War campaigns (we know how well some of those went.)
 All attendees will be given a Metro fare card with enough money on it to cover your trips and a large print Metro map. Please keep your card in a safe place.  Each workshop group will have a Captain and hopefully a Lieutenant. Please obey your officers at all times. We will need to keep on schedules and allow enough time to travel. The hotel is near the Court House Metro stop on the Orange Line. We can arrange for the hotel shuttle to take people to the metro if they need it.
 Those going to the Library of Congress will leave from the hotel by 12 noon, sharp. We will travel on the Orange Line to Capitol South. We will not have to change trains. Bonnie Mangan will lead the group.
 The group going to the Building Museum (the Pension Office designed by Gen. Meigs) will leave by 12:30 and take the Orange Line to Metro Center and change to the Red Line in the direction of Glenmont. You will go two (2) stops to Judiciary Square.  When you come up the escalator you will be facing the beautiful red brick  building designed by Meigs. A docent will meet you inside. SWCW is paying the fee for the tour, and if you have already paid $5 in your registration fee, you will be given a ticket to view exhibits after your tour. Those who have not paid $5 yet can pay for a ticket at the time. Susan Youhn is your Captain.
 For the group going to the Portrait Gallery/Museum of American Art ( the Patent Office where Clara Barton worked), may leave around 12:30 or 1 PM. You will travel on the Orange Line to Metro Center and exit at the 11th and G St. exit and walk 2 blocks to the G St. entrance.
Unfortunately, the Smithsonian did not respond to our requests for a docent. But SWCW members went on a reconnaissance and scoped out a tour for you. Upon entering at G St., you will see an information desk, proceed down the aisle to the left of this desk to the Civil War section. There are also 2 exhibits near by: Lincoln’s Contemporaries; and, Antebellum Portraits by Mathew Brady. Over the stairwell at the end of the hall is the mural of Grant & his Generals. See if you can identify the Generals. You can always walk down the stairs to see the plaque listing them.
Return to the center of the building and go through the covered Kogod Courtyard and enter the section of the Museum that faces F. St. When you enter you will be directly under the 2 curved staircases that lead to 3rd floor and the Great Hall the site of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Ball (Clara attended). The stairways and Hall are beautiful. We have a Lieutenant and will have a Captain to lead you.
 On Saturday we will leave the hotel at 9 AM sharp, and take the Orange line to L’Enfant Plaza and change to a Yellow or Green Line going to U St./African American Civil War Memorial. Please pay attention and listen to your group Captains because not all the trains go as far as U St. We take the 10th St exit at U St. and we will be by the Memorial. Susan and Bonnie will talk about a couple of soldiers on the monument and then we will go to the African-American Civil War Museum. After our tour we will take the Yellow/Green Line to the Archives Metro stop and walk one block to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office. After our tour we will return to the hotel.
 Important things to remember: your fare card gets you in and out of the Metro, when you exit money is automatically deducted for your ride. Please don’t lose the card.  Use the turnstiles with a green arrow, not a red X. And remember the important Metro mantra: “Stand to the right, walk on the left,” when using Metro escalators.
 We will collect the fare cards at the end of the conference and they will be donated to a homeless shelter run by Rising Hope United Methodist Mission Church in Alexandria, VA.