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District of Columbia War Memorial, West Potomac Park, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
Summary
Significance: The District of Columbia War Memorial was built to commemorate the citizens of the District of Columbia who served in World War I. Authorized by an Act of Congress in 1924, funds to construct the Memorial were provided by the contributions of both organizations and individual citizens of the District. Construction of the Memorial began in the spring of 1931, and the Memorial was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on Armistice Day of that year. It was the first war memorial to be erected in West Potomac Park, and remains the only local D.C. memorial on the National Mall.
Designed by Washington architect Frederick H. Brooke, with the assistance of Washington architects Horace W. Peaslee and Nathan C. Wyeth, the district of Columbia War Memorial is a 47-foot tall circular, domed, Doric temple. Resting on concrete foundations, the four-foot high marble base defines a platform, 43'-5" in diameter, intended for use as a bandstand. Inscribed on the base are the names of the 499 District of Columbia citizens who lost their lives in the war, together with medallions representing the branches of the armed forces. Twelve 22'-tall fluted Doric marble columns support the entablature and dome.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N994
Survey number: HABS DC-857
Building/structure dates: 1931 Initial Construction
Herbert Clark (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was a professional mining engineer and was raised as a Quaker. As a Republican Secretary of Commerce, he promoted government support for standardization, efficiency, international trade and partnerships between government and business. Hoover's ambitious programs were hit by the Great Depression, that get worse every year despite the increasingly large-scale interventions he made in the economy. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office. Hoover tried to combat the Great Depression with large-scale government public works projects such as the Hoover Dam. He also called on industry to keep wages high but the economy kept falling and unemployment rates rose to about 25%. This downward spiral, as well as his support for prohibition policies that had lost favor, led to 1932 elections defeat in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised a New Deal. In 1947, after WWII end, President Harry S. Truman appointed Hoover to head the Hoover Commission to foster greater efficiency throughout the federal bureaucracy. "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."
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