The Story Behind the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC

Dedicated to the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third US President, the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC is one of the most visited monuments on the National Mall by vacationers.  It’s also one of the most photographed memorials during the annual cherry blossom festival.

But it almost ended up in another location, off the National Mall.

Designed by architect John Russell Pope, the Jefferson Memorial was built between 1939 and 1942 in West Potomac Park along the Tidal Basin.  But Pope died a year before the memorial’s groundbreaking took place. 

Pope’s work is found all over Washington, DC, including both government and private buildings.  His two other most famous designs are the National Archives Building and the original west building of the National Gallery of Art.  Both the neoclassical Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery were based on the Pantheon in Rome.

Additionally, he designed the DAR Constitution Hall on 18th Street, the American Pharmacists Association Building on Constitution Avenue, which is often mistaken for a government building, and the National City Christian Church on Thomas Circle.  In Baltimore, the Baltimore Museum of Art was also his design.

The white marble dome surrounded by a circle of Ionic columns was not Pope’s first design for a memorial at the Tidal Basin site.  In 1925, his plan for two quarter-circle colonnades with sculptures and fountains dedicated to President Theodore Roosevelt won a design competition, but congress did not fund the the memorial.

Ten years later, during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, FDR spearheaded a plan to create a monument to Thomas Jefferson.

In 1935, Pope submitted four plans using four different possible sites for a memorial to Jefferson. The first was about a mile east of the Capitol Building in Lincoln Park.  The second memorial site was about a mile further east, near where RFK Stadium was erected, along the Anacostia River.  Both sites were off of The National Mall. The final two locations were across the street from The National Archives and the location where the memorial sits today.

Situating a memorial at the Tidal Basin location faced significant opposition from both residents and the Fine Arts Commission. Some thought the memorial was too large and built on too grand a scale for a  man as simple as Jefferson.  Others thought it would require the moving of too many cherry blossom trees.  And still others felt it was  not consistent with Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for Washington, DC. 

With the outbreak of war in 1941, metal was scarce and a plaster statue of Thomas Jefferson was initially installed until after the war. A 19-foot (6m) tall bronze statue of a standing  Jefferson, sculpted by Rudulph Evans, was later installed. 

The monument’s interior walls are engraved with words from the Declaration of Independence and from other writings by Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial
900 Ohio Drive, SW on East Basin Drive, SW, between Ohio and Maine Avenues 
Washington, DC (map it)

Dates and Times – open 24-hours daily. National Park Rangers are available to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. daily.

Admission – Free

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Foggy Bottom – Blue or Yellow line, then a ¾-mile walk.

Parking – Metered street parking is available  within a couple blocks of the memorial, but is at time limited, especially on weekends.

Images – from personal collection ©2009, Jon Rochetti, except Jefferson Memorial under construction, 

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