National Building Museum Review

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National Building Museum

  • Address: 401 F St. NW, between 4th and 5th Sts., East End, Washington, DC | Map It
  • Phone: 202/272-2448
  • www.nbm.org

Fodor's Review:

The open interior of this mammoth redbrick edifice is one of the city's great spaces and has been the site of many an inaugural ball. (The first ball was for Grover Cleveland in 1885; because the building wasn't finished at the time, a temporary wooden roof and floor were built.) The eight central Corinthian columns are among the largest in the world, rising to a height of 75 feet. Although they resemble Siena marble, each is made of 70,000 bricks that have been covered with plaster and painted. For years, the annual Christmas in Washington TV special has been filmed in this breathtaking hall.

The museum is devoted to architecture and the building arts. The permanent exhibit "Washington: Symbol and City" tells the story of the birth and evolution of the backwater that eventually became the nation's capital (beginning by debunking the myth that Washington was built on a swamp!). You can touch the perfectly scaled, intricately detailed models of the White House, the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and look at original drawings, building plans, maps, videos, and photographs that trace the city's architectural history.

Central to the exhibit is the story of the Pierre L'Enfant, the young French architect who created Washington's first comprehensive city plan in 1790—a design that transformed the city's layout from a chaotic town of tangled streets into a capital of boulevards and grand memorials, and still guides Washington's growth today.

There are also a constant series of temporary exhibits: recent ones have covered environmentally sustainable architecture, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower, the seminal architect's only skyscraper.

The building itself began life as known as the the Pension Building. It was erected between 1882 and 1887 to house workers who processed the pension claims of veterans and their survivors, an activity that intensified after the Civil War. The office is said to be the source of the term red tape, a reference to the material used to tie up veterans' papers, both literally and figuratively. The architect, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' General Montgomery C. Meigs, took as his inspiration Rome's Palazzo Farnese.

Before entering the building, walk down its F Street side. The terra-cotta frieze by Caspar Buberl between the first and second floors depicts soldiers marching and sailing in an endless procession around the building. Architect Meigs lost his eldest son in the Civil War, and, though the frieze depicts Union troops, he intended it as a memorial to all who were killed in the bloody war. Meigs designed the Pension Building with workers' comfort in mind. Note the three "missing" bricks under each window that allowed for air to circulate and helped keep the building cool. Tours are offered at 12:30 Monday through Wednesday; 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30 Thursday through Saturday; and 12:30 and 1:30 Sunday. Family programs are available at 2:30 on weekends.

  • Cost: Free
  • Open: Mon.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. 11-5
  • Metro: Judiciary Sq.
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