Washington Square and the time capsule

Here's a riddle: Washington Square is not on Washington Street, and it isn't square either, because Columbus Avenue slices off one corner. It's the living room of North Beach, the old Italian neighborhood, and it keeps two very different mysteries.

1A message for 2079

Find the statue of Benjamin Franklin. It was donated in 1879 by Henry Cogswell, a dentist who had grown rich and campaigned against alcohol: the taps on the base were meant to offer water so nobody had an excuse to drink. He left a time capsule in the pedestal. When it was opened in 1979, it held mostly Cogswell's own papers, along with newspapers and other keepsakes. A new capsule was placed inside, to be opened in 2079. According to some accounts, it contains a pair of jeans, a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and, with a touch of irony, a bottle of wine.

2The wedding that wasn't

Facing you is the church of Saints Peter and Paul. Many people believe Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were married here. They weren't: they had a civil wedding at City Hall in January 1954 and came here afterwards to be photographed on the steps. DiMaggio, divorced from his first wife, whom he really had married here in 1939, could not marry again in the Church.

The bronze group of three firemen, from 1933, was paid for by the bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit, the same woman behind the tower you've just visited.

3What to look for

• The taps on Franklin's statue, labeled with the names of mineral waters.
• The facade of Saints Peter and Paul, with its two spires.
• The Volunteer Firemen Memorial, beside Columbus Avenue.