The monument as manifesto: The Pierre Charles L'enfant memorial, 1909–1911

Journal of Planning History

Volumn 6, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 283-310

  Butler, Sara A ^a  

^a ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Bosworth; Glenn Brown; L'Enfant; McMillan; planning history; Washington D.C

Indexed keywords

EID: 84993698722     PISSN: 15385132     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1538513207304656     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. For a discussion, see James E. Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 3-4. The makers of the L'Enfant Memorial did not draw distinctions between the two terms.
2. The phrase is from a “Tardy Act of Justice,” Washington Post, February 14, 1892. An early biography that should be used cautiously is H. Paul Caemmerer, The Life of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Planner of the City Beautiful, the City of Washington (Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Company, 1950; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1970). For a recent study of L'Enfant's contributions to American design, see Kenneth R. Bowling, Peter Charles L'Enfant: Vision, Honor, and Male Friendship in the Early American Republic (Washington, DC: Friends of the George Washington University Libraries, 2002).
3. A valuable resource for information on L'Enfant and on the campaigns to commemorate him is the scrapbook of newspaper clippings titled “Pierre Charles L'Enfant” in the Washingtoniana Division and the Washington Star Collection, D.C. Public Library, Washington, D.C. (DCPL).
4. For information on early-nineteenth-century table tombs and a description of the L'Enfant monument, see Peggy McDowell and Richard E. Meyer, The Revival Styles in American Memorial Art (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994), 65-72.
5. The inscription on the L'Enfant monument reads: PIERRE CHARLES L'ENFANT ENGINEER ARTIST SOLDIER UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DESIGNED THE PLAN FOR THE FEDERAL CITY MAJOR U. S. ENGINEER CORPS 1782 CHARTER MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI DESIGNED ITS CERTIFICATE OF INSIGNIA BORN IN PARIS, FRANCE, AUGUST 2, 1755 DIED JUNE 14, 1825, WHILE RESIDING AT CHILHAM CASTLE MANOR PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND AND WAS INTERRED THERE RE-INTERRED AT ARLINGTON, APRIL 28, 1909
6. “Tardy Act.” Similar comments also appear in Glenn Brown, “Remarks,” to the Columbia Historical Society, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 13 (1910): 167; and survive later in William Partridge, “ L'Enfant's Vision: A Discussion of Development from a City on Paper to a City in Actuality,” Federal Architect 7, no. 4 (April 1937): 34.
7. Eric Hobsbawm, “ Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983; reprint, New York: Canto, 1992), 1 (page references are to the reprint edition).
8. For a collection of essays tracing the development of the Mall, see Richard Longstreth, ed., The Mall in Washington, 1791-1991, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002). For a short history of the Mall in the early twentieth century, see Sue A. Kohler, The Commission of Fine Arts: A Brief History, 1910-1995 ( Washington, DC: Commission of Fine Arts, 1996), 1-7, 27-37.
9. Important studies of the McMillan Plan are Thomas S. Hines, “The Imperial Mall: The City Beautiful Movement and the Washington Plan of 1901-1902,” in Longstreth, ed., 79-99; Sue Kohler and Pamela Scott, eds., Designing the Nation's Capital: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2006); and Jon A. Peterson, “The Mall, the McMillan Plan, and the Origins of American City Planning,” in Longstreth, ed., 101-15.
10. William Brian Bushong, “ Glenn Brown, the American Institute of Architects, and the Development of the Civic Core of Washington, D.C” (PhD diss., George Washington University, 1988), 68.
11. James Edward Peters, Arlington National Cemetery: Shrine to America's Heroes, 2nd ed. (Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House, 2000), 120.
12. McDowell and Meyer, 65-72.
13. Young, 14.
14. John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 20.
15. Hines, 79.
16. An indispensable document in the study of the replanning of Washington in the early twentieth century is the report published by the McMillan Commission. In a chapter titled “Return to L'Enfant Plan,” the authors note their aim: to carry “to a legitimate conclusion the comprehensive, intelligent, and yet simple and straightforward scheme devised by L'Enfant under the direction of Washington and Jefferson.” Charles Moore, ed., The Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia, 57th Cong., 1st sess., 1902, S. Rept. 166 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1902), 25.
17. Peterson, “ The Mall,” 108 and 103. For a broader study of the origins of the American planning profession, see Jon A. Peterson, The Birth of City Planning in the United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
18. For turn-of-the-century efforts to honor L'Enfant, see James Dudley Morgan, “ Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the Unhonored and Unrewarded Engineer,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 2 (1899): 118-57; and “Washington Life, the L'Enfant Memorial, to be erected in honor of the Soldier, Patriot and Architect” January 21, 1905, from an unidentified periodical, in “Pierre Charles L'Enfant,” DCPL. Articles endorsing the campaign to appropriately commemorate L'Enfant include “L'Enfant's Grave,” Washington Star, April 20, 1905 ; and “Body of L'Enfant in Pauper's Grave,” Washington Times, July 17, 1904. The description of Morgan is from “Washington Life, the L'Enfant Memorial.” The second volume of the Records of the Columbia Historical Society included five articles or works related to L'Enfant, including Morgan, “Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant.”
19. The Columbia Historical Society, founded in 1894, became the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., in 1988.
20. The account of the reburial is drawn from James Dudley Morgan, “ The Reinterment of Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 13 (1910): 119-25; and from “L'Enfant under Dome,” Washington Post, April 28, 1909, in “Pierre Charles L'Enfant,” DCPL. The unveiling of the monument is covered in “Memorial Unveiled to L'Enfant, Who Laid out Capital,” Washington Star, May 23, 1911; reprinted in Glenn Brown, ed., American Institute of Architects, Quarterly Bulletin 12, no. 1 (April 1911): 9.
21. Bosworth's recollections are Caemmerer, 298. For biographical information on Bosworth, see Mark M. Jarzombek, Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004); the Baldwin Biographical Files at the American Institute of Architects Library and Archives; Quentin S. Jacobs, “ Welles Bosworth: Modern Classicist,” Newsletter, Preservation League of New York State (Spring 1989): 4-5; and “ W. W. Bosworth Dies in France,” New York Times, June 5, 1966, obituary.
22. For recent studies of Gilbert's work, see Sharon Irish, Cass Gilbert, Architect: Modern Traditionalist (New York: Monacelli Press, 1998); Margaret Heilbrun, ed., Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000); and Barbara S. Christen and Steven Flanders, eds., Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain (New York: Norton, 2001). Gilbert's plan is illustrated and discussed in the context of those of other architects in John W. Reps, Monumental Washington: The Planning and Development of the Capital Center (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967), 84-86. For a discussion of Gilbert's planning work, see Barbara Christen, “The Architect as Planner: Cass Gilbert's Responses to Historic Open Space” in Heilbrun, 177-228. Gilbert's study plan for the area of the National Mall is also published in Heilbrun, ed., 178 and Christen and Flanders, eds., 70.
23. For information on Brown, see Bushong, “Glenn Brown,” and William Bushong, “ The History of the Washington Chapter,” in William Bushong, Judith Helm Robinson, and Julie Mueller, A Centennial History of the Washington Chapter, the American Institute of Architects, 1887-1987 (Washington, DC: The Washington Architectural Foundation Press, 1987), 1-43.
24. Brown's efforts to gain support for the McMillan Plan are noted in Bushong, “Glenn Brown, ” 137-38. The description of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) convention is from Bushong, “ Glenn Brown,” 115. For another study of the AIA convention, see Tony P. Wrenn, “The American Institute of Architects Convention of 1900: Its Influence on the Senate Park Commission Plan,” in Sue Kohler and Pamela Scott, eds., Designing the Nation's Capital: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2006), 49-73.
25. Brown's work within the AIA in support of the City Beautiful replanning of Washington is noted in Bushong, “Glenn Brown,” 33. The description of Brown's history is from Bushong, “Glenn Brown,” 55.
26. Brown's intertwined ambitions are noted in Bushong, “Glenn Brown,” 135 and 175. Peterson's examination of the Senate Park Commission Plan as a catalyst behind the emergence, between 1902 and 1912, of the field of city planning in the United States does not mention Brown. Peterson, “The Mall,” 101-15. Although not noted by Peterson, Brown's network of efforts promoting the Senate Park Commission Plan positioned him as a pivotal advocate for the emerging city planning movement.
27. For an excellent summary of the debate within the American architectural community in the early twentieth century about style and form of civic architecture, see Elizabeth Greenwell Grossman, The Civic Architecture of Paul Cret (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 35-36. For an overview of Gilbert's “ambivalence” about the École's design methods and the influence of the school on American work, see Mary Beth Betts, “The Aesthetics of an Eclectic Architect, ” in Christen and Flanders, eds., 75 and 78.
28. The Society of Beaux-Arts Architects was another of the many fruits of the World's Columbian Exposition. Formed in 1894 by architects who had trained at the École, the organization provided a forum for maintaining and encouraging professional contacts among the group and sought to ensure the influence of the school's traditions on the profession. By creating, funding, and awarding the annual Paris Prize for study at the École, the organization sought to mold new members of similar training and sensibilities in the next generation. George Gurney, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985), 37; and Michele H. Bogart, Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), 372-73, fn 7.
29. For an overview of the society's position on competitions, see Sara Bradford Landau, “ Coming to Terms: Architecture Competitions in America and the Emerging Profession, 1789-1922,” in Hélène Lipstadt, ed., The Experimental Tradition: Essays on Competitions in Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989), 67. The society's professed intentions are in “A Monument to Major L'Enfant,” American Architect 95, pt. 2: 1740 (1909): 144.
30. Noted in Cass Gilbert to Glenn Brown, March 13, 1909, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, Record Group (RG) 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C.
31. A published source for the competition program is “A Monument to Major L'Enfant.”
32. Noted in Gilbert to Brown, March 13, 1909, RG 801, AIA Archives.
33. Bosworth's recollections about the design of the L'Enfant tomb and comments on his sources appear in Caemmerer, 298-302. While Caemmerer should be consulted with care for information on L'Enfant, his first-person interview of Bosworth in the summer of 1948, although not fully corroborated by Brown's correspondence about the monument, complements and does not contradict information found in Brown's letters. It provides an important source on the thoughts of the monument's designer.
34. Gilbert's criticism of the winning design is in Gilbert to Brown, March 13, 1909, RG 801, AIA Archives. A handwritten note in, presumably, Gilbert's hand, added to the typewritten letter, states, “I understand it now. The author might on restudy improve it.”
35. The input from Brown, Gilbert, and Kendall is invisible in contemporary published accounts of the design. The 1909 article in The American Architect mentions only Bosworth as the designer. The author notes that Bosworth, following the selection of his design, was “making a few slight changes in the scheme in accordance with the desire of the Commissioners.” “A Monument to Major L'Enfant.” Bosworth's recollection of the input he received from Brown, Gilbert, and Kendall is noted in Caemmerer, 298-302.
36. William Welles Bosworth to Glenn Brown, January 5, 1911, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C.
37. Bosworth notes he had requested the “proper plan” from Brown in W. W. Bosworth to M. J. Falvey, February 1, 1910, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C. The transmittal of the architectural firm's drawing of the L'Enfant plan detail is noted in Charles L. Fraser(?) (Office of William Welles Bosworth) to Glenn Brown, March 19, 1910, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C. Bosworth's acknowledgment that he had followed Brown and Gilbert's suggestions is in William Welles Bosworth to Glenn Brown, August 20, 1910, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C.
38. Bosworth noted Bacon's contribution in W. W. Bosworth to Glenn Brown, July 26, [presumed to be 1910], Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C. The exchange between Bosworth and Brown about the text is from Bosworth to Brown, July 26, [presumed to be 1910] RG 801, AIA Archives and Glenn Brown, to W. W. Bosworth, July 27, 1910, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C.
39. Glenn Brown to W. W. Bosworth, January 7, 1911, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C.
40. Jules Jusserand, “ Speech of the French Ambassador” (Arlington Cemetery), May 22, 1911, p. 1, James Dudley Morgan Collection of the Digges-L'Enfant-Morgan Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
41. Elihu Root, Address at the dedication of the L'Enfant monument, May 22, 1911; quoted in Caemmerer, 302-3.
42. Photographs of, and information on, the L'Enfant monument are in Glenn Brown, ed., American Institute of Architects, Quarterly Bulletin 12, no. 1 (April 1911): facing page 5, facing page 9, and 9. Brown's recollection of Gilbert's role is in Glenn Brown, 1860-1930, Memories: A Winning Crusade to Revive George Washington's Vision of a Capital City (Washington, DC: Press of W. F. Roberts Company, 1931), 574.
43. Glenn Brown to Editor, Harper's Weekly, New York, May 2, 1911, Folder 16 (“L'Enfant Memorial”), Box 8, SR 5, RG 801, American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, D.C. and Glenn Brown, ed., “L'Enfant Memorial,” Proceedings of the Forty-Fifth Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects, Held in the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., December 12 to 15, 1911 (Washington, DC: Board of Directors, AIA, 1912), 16.
44. Glenn Brown, “Remarks,” to the Columbia Historical Society, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 13 (1910): 167.