Old Amphitheater & Pergola - Arlington National Cemetery - Arlington, VA - Pergolas on Waymarking.com

County of theater: Arlington County
Location of theater: Sheridan Dr. & Meigs Ave., Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington
Built: 1873

Old Amphitheater - The Old Amphitheater is the site of the first Memorial Day ceremony held at ANC, on May 30, 1868. When General John Logan declared the day of remembrance for Union soldiers who had died in the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson supported the order by allowing Federal employees to take leave to attend the ceremonies. Those who gathered to remember the Civil War dead listened to General James A. Garfield speak from a temporary stand erected for the occasion. In 1873, on the fifth anniversary of the first Memorial Day, a permanent amphitheater was constructed on the site of the first ceremony. Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs' design was influenced by contemporary garden ideas of "rural" cemeteries, the popularity of pergola structures during that time, and the prevalence of classicism in monument buildings. The construction of the structure was completed in 28 days, just in time for the Memorial Day services that year. Soon after its construction, the structure, now known as the Old Amphitheater, was described as being capable of seating 5,000 people (in reality, the structure can only seat a few hundred people) and ... [consisted] "of brick columns, square and round, supporting a heavy trellis. Vines have been planted at the foot of the columns, with the expectation of their spreading over the framework above and forming a massive arbor. These creepers have grown finely so far" (U.S. Congress 1875:28).

"The two principal elements of the amphitheater are an elliptical ambulatory and a raised platform or rostrum . Historically, the trellis supported grape and other vines, along with wisteria bushes. The interior of the amphitheater is a sunken bowl-shaped area with the rostrum on the north side. The rostrum is on a raised platform and has 12 Ionic columns that support the wooden trellis overhead. In 1878, Charles Lawrence was commissioned to make a canvas tent to cover the amphitheater to replace the blue and white striped awnings that were previously used to cover sections of the trellis around the amphitheater and rostrum. Later, in 1880, a marble altar was designed for the rostrum and was built by William Struther and Sons of Philadelphia with a coat of arms carved on the front, along with the words E Pluribus Unum ("From Many, One").

"In addition to its importance to the first Memorial Day celebrations. As one of the first cemetery-sponsored construction projects, the Old Amphitheater reflects the building practices of that period. The modest scale of the structure, similar to the other monuments built around that time, was necessitated by a severe lack of federal funds after the Civil War (Hanna 2001a:97). The Old Amphitheater is mostly unchanged from its initial construction. The awnings that once covered the structure are no longer extant, but the original structure still stands, with wisteria bushes at the base of each pier. The wisteria bushes have been trained so that the stems grow away from the brick columns and are carefully trimmed so the wood trellis is not damaged. A barberry hedge has been planted between the piers of the outer ring and flowers have been planted around the elliptical walkway and the south face of the rostrum." ~ NRHP Nomination Form