Although the walls of the present Saint Paul's date from 1775, the church has undergone a number of changes throughout its history. The first church on the site was a frame structure erected in 1719. That church was replaced with a brick structure in 1775.
St. Paul's originally served Prince George's Parish, which, at that time, included the area between the Potomac and the Patuxent rivers, and the northeast fork of the Eastern Branch (Anacostia River). From there, the area extended westward indefinitely. It is the earliest church in the District of Columbia.
Until 1868, when the north wall was torn down and the church was remodeled, St. Paul's was rectangular in shape, with two large doors on the west side and a gallery on the interior. Reconstruction drawings, prior to 1868, show the west elevation as three bays wide with three round-headed windows on the second floor (probably to light the gallery), and a small square window in the center of the first story flanked on each side by a rectangular, two-leaf door and a rectangular fanlight.
The present church, which was rebuilt after it was damaged by a fire in 1921, is Georgian in style and character, with a hipped roof and Flemish bond red brick walls.
St. Paul's is located in Rock Creek Cemetery, the oldest burial ground in the District of Columbia, established in 1719.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: March 16, 1972
]]>With graves dating back to the early 1770s, and pre-revolution burials, the Rock Creek Church Yard is a unique landscape in the District. With a variety of headstones, inscriptions, and decorative grave markers, the cemetery tells the stories of the earliest residents of the land that would become Washington, DC in 1791.
Rock Creek Church Yard & Cemetery is notable, not only for its age, but also as the resting place for numerous historically significant individuals. From diplomats to the city’s early politicians, and from business owners to community leaders, the graves of Rock Creek represent the timeline and evolution of Washington.
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church (Rock Creek Church), which dates to 1775, and the famous Adams Memorial are located within the cemetery. Both are historic landmarks.
DC Inventory: January 21, 1977
National Register: August 12, 1977 (Amendment on March 24, 2010)
]]>Screened away from the rest of Rock Creek Cemetery by some carefully-placed foliage is a cast bronze figure, positioned in a granite architectural setting. The figure is draped in a heavy shroud, and its face is free of any expression. A stone bench by the statue invites the visitor to rest and to find peace and solace in the intimate environs.
In 1885, suffering from depression, photographer and socialite Marian Hooper “Clover” Adams took her own life. Her husband, historian and intellectual Henry Adams (a descendant of presidents John and John Quincy Adams), was inconsolable after her death, and in search of peace, he traveled to Japan with his friend, the artist John La Farge. There, Adams studied Buddhist philosophy and culture, and it was during this time that the idea for this memorial was born.
Upon his return to DC several years later, Adams asked La Farge to approach Augustus Saint-Gaudens on his behalf about making his idea for a memorial a reality. At the time, Saint-Gaudens was the most prominent sculptor in America, having earned widespread acclaim for his statuary work, including Standing Lincoln in Chicago and the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common. Although Adams was only able to offer vague, abstract concepts for the intended memorial, Saint-Gaudens accepted the commission, and together with La Farge, he and Adams began designing the sculpture.
The figure depicted in the memorial is not Clover, nor is it meant to represent grief or mourning, as is commonly thought. Instead, Adams wanted to convey “the acceptance, intellectually, of the inevitable.” His original concept for the memorial is closely tied to the Buddhist idea of nirvana, a liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and a state removed from human feeling. The notes in Saint-Gaudens’ sketchbook state only: “Adams. Buddha. Mental Repose. Calm reflection in contrast with the violence or force in nature.” The product of this abstract approach to memorial design is the inscrutable, unfathomable figure that sits in Rock Creek Cemetery.
Apparently inspired by Adams’ experiences with Buddhist devotional art as well as Saint-Gaudens’ familiarity with Parisian funerary works, the technically nameless sculpture has invited a variety of interpretations since its installation in 1891, even from among its creators. Adams’ own name for it was The Peace of God, but he felt that the statue’s “universality and anonymity” were key to its impact on the viewer. Saint-Gaudens called it The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding, and La Farge called it Kwannon, after the Japanese Buddhist goddess of harmony.
The most common name for the statue, Grief, comes from comments attributed to Mark Twain stating that the figure personified grief. Adams, however, resisted attempts to characterize it as such, and in fact disliked any attempt to name the figure. Writing to a friend, he stated that the statue was meant “to ask a question, not to give an answer, and the man who answers will be damned to eternity like the men who answered the Sphinx.” In his Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, he reiterated his belief that the memorial should prompt reflection rather than providing simple answers: "The interest of the figure was not in its meaning, but in the response of the observer,” he wrote. “...Like all great artists, Saint-Gaudens held up the mirror and no more.”
The memorial attracted a great deal of attention upon its unveiling in 1891. Saint-Gaudens was considered one of the finest American artists of his day, and Stanford White, who designed the statue’s granite setting, was among the most renowned architects in the U.S. Acclaim for the memorial was immediate and widespread. Even Alexander Woollcott, best known for his acerbic wit and ruthless cultural criticism, called the statue “the most beautiful thing fashioned by the hand of man on this continent.” Adams, who continued to grieve Clover and refused to discuss her for the rest of his life, came to despair at the memorial’s status as a tourist attraction. For many years, the constant visitors who came to appreciate the art prevented Adams from finding any of his own solace in the statue. Upon his death in 1918, however, Adams returned for his final rest, buried next to Clover in unmarked graves at the foot of the memorial.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: March 16, 1972
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