National Building Museum

[yeoman]

Sir and Ma'am, having lived in DC during my wife's ToD at WRAMC in the early 80's, we did visit a good many wonderful historic sites and museums but missed this one.
Today I found online this photo of an exterior frieze designed by Casper Buberl to portray Union forces of infantry, cavalry, artillery, naval, quartermaster and medical units.
The frieze is located on the National Building Museum, 401 F street NW, Washington DC.

[Tom Craig]

Re: National Building Museum

This is an awesome building in many meanings of the word. It was built as the pension building after the war, and it is clear to see from its size and majestic detail how big the pension task was, and how important it was considered.

It sat neglected for a while but was refurbished as the national museum of building or something like that. It is quite large, and those friezes are really cool. Inside the buidling is equally impressive in terms of scale, period details, and materials. Well worth a trip for sure!

Take care,
Tom Craig

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: National Building Museum

This is Virginia's spouse posting.

An agency that I worked for was located there in the late 70's. It's impressive enough to hold an inaugural ball in it. (BTW, if you'd like to rent it for the ultimate ball for an evening, a few years ago the cost was about $11K). You could almost have a game of football inside (the central court is about 90 yards long by 50 wide) but the giant pillars that divide the court into thirds would interfere with play.

The stairs are interesting. They are constructed of bricks and the story went that the rise on each step was small enough that the pensioners would be able to climb the stairs. Evidently many people have used the stairs because they are worn on the edges next to the hand rails.

There are several elements of the building that are quite advanced for air circulation during the summer, especially since they were able to work completely without electricity. Quite an accomplishment in energy conservation!

Michael Mescher

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: National Building Museum

This is another legacy of Montgomery Meigs -- the Quartermaster General during the war -- along with Washington's reservoir and aqueduct, the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building, and the dome of the Capitol. You can pretty much hit them all in a single day, and still have time to stroll by such civil war era buildings as the Washington City Hall, the Portrait Gallery (the old Patent Office building), the Hotel Monaco (the original central Post Office), and -- a few blocks away -- the Renwick Gallery (Mr. Corcoran's "Art Building" during the war, home to a number of QMD offices), and the Winder Building. It all adds up to a nice tour of Civil War DC.

For an extra treat, though, stand on one of the southern corners of 7th and Constitution and look behind and in front of you. This was the route the Sixth Corps took from the waterfront (which still has a pretty decent fish market) up to Fort Stevens in July, 1864. At that time, though, Constitution Avenue didn't exist -- it was Tiber Creek, which now runs under the New Deal office buildings on the northern side. Not many folks appreciate it, but there's a lot of civil war Washington still remaining in downtown, apart from Ford's Theater and the Petersen House.

[PieBoy96]

Re: National Building Museum

Here are some photos of the National Building Museum from June 2005.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: National Building Museum

Virginia's spouse again.

If you'd like to see more of the sights from the late 1850's which are still to be found in Washington, check out the following link.

http://www.raggedsoldier.com/travel_journal.pdf

The link provides the story of a fund raising doll that was traveling the country and, when she came to us, we took her on a tour of the city. Yes it is a doll and doesn't involve military stuff but this is where the thread is located.

There are a lot more sites left from the ante-bellum and civil war periods but we didn't include them in the article.

And if you want to see the only marker where Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln appear together, I understand that the aqueduct carrying Washington Aqueduct and MacArthur Boulevard over Cabin John Creek (also over the modern Cabin John Parkway) has just such a plaque. The aqueduct was started when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War and completed when Lincoln was president.

Michael Mescher

[yeoman]

Re: National Building Museum

Mr Mescher, my grandson had his friend, Flat Stanley, view your link and he looked to be most impressed.
Thanks again for the link, http://www.raggedsoldier.com/travel_journal.pdf.