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Smithsonian Institution Building

Popularly known as "the Castle," the Smithsonian Institution's original building opened in 1855 and was the first museum on the Mall. James Renwick Jr designed the building in a Gothic Revival style with red sandstone from Seneca Creek, Maryland. The Castle housed collections, laboratories, and the family of the first Secretary. By 1881, the Smithsonian's collections and staff outgrew the Castle and expanded to a second building next door. Today, the Smithsonian Visitors' Center and founder James Smithson's crypt can be found inside the Castle.

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Contents of this path:
1. "I Have a Dream" Inscription
2. Alice Paul Activist and leader of the National Woman's Party, Alice Paul organized the Woman Suffrage Parade on Pennsylvania Avenue the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration in March, 1913. Four years later, Paul led a demonstration in front of the White House, again demanding women’s right to vote. Protesters were arrested for obstructing traffic and jailed. While in prison, Paul began a hunger strike drawing more attention to her cause. Responding to political pressure, President Woodrow Wilson called on Congress and the states to amend the Constitution and allow women the right to vote. The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.
3. Alice Pike Barney
4. Andrew Jackson Downing In 1850, President Millard Fillmore commissioned landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing to landscape the Mall. His design divided the Mall into four smaller parks, each with a unique appearance, connected by curving walks. Downing was an advocate for urban parks and hoped his design would inspire other cities to create large parks. He died suddenly at age 36 in a steamboat accident before the Mall's new landscape design was finished. A memorial urn in the gardens outside of the Smithsonian Castle honors his contributions to the Mall's design history.
5. Andrew Jackson Downing Urn This urn memorializing horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) was installed on the Mall in 1856 near the present location of the National Museum of American History. The urn was moved several times before it arrived in the Enid A. Haupt Garden in the Smithsonian in 1999. Downing's friend and architectural partner Calvert Vaux designed the urn and inscribed it with a quote by Downing which contains the line, "Plant spacious parks in your cities, and loose their gates as wide as the morning, to the whole people."
6. Army Medical Museum and Library The Army Medical Museum and Library served as the home for the library and museum of the Surgeon General's office. The Museum was founded in 1862, but it did not have a permanent home until the building opened in 1887. For a time, it also housed Army medical records and the Army Medical School (1893-1910). The building received National Historic Landmark status in 1964, but in 1969, it was demolished to make way for the Hirshhorn Museum. The Army Medical Museum moved to Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus.
7. Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station The Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station was built in 1873, over the old Tiber Creek and Washington City Canal waterway on the present-day site of the National Gallery of Art. Building contractors sank 35-foot piles to secure the foundation of the building on the waterlogged ground. Made of red brick pressed with black mortar, the building's three towers, elaborate roofs, ornamental iron, and red, blue, and green slates exemplified Victorian Gothic architecture. President James A. Garfield was assassinated at the station on July 2, 1881. The station was demolished in 1907 after nearby Union Station was built and the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad consolidated with other railroad companies.
8. Bartholdi Fountain Originally created for the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, sculptor Frederic Bartholdi had hoped to sell the fountain after the exposition concluded. The only offer to purchase it was made by Congress, who bought the work for $6,000. The sculpture was moved from Philadelphia to Washington and placed at the site of the original botanical garden, which stood where the Capitol Reflecting Pool is today. In 1927 the sculpture was moved to its present home in the newly-established Bartholdi Park.
9. Benjamin Banneker
10. Boy Scout Memorial The Boy Scout Memorial is a bronze and granite sculpture honoring the Boy Scouts of America. It is located on the White House Ellipse on the site of the 1937 Boy Scout Jamboree. Built without any public funds, Boy Scouts raised all the money for the memorial themselves by collecting dimes. Then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson authored legislation permitting the memorial on the Mall. The sculpture includes a Boy Scout flanked by idealized figures of adults. Scrolls at the base of the memorial list the names of each Boy Scout who participated in the dime-collecting effort.
11. Bulfinch Gatehouses Architect of the Capitol, Charles Bulfinch, designed the gatehouses and matching gateposts in the 1820s. They originally flanked a grand pedestrian entrance on the west side of the Capitol. They were removed in 1874 and placed in their present locations in 1880. Currently, one gatehouse and three gateposts are in place at the corner of 15th and Constitution Avenue; the other gatehouse is at the corner of 17th and Constitution, and the remaining gateposts are located at the entrance to the National Arboretum in north-eastern Washington.
12. Bulfinch Gatehouses Architect of the Capitol, Charles Bulfinch, designed the gatehouses and matching gateposts in the 1820s. They originally flanked a grand pedestrian entrance on the west side of the Capitol. They were removed in 1874 and placed in their present locations in 1880. Currently, one gatehouse and three gateposts are in place at the corner of 15th and Constitution Avenue; the other gatehouse is at the corner of 17th and Constitution, and the remaining gateposts are located at the entrance to the National Arboretum in north-eastern Washington.
13. Capitol Reflecting Pool
14. Carl Browne Carl Browne helped Jacob S. Coxey lead the first march on Washington. In the spring of 1894, Coxey and Browne set out from Massillon, Ohio, and marched to Washington, DC, with a few hundred unemployed people. Together they advocated for a public jobs project for the unemployed. Once they arrived, Coxey decided to speak on the Capitol grounds, even though it was illegal. Both Coxey and Browne were arrested and imprisoned. Although Coxey was the public leader of the march, Browne was active in promoting the protest to the national press.
15. Center Market Once the largest commercial market in Washington, Center Market opened in 1801. The original buildings were replaced in 1872 by a building designed by Adolph Cluss. The market was close to the Washington City Canal, railroads, and streetcar lines. It was demolished in 1931 and is the current site of the National Archives. Vendors sold all manner of goods inside: produce, meat and fish, and staples. Because of its access to transportation, Center Market was able to sell goods that had been grown or produced far away; fast, dependable railroads and streetcars made it possible to offer fresh foods before they spoiled.
16. Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking.], 08/28/1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister and African American civil rights leader. On August 18, 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A plaque on the steps of the Memorial marks this event. In 2012, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall to commemorate King's work and his vision for equality and national unity.
17. Constitution Gardens The Constitution Gardens were dedicated in May 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial and were declared a living legacy to the US Constitution by President Ronald Reagan in September 1986. During World War I, the US government built temporary offices on this site. Those buildings remained until the early 1970s when President Nixon ordered their removal and replacement by a park. On a small island in the middle of the lake lies a memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, dedicated in 1984.
18. Cuban Friendship Urn
  The Cuban Friendship Urn originally stood in Cuba to honor American deaths on the USS Maine and during the Spanish-American War. After the urn was damaged in a 1926 hurricane, it was sent to the United States and placed outside the Cuban Embassy. Some time in the 1960s, it disappeared following the deterioration of Cuban-American relations. In 1992, the National Park Service located the urn and placed it in its present position in East Potomac Park.
19. Eisenhower Executive Office Building Located next to the White House, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building currently houses offices for executive staffs of the President, Vice President, First Lady, and Second Lady. Designed in the French Second Empire architectural style, this massive granite building originally housed the State Department, War Department, and the Department of the Navy. The building took 17 years to complete. It was the largest office building in the US when it opened with 553 rooms. Each office door contained a brass knob with the insignia of the State, War, or Navy department. The building has been renovated and is a National Historic Landmark.
20. First Air Mail Flight Marker Commemorating the first air mail flight connecting Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, the Aero Club of Washington placed this plaque in 1958 to mark the 40th anniversary of that flight. Following 52 experimental flights by the Post Office Department in 1911 and 1912, the first extended test of airmail service occurred in May 1918, when the US Army and the Post Office Department together set up an experimental line between New York and Washington, DC using army pilots.
21. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial This is the second memorial to Roosevelt in the city; the first is near the National Archives and matches Roosevelt's own statement about what a memorial to him should look like: a block of stone about the size of a desk. However, in the 1970s, Congress approved a larger memorial, which was constructed in the 1990s once funding was secured. The FDR memorial generated controversy over depictions of Roosevelt in a wheelchair. Some activists argued that the wheelchair should be more prominent, while others pointed out the fact that Roosevelt's disability was largely hidden during his own lifetime.
22. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Olmsted Jr. was a landscape architect appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve on the Senate Park Commission in 1901. The Commission was charged with improving the Mall's design and restoring elements of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's original plan. Olmsted Jr. established himself after apprenticing with his father, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect famous for building New York's Central Park. While working for the Commission, Olmsted Jr. was responsible for designing the landscape and parks system for the Mall. Throughout his life, he remained committed to national and civic parks across the US.
23. Freer Gallery of Art Founded in 1906, the Freer became the first Smithsonian museum dedicated to Asian art. Charles Freer donated his collection of nearly 10,000 works of Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Indian objects and American art for this new museum. Freer also funded the construction of the building that opened in 1923, and he would only allow art from his collections to be displayed within its galleries. Since merging with the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the museum is now known as the Freer-Sackler.
24. George Mason Memorial George Mason (1725-1792), author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He refused to sign the Constitution because of the absence of a Bill of Rights and a disagreement over the issue of standing armies. The memorial was funded through an effort by the Board of Regents of Gunston Hall, Mason's home in Fairfax, Virginia, which now operates as a museum. The site of the memorial was home to a garden called the Pansy Garden in the 1920s. The memorial was approved in 1990, but groundbreaking did not take place until 2000.
25. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Established in 1966 as part of the Smithsonian Institution, the Hirshhorn collects and exhibits modern and contemporary art building on founder Joseph Hirshhorn's collection of 6,000 art works. Hirshhorn was a Latvian immigrant to the United States. His collection contained pieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Edward Hopper and sculptures by August Rodin and Alexander Calder. The Museum opened in 1974, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft as a large piece of modern sculpture. The elevated hollowed-center cylinder building distinguishes it from other museums on the Mall. Curved exterior concrete walls open to visitors through a large window offering a full view of the Mall and the Sculpture Garden below.
26. Jacob S. Coxey Jacob Coxey led the first march on Washington in the spring of 1894. Starting in Massillon, Ohio, Coxey marched to the Capitol to bring attention to the plight of unemployed Americans. Coxey proposed that the federal government subsidize a labor program for the unemployed. At the time, a law prohibited gatherings on the Capitol Grounds, but Coxey believed in his cause and tried to give a speech. He was arrested and then jailed for 20 days. Coxey returned in 1914 and successfully spoke on the Capitol steps pleading for a jobs program for the unemployed.
27. James McMillan McMillan was a US Senator from Michigan who led the Senate Park Commission in creating a new design plan for Washington's public spaces, including the National Mall. The work and plan of the Senate Park Commission is often referred to by McMillan's name, because he worked very closely with architects and artists appointed to the commission. McMillan died in office in 1902, and would not see his work implemented on the Mall.
28. Jefferson Memorial The Jefferson Memorial features a classically-inspired dome surrounded by columns. The centerpiece of the memorial is a 19 foot bronze statue of Jefferson. The statue was the second one of Jefferson placed in the Memorial, replacing a work made of plaster because material shortages during World War II made metal unavailable. Inscriptions on the interior walls of the memorial include passages from the Declaration of Independence, Notes on the State of Virginia, and A Summary View of the Rights of British America.
29. Jesse Jackson Sr. In May 1968, Jesse Jackson and other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) gathered in Washington, DC, to draw attention to poverty through the Poor Peoples' Campaign. Carrying on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after his assassination in April of that year, the SCLC lobbied Congress to create laws that encouraged economic equality. To highlight issues of economic inequality, SCLC constructed a temporary encampment known as Resurrection City on the Mall near the Lincoln Memorial. Jackson served as city manager and mayor of the tent city for its six week existence.
30. Korean War Veterans Memorial On July 27, 1995, the presidents of the United States and the Republic of Korea dedicated the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the 42nd anniversary of the war's end. The memorial consists of an open triangle filled with 19 stainless-steel figures representing the 4 US military branches who look as if they are on patrol. A shallow reflecting pool fills the circle. Surrounding the soldiers is a wall filled with etchings made from war-related photographs. Another wall lists 22 members of the United Nations that contributed troops or medical support to the Korean War effort.
31. Lincoln Memorial
  Constructed between 1914 and 1922, the Lincoln Memorial consists of a large, columned, classically inspired structure with a statue of Lincoln in the interior. Inscribed on the interior walls are Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address. The site has become a frequent stage for the civil rights demonstrations. African American opera singer Marian Anderson performed there after being barred from performing at then segregated Constitution Hall in 1939. In 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
32. Lucy Burns As a women's rights activist in the early 1900s, Burns organized political marches and rallies to pressure male lawmakers into passing a Constitutional amendment allowing women to vote. In 1913, she helped organize a suffrage march on Pennsylvania Avenue the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Burns and Alice Paul formed the National Women's Party in 1917 and continued to fight for women's right to vote. Burns was arrested with other members of the Party after picketing the White House in 1917. While in prison, she went on a hunger strike with Alice Paul to show their commitment to their cause. They won the fight in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
33. Main Navy and Munitions Buildings The Main Navy and Munitions temporary war buildings were built quickly in 1918 during World War I under the direction of Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to provide emergency offices for wartime workers. Nearly 14,000 U.S. Navy personnel worked in these buildings, including the Secretary of the Navy and the Bureau of Navigation. FDR would later say he wanted the structures to be "of such superlative ugliness" that they would be torn down quickly. Despite their appearance and presence on parkland of the Mall, the offices proved useful for more than 50 years. President Nixon ordered them demolished in 1970. Today, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial and Constitution Gardens occupy the same space that belonged to the Main Navy and Munitions buildings.
34. Marian Anderson Marian Anderson was an African American singer, who became famous for fighting racial inequality when she gave a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In April 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience at their Constitution Hall. With help from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the concert was moved to the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson stood on the steps and performed before 75,000 people gathered on the Mall. Millions more listened to her on the radio. Her concert pointed to the value of using the National Mall as a place to bring public attention to political and social issues.
35. Mary Ann Hall's Brothel Mary Ann Hall’s brothel was the largest and most luxurious of more than 100 known bordellos in Washington during the 1800s. Hall’s three-story establishment stood where the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is today. According to Union Army records, she employed 18 women. Archaeological excavations indicate that Hall imported French wine and champagne for her clients. She ran her establishment until 1883, dying in 1886 with a net worth of $87,000. Although Washington police frequently harassed and arrested prostitutes, the profession remained legal in DC until 1914.
36. National Museum of Natural History First known as the new National Museum, the National Museum of Natural History's building opened in 1910 after nearly 10 years of construction. The Museum's Beaux Arts design features a domed rotunda, columns, and a portico. The Museum first housed art, culture, history, geology, and natural history collections until the 1960s when the Museum of Natural History became a separate museum. Today, it is one of the most visited museums in the world, and displays such diverse objects as the Hope Diamond, a complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and a live butterfly collection.
37. National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Opened in 2004 after nearly 15 years of planning and negotiations, the National Museum of the American Indian holds nearly 800,000 objects of cultural and historical significance. A photographic archive holds an additional 125,000 images. Congress established NMAI after it was discovered that the Smithsonian Institution held some 18,000 Native American remains. Native leaders petitioned Congress for respectful treatment of those remains, culminating in the museum's authorization.
38. National World War II Memorial The National World War II Memorial opened in 2004 to honor American soldiers and civilians who served during World War II. Supporters spent over 15 years gathering Congressional support and raising money to fund the construction of this memorial. To highlight the national scope of the war effort, 56 granite pillars represent each of the 48 states and 8 US territories in 1945. Two arches stand at the opposite ends of the memorial symbolizing the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of the War. To remember more than 400,000 Americans who died during World War II, the Freedom Wall includes 4,048 gold stars.
39. President's Park
40. Smithsonian Institution Building Popularly known as "the Castle," the Smithsonian Institution's original building opened in 1855 and was the first museum on the Mall. James Renwick Jr designed the building in a Gothic Revival style with red sandstone from Seneca Creek, Maryland. The Castle housed collections, laboratories, and the family of the first Secretary. By 1881, the Smithsonian's collections and staff outgrew the Castle and expanded to a second building next door. Today, the Smithsonian Visitors' Center and founder James Smithson's crypt can be found inside the Castle.
41. Summerhouse Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Summerhouse so that visitors to the Capitol could sit and rest as they toured the Capitol grounds. It contains intricate brickwork, several windows, wrought iron gates, and seating space for up to 22 people. The Summerhouse is hexagonal in shape. A fountain in the center once offered drinking water, but now is simply decorative. Olmsted originally intended to build a second summerhouse, but Congress objected.
42. The Rescue
  A large sculpture depicting a frontier father defending his family from an attacking American Indian, "The Rescue" has been a source of controversy since its installation in 1850. Sculptor Horatio Greenough stated that he was trying to show the dangers of "peopling our continent," but objections have ranged from the criticism of the attitude of the dog to various objections to its portrayal of American Indians. The US House of Representatives voted on, but did not pass, a provision to destroy the sculpture in 1939. After advocacy by American Indians and members of Congress, the statue was removed in 1958.
43. Uncle Beazley Generations of children climbed on Uncle Beazley, a fiberglass triceratops, who lived on the National Mall in front of the Museum of Natural History. For a slow-moving dinosaur, Uncle Beazley is widely traveled. Before coming to the Mall in the 1970s, his home was the Smithsonian's Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. In 1994, Uncle Beazley moved from the Mall to his current residence, the National Zoo. Beazley was constructed in 1967 for "The Enormous Egg" TV special that aired the next year. The Sinclair Company subsequently donated Beazley to the Smithsonian.
44. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall opened in 1982 to honor more than 58,000 American casualties lost in the Vietnam War. Two black walls form a wide V that list the names of each person missing or dead in chronological order. Diamonds appear beside names of the men and women killed, while the names of missing soldiers are marked with a cross. Kiosks near the memorial help visitors to locate names on the wall. Since it opened, visitors have left letters or other mementos for loved ones at the Wall. The Wall is 1 of 3 memorials honoring those who served in the Vietnam War.
45. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Three Soldiers The Three Soldiers statue sits a few feet from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. This statue was added after the Wall opened to complement it and to offer an alternative memorial for critics who disliked the non-traditional design of the Wall. The sculpture's 3 soldiers represent the diversity of the US military by including a Caucasian, African American, and Latino American whose service branch is intentionally ambiguous. Together, they face the Wall of the fallen.
46. Washington City Canal The Washington City Canal ran for approximately two miles of canal through Washington from the present day Navy Yard, across the Capitol grounds, and down present day Constitution Avenue. Completed in 1815, the Canal incorporated Tiber Creek near today's Washington Monument. In 1833, the Canal was connected to the C&O Canal through an extension known as the Washington Branch. Early city planners envisioned the Canal as part of a commercial transport system, linking the nation's capital with the interior of the country. Traffic on the canal declined by the 1850s while political and financial upheavals left the canal poorly maintained. The canal was filled in in the 1870s.
47. White House The White House is the official residence and office of the President of the United States. In 1792, the cornerstone was laid, and construction began with free and enslaved laborers doing much of the work. The building was designed in a Neo-Classical style with a sandstone exterior that was whitewashed, which is how it became known as "The White House." In 1800, when second President John Adams moved in as the first resident, the White House was unfinished. In 1814, the British burned the building during the War of 1812. The building has grown and changed several times throughout its history. Today, the White House contains 132 rooms.
48. Williams' Private Jail (Slave Pen) A private home owned by William H. Williams, the Yellow House was one of two notorious slave holding pens in Washington, DC. The two-story home housed slaves temporarily in the basement; traders removed them to the yard on auction day for the convenience of buyers. A 12 foot high wall (originally wood, then brick) encircled the structure, guarded by ferocious dogs. Pens like this one operated until 1850, when the slave trade was abolished in Washington, DC. Williams sometimes held other prisoners here, as well, on a contract basis.
49. World War II Temporary Buildings These buildings were erected by the federal government during World War II to create offices for the many workers who came for new, war-related jobs. The buildings were never meant to be permanent, and were referred to by locals as "tempos." Temporary housing was constructed in front of the National Gallery of Art and on the grounds of the Washington Monument. There was a group of office buildings where the National Museum of American History is today, as well as by the Reflecting Pool. Some of these buildings remained until the 1970s.
50. Zero Milestone The current zero milestone dates from the spring of 1923, replacing a temporary marker placed on this site in President's Park in 1919. Originally intended as a central point from which to measure highway distances throughout the United States, the zero milestone marked the beginning of the age of the automobile and the national system of paved roadways. Today, roads and other distances in Washington, DC, as well as in surrounding suburbs, are measured from the zero milestone.