seating, food kiosks, public restrooms, and an enhanced landscape design (especially on the borders of the park). The city set aside $300,000 for the design work. In September 2021, Franklin Square reopened after a year-long, $21 million renovation. During the renovation, 63 trees were replaced, and new landscaping, a children's play garden, flexible seating, and art exhibit spaces were added. A new cafe building with public restrooms was also added to the southern end of the park. Historic buildings bordering Franklin Square Across 13th Street on the east side of the square is the historic Franklin School, which was a model of advanced design in its day and the scene of Alexander Graham Bell's first wireless message. On June 3, 1880, Bell sent a message over a beam of light to a window in a building at 1325 L Street, NW. The building is now home to Planet Word, a language arts museum that opened in October, 2020. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, maintained a residence adjacent to the park at 1326 I Street, where she held the first official meeting of the relief organization in May 1881. One Franklin Square at 1301 K St. NW, directly north of the square, became home to The Washington Post in late 2015. It is the tallest commercial building in Washington, DC. To the north also stands The Hamilton Hotel at 1001 14th Street, which is a member of the Historic Hotels of America. Built in 1921, it was renovated in 2013. In popular culture Nobel Laureate Charles Townes has said that he conceived the theory behind the laser/maser principle while sitting on a bench in the square. The square figures prominently in Dan Brown's 2009 thriller The Lost Symbol. In 1993 served as the filming location for several scenes from James Cameron's film True Lies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. References Squares, plazas, and circles in Washington, D.C.