By John Kelly
Sunday, February 18, 2007

Your column often speaks to area monuments. One of the most authoritative books on that subject is a 1974 volume by James M. Goode titled "The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C." About five years ago I read that a local writer named Alex Padro was putting the finishing touches on a soon-to-be-released book called "Washington's Monuments: The Memorials of the Nation's Capital." Whatever happened to this project?

-- Steve York, Springfield

It's another case of politics getting in the way of a promising career.

Alex Padro started his cataloguing project 10 years ago but had to put it aside after being elected advisory neighborhood commissioner for the Shaw neighborhood in 2000. Now he's also director of Shaw Main Streets, a nonprofit group involved in revitalizing the Seventh and Ninth streets NW commercial corridors.

James Goode's book has long been the bible of local public art -- Answer Man's copy is well thumbed -- but Alex decided it didn't cover a lot of what he was interested in: the many commemorative plaques that dot the city, both out in the fresh air and tucked away in building lobbies.

"These are things that people don't know are there or walk by in a hurry and don't take time to look and read the inscription," he said.

Alex has a 1,500-page manuscript, but publishing plans are on hold. "One of these days, when more of the community issues are well underway, I'll be able to devote more time to concluding that publishing project," he said. He hopes that will be within the next two years.

Meanwhile, Answer Man has some good news: In November, Goode turned in the manuscript for the second edition of his landmark book. Johns Hopkins University Press will publish it next year.

James estimates that the number of sculptures in the Washington area has doubled since the first edition came out three decades ago.

"It's been exciting to discover all the new ones," he said -- sculptures such as Emiliano Zapata in front of the Mexican Cultural Institute and Mahatma Gandhi near the Indian Embassy. He's been working on the new version for the past three years.

The first edition may be the most comprehensive guide to the sculptures of any single city. It is a wonderful book, with a photograph of each work, the facts -- location, medium, sculptor, etc. -- and some of the back story: biographical details of the person or thing it honors, some quirks about the statue's creation.

His new book, with all new photos by Andy Seferlis, promises to be even better. One thing James does is deflate the old myth that which hoof an equestrian statue's horse has in the air denotes what became of the rider, whether he was killed in battle or survived.

"I actually made a chart with every one of 23 equestrian statues, which hoof was raised and what became of him," James said.

His original volume is a must-have for local art and history buffs. Why was it so popular? Said James: "In the early '70s -- when a lot of the population was leaving the city after the riots and the downtown was becoming depressed -- the book helped to boost morale, I think."

Serving another need is Marv Solberg's homegrown Web site: http://www.dcmemorials.com. In 2005, Marv become frustrated that he couldn't find any decent images of the Grant Memorial on the Web. He vowed to take pictures of every single monument in town from multiple angles and post them online, along with their inscriptions, in a searchable database. So far he's done it with more than 400 memorials.

The Anne Arundel County resident is an actuary at Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Answer Man asked whether there was any overlap between his profession and his hobby.

No, he said. Only that both benefit from a certain obsession with detail.

Julia Feldmeier researched this column. Send your questions about the Washington area toanswerman@washpost.com.