Renwick Gallery (Old Corcoran Gallery): Originally built as the Corcoran Art Gallery, the Renwick Gallery was designed to emulate parts of the Louvre in Paris.
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The Old Corcoran Gallery, now the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, began construction in 1859 from designs by James Renwick Jr. and Robert Auchmutz. It was one of the first buildings in the United States erected exclusively as an art gallery, and is the oldest gallery in the District of Columbia. In the late 1890s, a new Corcoran Gallery of Art opened just south of its original location.
Conceived in the French Second Empire style, the Renwick Gallery is a deliberate emulation of the design of the then-new additions to the Louvre in Paris. The relatively modest scale of this building, the date of its construction, and the excellence of its architectural detail give this building a seminal position in the development of the Second Empire style in the United States. Originally constructed between 1859 and 1864, the Renwick was restored between 1967 and 1970 and again between 1985 and 1986.
From 2013 to 2015, the Renwick Gallery was rehabilitated and continues to serve as the Smithsonian Institution's museum for contemporary craft and decorative arts.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: March 24, 1969
National Historic Landmark: November 11, 1971
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![Renwick Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., [between 1980 and 2006]](https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/files/fullsize/5f49d7b7d54419c32f03583edc455342.jpg)
Renwick Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., [between 1980 and 2006]
Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Renwick art gallery, Washington, D.C. [Between 1980 and 2006] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2011632980/. (Accessed December 21, 2016.)![Old Corcoran Art Gallery, 17th & PA Ave., [Washington, D.C.], [between 1918 and 1920]](https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/files/fullsize/931769e96ebfd4aadacb902417d8444d.jpg)
Old Corcoran Art Gallery, 17th & PA Ave., [Washington, D.C.], [between 1918 and 1920]
Renwick, James, Architect. [Old Corcoran Art Gallery, 17th & PA Ave., Washington, D.C]. [Between 1918 and 1920] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/npc2007000075/. (Accessed December 21, 2016.)
Old Corcoran Art Gallery, northeast corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, circa 1958
Photo #3 from: Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, James Renwick, William Wilson Corcoran, Smithsonian Institution, Montgomery Meigs, S Dillon Ripley, Ezekiel, Hugh Jacobson, and Incorporated Universal Restoration. Corcoran Art Gallery, Northeast corner of Seventeenth Street & Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Documentation Compiled After, 1933. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/dc0071/. (Accessed December 21, 2016.)
Old Corcoran Art Gallery, 1971
Credit: NPS