American Revolution Statuary | |
 John Paul Jones Memorial in May 2008 | |
| Location | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
|---|---|
| NRHP reference No. | 78000256[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 14, 1978 |
| Designated DCIHS | March 3, 1979 |
American Revolution Statuary is a group of fourteen statues inWashington, D.C., which honor men whose actions assisted theThirteen Colonies in their fight against theKingdom of Great Britain in theAmerican Revolutionary War. The statues are spread throughout the city, except for four of the fourteen, which are located inLafayette Square, across from theWhite House, that honor some foreign heroes from the Revolutionary War.
Some of the statues are located in prominent places, while others are in small parks or stand alone in front of buildings. All of the statues are owned and maintained by theNational Park Service, an agency of theUnited States Department of the Interior. The statuary was collectively listed on theNational Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978 and theDistrict of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites the following year. In addition, most are alsocontributing properties tohistoric districts listed on the NRHP.
The first statue inWashington, D.C., honoring Revolutionary War heroes was theequestrian statue of President and GeneralGeorge Washington, which was installed in 1860. The remaining statues were erected from 1878 to 1948, with most being installed in the early 20th century. All but one of the statues are cast in bronze.Benjamin Franklin's statue was carved in marble. The statues depict American military men, two American politicians, and an eighth statue depicts a military man who was also governor ofMassachusetts. Five statues depict European officers who aided the American cause, and a British politician who spoke out for the American cause. TheU.S. Congress authorized the original placement of all the statues, and all but four were fully paid for with federal funds. Some of the statues have been moved from their original locations.
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Beginning in the mid-1800s,Congress, societies, and descendants of theAmerican Revolutionary War forces wanted to install statues throughoutWashington, D.C., to honor notable men who helped the U.S. win independence from theKingdom of Great Britain. Thefirst outdoor statue in the nation's capital depictedThomas Jefferson. It was displayed north of theWhite House in 1847, but was returned to theUnited States Capitol in 1874. In 1853, theequestrian statue of PresidentAndrew Jackson was installed in the center ofLafayette Square.[2] It was the first equestrian statue made in the U.S.[3]
Clark Mills was commissioned to create an equestrian statue ofGeorge Washington, the country's first president and commander-in-chief of theContinental Army. Theequestrian statue was installed in 1860 inWashington Circle, the first of the 14 American Revolutionary statuary to be erected in Washington, D.C.[2] Thenext statue of a Revolutionary War hero was in honor of Major GeneralNathanael Greene, erected in 1878 inStanton Park and designed byHenry Kirke Brown.[4] It is considered one of the city's best equestrian statues.[5][6] Thethird statue, depictingBenjamin Franklin in a standing pose, was sculpted byJacques Jouvenal and installed in 1889. It was later moved to its current location in front of theOld Post Office.[7] Franklin's statue is one of four of the statues not paid for by the U.S. government. It was a donation fromStilson Hutchins, founder ofThe Washington Post.[7] Thefourth statue installed, sculpted byAlexandre Falguière andAntonin Mercié, was in honor of Major GeneralGilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, one of two French military figures to be honored in Lafayette Square. It was erected in 1891.[8] The park had been named after him during his 1824visit to the U.S.[5]
The majority of the Revolutionary War statues were installed in the 20th-century. The first to be erected in the 20th-century, and the fifth overall, was that ofJean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, in 1902. Thestatue of the Comte de Rochambeau was sculpted byFernand Hamar and is the other French military hero honored in Lafayette Square.[2][9]
Thesixth statue, sculpted byWilliam Couper, depicts DoctorJohn Witherspoon, a politician, minister, and signer of theUnited States Declaration of Independence. It was dedicated in 1909 and paid for by members of the Church of the Covenant (now known asNational Presbyterian Church). It is located at the intersection of18th Street,Connecticut Avenue, and N Street NW.[10] Theseventh andeighth statues, depicting Polish heroesTadeusz Kościuszko andCasimir Pulaski, respectively, were dedicated on the same day in 1910. Kościuszko's statue, sculpted byAntoni Popiel, was the third installed in Lafayette Square and Pulaski's equestrian statue, sculpted byKazimierz Chodziński, stands on the eastern end ofFreedom Plaza after being moved several times in its history.[11][12] Also in 1910, thestatue of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, sculpted byAlbert Jaegers, was installed in Lafayette Square.[13]
TheJohn Paul Jones Memorial, honoring theContinental Navy captain, was sculpted byCharles Henry Niehaus and is located inWest Potomac Park. It was erected in 1912 and became the tenth Revolutionary War statue to be installed.[2][14] In 1914, another naval hero, CommodoreJohn Barry, was memorialized witha statue inFranklin Square. His statue was sculpted byJohn J. Boyle.[2] In 1922, the Sulgrave Institution represented byCharles Wakefield, 1st Viscount Wakefield, paid for astatue of Edmund Burke to be erected in a small park at the intersection of 11th Street, L Street, andMassachusetts Avenue NW.[2] The statue honoring a British politician who defended theThirteen Colonies was sculpted byJames Havard Thomas and became the 12th Revolutionary War statue erected in Washington, D.C.[2] The last two installed were thestatue of Artemas Ward atWard Circle, which was sculpted byLeonard Crunelle and dedicated in 1938, and thestatue of Nathan Hale, a gift from Yale University PresidentCharles Seymour, which was sculpted byBela Pratt and dedicated in 1948.[2][15][16]
Washington, D.C., has the largest amount of outdoor statues in the country.[2] Two well-known landmarks in the city, theWashington Monument andJefferson Memorial, are technically American Revolutionary monuments, but due to their size and grandeur, they are excluded from the list. All of the American Revolutionary statuary are owned and maintained by theNational Park Service (NPS), an agency of theUnited States Department of the Interior.[2] In accordance with Executive Order 11593, by PresidentRichard Nixon, the NPS surveyed and registered statuary of people of the American Revolutionary War in Washington, D.C., to aid in their preservation.[17][18][19] The statues were collectively listed on theNational Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on July 14, 1978. The statuary was added to theDistrict of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites the following year on March 3, 1979. Due to their locations in places originally planned byPierre Charles L'Enfant, many of the statues arecontributing properties (CP) to theL'Enfant Plan. Others are CPs tohistoric districts, including the four at Lafayette Square, that are CPs to theLafayette Square Historic District, aNational Historic Landmark.[20]
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