Washington Monument - Washington, DC - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

County of monument: District of Columbia
Location of monument: 15th SW & Constitution Ave., Washington
Artist: Robert Mills, Sculptor

Remarks:
"In 1833, a group of prominent citizens founded the Washington Monument Society to raise private funds for a memorial to George Washington. Robert Mills designed the monument in 1836. It was to be erected on a site chosen 45 years earlier by city planner Pierre L'Enfant. Mills' original design included a circular building at the base, surrounded by a colonnade of Doric columns and surmounted by groups of Neoclassical statues. Neither the large colonnade nor the statues were executed because of a lack of funds.

"Construction of the obelisk began in 1848, but was not without controversy. The monument suffered political and physical abuse. At one point saboteurs seized monument office records and claimed possession of the monument. Recurrent vandalism, lack of funds, and the coming Civil War brought construction to a halt in 1854/55.

"For almost 25 years the monument stood incomplete at 150 feet, until Congress voted to complete the obelisk at government expense in August of 1876. The upper section of the monument was completed by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the marble is of a slightly different hue from that of the lower half. The monument opened to the public in 1886. The interior includes 898 steps and 50 landings. Included in the interior is a collection of over 250 memorial stones inset into the stairwell walls, presented by cities, states, patriotic organizations, individuals, Native-American tribes, and foreign governments in memory of George Washington. Private organizations included divergent groups ranging from the employess of the Robert Norris Locomotive Works of Philadelphia to the Jefferson Literary Society of the University of Virginia." ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum

"The Washington Monument was built between 1848 and 1884 as a tribute to George Washington's military leadership from 1775-1783 during the American Revolution. Its construction took place in two major phases, 1848-56, and 1876-84--a lack of funds, political turmoil, and uncertainty about the survival of the American Union caused the intermittent hiatus. Plans for a national monument began as early as 1783 when Congress proposed that an equestrian statue of George Washington be erected. Although the Monument was authorized by Congress, little action was taken, even after Major Peter Charles L'Enfant selected its site in his 1791 Federal City plan. Washington's 1799 death rekindled public aspiration for an appropriate tribute to him, and John Marshall proposed that a special sepulcher be erected for the General within the Capitol itself. Lack of funds postponed construction, but Marshall persevered, and in 1833, he, James Madison, and others formed the Washington National Monument Society. By 1836, the society advertised for competitive architectural designs. The winning architect was Robert Mills, whose design called for a neoclassical plan which provided for a nearly-flat-topped obelisk surrounded by a circular colonnade on which would stand a statue of Washington in a chariot. Inside the colonnade, statues of thirty prominent Revolutionary War heroes would be displayed." ~ National Park Service