First of all I'd like to give a huge thanks to zgrav who alerted me to the existence of Black Aggie!
This statue will look familiar to some of you. It is the unauthorized copy of the Adams Memorial, found in Rock Creek Cemetery. Black Aggie used to sit on the grave of General Felix Agnus in Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, Maryland. However, she has always been surrounded by rumors and urban legends, beginning with its installation in 1926. The legends repeated most often include: someone spending a night in its lap would be haunted by the ghosts of those buried there (or would die within two weeks); the spirits of individuals buried at Druid Ridge would annually convene at the statue; no grass would grow on the ground where the statue's shadow would lie during the daytime; the statue would animate itself during the night, whether by physically moving or by showing glowing red eyes, or pregnant women would suffer a miscarriage if they met her eyes.
These urban legends led to a lot of unwelcome attention; many people were caught breaking into the cemetery at night to visit her, and the pedestal was frequently vandalized. The Agnus family, disturbed by the attention the statue received, donated her to the Smithsonian in 1967. She sat for many years in storage at the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) where an authorized recasting of the original Adams Memorial statue now sits.
In 1987, Black Aggie was transferred to the United States General Services Administration and moved from her previous home at the museum to a courtyard behind the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square. The bare, blank pedestal remains at Aggie's former home at Druid Ridge Cemetery.
Finding Black Aggie
Like many people before me, I HAD to track down Black Aggie. This was not quite as easy as you would think because the Dolley Madison House is now part of the National Courts Building complex and is only accessible Monday through Friday, 6:30am to 5pm. The United States Marshals Service opens the gates around 6:30am for workers and closes them around 5pm. I couldn’t get any more specifics other than that. They told me that anyone wishing to see the statue shouldn’t have any problem getting in during those times. You do not have to enter any of the buildings or go through security (I had to actively hunt down a few of the Marshals to have my questions answered). There are two entrances to the courtyard. One is off of H Street (there is a sign that says Entrance to 717 Madison Place). The other is off of Madison Place. Please note that the Madison Place entrance has a short flight to stairs to ascend before reaching the courtyard.
Finding the Physical Cache
Not surprisingly, the Dolley Madison House (and the entire National Courts Building complex) is one of the many places in DC where you cannot place a physical cache. The container is a camo'ed travel pill container in a typical urban location about a block and a half away. To find the coordinates to the location, look for clues in the courtyard where Black Aggie sits.
N 38° 5A.03D W 77° 2.0BC
- A = the number of fingers visible on Aggie’s hands (if you can see part of the knuckle, it counts)/2
- B = the number of eyes visible on the bird/eagle statue in the courtyard +1
- C = the number of solidly colored wings on the bird/eagle statue - 3
- D = 3 + the last digit of the year the “Site of the Belasco Theatre” plaque was presented by the US Court of Federal Claims Bar Association