Built between 1882 and 1887, the Pension Building now houses the National Building Museum and is significant for both its architecture and place in the nation’s history.
The Pension Building was designed by Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and built as a memorial for soldiers, sailors, and marines who fought in the Civil War. Their service is memorialized in the frieze that wraps around the entire building. The frieze depicts different aspects of the US military during the Civil War including images of infantrymen, calvary, the navy, and medical units. This is particularly significant because it serves as an important example of the Civil War generation creating their own memorials of the conflict.
The Pension Building was also designed with the intent to preserve historic documents. During its construction, multiple records were put in metal cases and encased in the building’s great columns. These documents included the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, typographic and battlefield maps, a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, and other War and State Department publications. These characteristics make the Pension Building more than a building, and elevates it as a structure devoted to the memorialization of the nation’s history.
This building was also built for and served the Pension Bureau. The Pension Bureau was the first federal agency to serve veterans nationwide. This agency operated in the Pension Building for forty years, from 1885 to 1926. Veterans who had fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican-American War, or the Civil War received funding from the Pension Bureau. During their time in at 401 F St NW, the agency provided around $8.3 billion to over 2 million veterans and their families.
In addition to its connection to the Pension Bureau, the Pension Building hosted multiple inaugural balls for US presidents, including Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Richard Nixon.
The Pension Building is architecturally significant as an early example of the Italian Renaissance Revival style in the United States. The building's architect, Montgomery C. Meigs, was heavily influenced by Renaissance buildings in Rome, Italy and modeled his designs on them. Its interior contains a huge, covered central atrium courtyard which rises to the top of the roof.
In 1900, the McMillan Commission noted the Pension Building's unique departure from the Greek Revival designs dominating other federal buildings in the capital. Its red brick and terra cotta facade sets the Pension Building apart from other federal buildings in the city. During the early years of its existence, the Pension Building's design was heavily criticized for this and, in 1935, a plan to remodel the building was introduced; however, the plan never took off.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: March 24, 1969
National Historic Landmark: February 4, 1985
Within Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
This site is included in the Haunted History of DC Tour. Due to the long and varied history of this site, several ghost stories are connected to the National Building Museum (former Pension Building). At night, the painted marble of the columns appears to swirl into skulls and ghosts, frightening the security guards. There have also been sightings of a lady dressed in white strolling the grand hallways, which date to the 1880s.
]]>In July 1864, the Battle of Fort Stevens marked the defeat of Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early’s campaign to launch an offensive attack on the national capital. During the battle, 59 Union soldiers perished, while there were approximately 500 casualties on the Confederate side. After the battle, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs seized one acre of farmland to bury the dead. Under the direction of President Abraham Lincoln and General Meigs, 40 Union soldiers were buried on the evening of July 12th on the battlefield site; they were later moved to the current location of Battleground National Cemetery. The War Department maintained the cemetery until 1933, when it was transferred to the National Park Service. After the internment of a 92 year-old veteran of the Battle of Fort Stevens in 1936, the cemetery closed to any further burials. Along with Fort Stevens (also administered by the National Park Service), Battleground National Cemetery stands as a physical reminder of the most direct military threat to DC since the British invasion of 1814.
DC Inventory: March 3, 1979
National Register: October 15, 1966
]]>One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Washington Aqueduct was commissioned by Congress in 1852, and construction began in 1853 under the supervision of Montgomery C. Meigs and the US Army Corps of Engineers. It followed closely after New York's Croton Aqueduct, built between 1837 and 1842, and Boston's Cochituate Aqueduct, built between 1846 and 1848. It was built from 1852 to 1863, placed in service in 1864, and with later alterations remains in service today.
A superlative illustration of early military involvement in the civil sector, the aqueduct epitomizes the emergence of the Army Corps of Engineers into the field of public works and consequent major economic influence. It is also a monumental engineering achievement of designer, engineer, and Civil War Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs. The aqueduct system includes a masonry dam at Great Falls, six bridges including the 220-foot masonry arch at Cabin John (the world’s longest masonry arch when built), a mile of tunnels, twelve miles of conduit, brick air vents, and various control facilities. The water supply crosses Rock Creek and enters the city at the Pennsylvania Avenue (Meigs) Bridge, where it passes through arched cast-iron conduit tubes that also support the bridge. In the original bridge of 1861-62, these huge pipes were exposed, but they are now partially concealed by a 1916 granite facing and soffit.
The District portion of the aqueduct includes Dalecarlia Reservoir, a nine-foot diameter masonry conduit under MacArthur Boulevard (originally Conduit Road), and Georgetown Reservoir.
DC Inventory: March 3, 1979
National Register: September 8, 1973
National Historic Landmark: November 7, 1973
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