As the Senate convenes this week to determine which side is more stubborn in its demand to shape the federal judiciary, we figured this was a good time to look at a slightly less ugly aspect of our country’s court system: John Marshall Park.

The spot of land we know today as Judiciary Square was a lot of things before it became just another few blocks of federal Washington. Long before there was a capital city built around it, the area was an uninhabited swampland (surprise) in Southwest Maryland. A plantation was built upon it in the 17th century, which was later subdivided like so many exurban cul-de-sacs, became one of the earliest residential areas in the District, then Washington’s downtown, host of the first City Hall, and residential neighborhood of American judicial giant John Marshall.