Skip to content
Wellsprings

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States, a federal district on the Potomac River formed from land given by Maryland and Virginia. Congress authorized the site in the Residence Act of 1790, and the government moved there from Philadelphia in 1800, when the second president, John Adams, moved into the newly finished White House. It has since been the seat of the federal government and of national institutions such as the Smithsonian museums. Its religious life includes Washington National Cathedral and, among more recent communities, the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, a Buddhist vipassana centre founded by the teacher Tara Brach in 1998.

Teachers who lived here

Works composed here

Explore the interactive map →← All places