District of Columbia War Memorial
The District of Columbia War Memorial commemorates the citizens of the District of Columbia who served in World War I.
The memorial stands in West Potomac Park slightly off of Independence Avenue in
a grove of trees. Authorized by an act of Congress on June 7, 1924, funds to
construct the memorial were provided by the contributions of both organizations
and individual citizens of the District. Construction of the memorial began in
the spring of 1931, and the memorial was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover
on November 11, 1931 (Armistice Day). It was the first war memorial to be
erected in West Potomac Park, part of the National Mall near the Lincoln
Memorial, and remains the only local District memorial on the National Mall.
Designed by Washington architect Frederick H. Brooke, with Horace W. Peaslee and
Nathan C. Wyeth as associate architects, the District of Columbia War Memorial
is in the form of a 47 foot (14.3 m) tall circular, domed, peristyle Doric
temple. Resting on concrete foundations, the 4 foot (1.2 m) high marble base
defines a platform, 43 feet 5 inches (13.2 m) in diameter, intended for use as a
bandstand. Preserved in the cornerstone of the District of Columbia World War
Memorial is a list of 26,000 Washingtonians who served in the Great War.
Inscribed on the base are the names of the 499 District of Columbia citizens who
lost their lives in the war, together with medallions representing the branches
of the armed forces. Twelve 22 foot (6.7 m) tall fluted Doric marble columns
support the entablature and dome.
In September 2008, Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, with the support of Frank Buckles,
then the last living US veteran of World War I, proposed a bill in Congress
stating the memorial should be expanded and designated the national memorial to
World War I.
In July 2010, the National Park Service announced that restoration work, funded
by the federal stimulus package, would soon begin on the memorial. Work began in
October 2010, and the memorial reopened on November 10, 2011.
The memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National
Mall and Memorial Parks unit.
Text from Wikipedia
