Meridian Hill Park getting gussied up for Easter

If he were wailing away on a guitar in Nashville, Dakota Shelton could pass for a country western singer. He sure has the name for it. Smokes Marlboro Reds, after he lights them under his T-shirt to shield the flame from the wind. Has them rugged features. Alas, Shelton was wailing away on a power tool Thursday around noon to break up concrete bannisters in D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park. “Started at 7 this morning,” Shelton says.

Shelton’s labors come at the tail end of a nearly 10-year project to restore Meridian Hill Park, a unique array of fields and formal gardens along D.C.’s 16th Street corridor, descending from Columbia Road. Thursday’s visit to the park was my first in more than 30 years of living in D.C. Shame on me.