Washington:
Symbol and
City
October
9, 2004 - Long-term
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The
Washington Monument,
Signal
Corps, U.S. Army, ca. 1931
Courtesy National Archives and
Records Administration
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Charles Dickens once called Washington a city of magnificent intentions. This humorous epithet, bestowed by an urbane British author, notes that the young capital had not quite lived up to expectations by 1842, but it also acknowledges that the statesmen who planned the city aimed for greatness. Over the course of two centuries, the nation's capital has grown to fulfill many of their hopes. Today, the revered Capitol and White House, the stately offices of government, the iconic monuments and museums, and the sweep of the Mall and the city's many public parks all evoke the ideals of democracy in the 21st century.
Created
by the government, for the government, Washington
was bound to differ from other
American cities. Here, the local
needs that all cities share-for
housing, transportation, water
and power utilities, commercial
centers, and community institutions-vie
directly with national priorities.
More than half a million residents
now live in the District, in
more than 100 neighborhoods.
This exhibition explores how
residents experience the city
and how Washington itself expresses
the tension between the demands
of a working seat of government
and the desire for a national symbol, and the hopes and needs of an
evolving city.
The
City of Intent
The
vision of a home for the
government became reality
on July 1, 1790, when Congress
decided to place the seat of
government at the nation's geographical
center and authorized President
George Washington to select a
specific site on the Potomac
River-a location that he strongly
favored. Placing the capital
here fulfilled political, not
practical aims, to calm squabbling
northern and southern interests.
The new federal district was
remote from almost everything
important to the business of
running the country and almost
entirely undeveloped. |
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A
View of the President's
House in the City
of Washington after
the conflagration
of the 24th August
1814,
color aquatint
by W. Strickland
after George Munger, ca.
1814
Courtesy
Library of Congress,
Prints
and Photographs Division |
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President
Washington devoted his attention
to the federal city, which was named for him on September
9, 1791. Conscious that the states
still hesitated to cede power
to a federal government and that
Europeans watched for weakness
in the United States, he championed
grand formal architecture to
bolster the government's authority.
With Secretary of State Thomas
Jefferson, he oversaw competitions
to design a President's House
and Capitol. Both were nearly
destroyed by the British during
the War of 1812. Both were rebuilt
and repeatedly renewed as the
country has grown. Today, they
stand as potent symbols of the
American nation. |
The
Nation's
Front Lawn
The
city's great public buildings
and broad avenues grew
out of the imagination of Peter
Charles L'Enfant, whom
George Washington handpicked
to design the capital. This Frenchman,
who so admired America that he
preferred to call himself Peter
rather than Pierre, soon resigned
over disagreements with the city's
planners, but his plan has persisted.
More than a century later, in
1902, the Senate Park Commission,
popularly known as the McMillan
Commission, rededicated
the Mall to L'Enfant's ideals
and gave the capital its modern
identity.
The
broad green carpet of the
Mall now stretches more
than two miles, from Capitol
Hill to the Arlington Memorial
Bridge. On this huge stage, thousands
of citizens can exercise their
First Amendment rights-or two
can toss a Frisbee. The museums
and memorials along its length
draw visitors from the city,
the nation, and the world. The
Mall has become the scene of
pastime, patriotic pageantry,
and powerful protest.
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Bird's eye view of the Senate Park Commission central
plan of 1901-1902,
from a point 4,000 feet above Arlington,
rendering by F. L. V. Hoppin
Courtesy
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts |
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The Evolving
City
Beyond
the Mall lie neighborhoods that reflect
societal and governmental influences.
Wars and expansions of the federal
government have brought surges in
population and fierce competition
for housing. Row houses dominated
the streetscape until the mid-1800s
and later flourished in a building
boom between the world wars. After
the Civil War, rising land values
and safer elevators led to the first
tall apartment buildings as development
advanced northward.
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2200 block of Nichols Avenue,
Southeast, Anacostia, July 4,
1917
Courtesy Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division |
Local community
institutions and commerce responded
to national strictures. As early
as the mid-1800s, Howard University
and the city's African-American
schools attracted the country's
brightest black scholars and
students. Segregation gave rise
to an "alternative downtown" in
the Shaw neighborhood for Washingtonians
shunned in the stores along F
Street. By the 1960s, however,
suburbanization and integration
were altering both downtowns.
The growth of Washington's transportation systems has
profoundly affected the city. Bridges spanning Rock
Creek opened the northwest suburbs to development
in the early 1900s, while the lack of adequate trolley
service thwarted development in Anacostia. When government
offices began to move from the District in the 1940s,
newly built highways gave rise to suburbs that drew
population and commerce out of the city. Although
the Metrorail system eased traffic in the
growing metropolitan region, roadways remained strained.
The
Federal Presence
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Section
through Dome of U.S. Capitol, Architect
of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter,
1855
Courtesy Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division |
By
the early 1900s, the government had
grown so much that only a vast building
program could accommodate it. As
World War II approached, overcrowding
pushed federal buildings out of the
District, beginning with the Pentagon
in 1943. The government's oversight
and purse strings have always raised
the question of who controls
the land in the District.
Several massive federal programs,
including a failed inner loop highway
system, and the clearing of Southwest
in the 1960s, have engendered public
resistance. Others have clearly changed
the city for the better. The neoclassical
Federal Triangle area replaced slums
and a red-light district. The Smithsonian
Institution has grown from one to
many world-renowned museums.
Parkland
and public space have always been
central to city planning in the District.
Now, questions arise about how best
to balance preservation and
use. Rock Creek Valley presented
a nearly impassable north-south barrier
before the automobile age but today
carries a high volume of traffic.
L'Enfant's plan created numerous
circles and squares that would be
suitable for memorials, but the Mall
has always been the most desired
location. To assure future generations
of cultural and commemorative space,
the National Capital Planning Commission
now encourages distribution of memorials
throughout the city.
Washington's
Main Street
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Aerial
view of a street corner in
front of the Willard Hotel,
Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th
Street, 1939
Photographer: David Myers
(David Moffat), U.S. Farm Security
Administration
Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division
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Connecting the Capitol and the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue has always been the city's ceremonial "Main Street," although its appearance belied its importance for much of its history. Lined by motley buildings, it remained unpaved until the 1870s, and train tracks crossed it until the early 1900s.
Pennsylvania Avenue presents a microcosm of the evolving city of Washington and its federal presence. President John F. Kennedy's administration viewed this traditional route of presidential inaugural parades as unworthy of the capital's stature. By 1965, the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site had been designated, and in 1972, Congress created the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation to revitalize the area. Today Pennsylvania Avenue blends the historical, ceremonial, governmental, commercial, and residential faces of the city.
Acknowledgements
Exhibition
Team
Guest Curator: Don Alexander Hawkins
Consulting Curator: Portia James
Exhibition Project Manager: Deborah Sorensen
Script Writer: Sue Voss
Educator: Eileen B. Langholtz
Exhibition Design: Robert Hayward Anderson X-DESIGN
Models: Rebecca Fuller and William Watkins, RAF Models and Displays
Thermoforms: Touch Graphics
Audiovisual Research and Production: VideoTakes, Inc. and Bob Connolly
Picture Research: Joan M. Mathys
Story Research: Martha Davidson
Curatorial
Advisory Committee
Harry G. Robinson III, FAIA, AICP, Professor of Urban Design and Dean Emeritus, Howard University
Edward Smith, Ph.D., Director of American Studies and Special Assistant to the Dean, American University
John Michael Vlach, Ph.D., Professor of American Studies and Director of the Folklife Program, The George Washington University
Dreck S. Wilson, ASLA, NOMA, Architectural Historian
Community
Advisory Committee
Olivia Cadaval, Ph.D., Folklorist and Chair, Cultural Research and Education, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
Barbara Franco, former Executive Director, The City Museum; Executive Director, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Louis Hicks, Director, Alexandria Black History Museum
Richard Longstreth, Ph.D., Director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, Professor of American Civilization, The George Washington University
Betty C. Monkman, Curator Emerita, The White House
Elizabeth Ross, Independent Tour Operator
Janet Zeller, Ed.D., Accessibility Program Manager, USDA Forest Service
Washington:
Symbol and City is made possible by (as of March 13, 2007):
Benefactors
The
Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz
Foundation
Charles
E. Culpeper Foundation
Rockefeller
Brothers Fund
Government of the District of Columbia
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Patrons
American
Express Company
Supporters
Fannie
Mae Foundation
Jim
and Sharon Todd
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Contributors
Blake
Real Estate, Inc.
Chevy Chase Bank
DC Office of Planning/Historic Preservation Office
HITT Contracting
The
Kiplinger Foundation
Lt. Col. and Mrs. William Karl Konze
Meyer Foundation
The Peterson Family Foundation
Straley, Katrivanos, and Mazza Families
Stephen G. and Thelma S. Yeonas Foundation
Friends
Douglas Development Corp.
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
Richard and Lois H. England
Horning Bros.
HUMANITIES COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON, D.C.
Frederick A. Kober
Louis Dreyfus Property Group
James & Theodore Pedas Family Foundation
PEPCO
Samuel G. Rose
Hattie M. Strong Foundation
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust
Associates
James
G. Davis Construction Corporation
Sunrise Foundation
Donors
Charles
H. Atherton, FAIA
Shalom Baranes Associates, PC
Clark Enterprises
Louisa and Robert Duemling
Cynthia and Charles Field
Jillian Poole
Albert and Shirley Small
Jessica and Henry Townsend
Virginia Business Interiors
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Initial research for the exhibition’s redevelopment was generously funded by additional grants from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and the HUMANITIES COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON, D.C.
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