George Washington Masonic National Memorial National Historic Landmark Nomination
Kocyba, PhD K. 2015. George Washington Masonic National Memorial National Historic Landmark Nomination. National Historic Landmark Nominations. 15000622_NHL. National Park Service. Washington, DC
This document is the National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination for George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. The NHL nomination for the George Washington Masonic National Memorial documents its national significance under NHL Criteria 1 and 4 as a compelling design for an organization dedicated to the memory of George Washington and the aspects of his personality and leadership shaped by Freemasonry. The Memorial and the Association created to build and maintain the institution and its building constitute the only major initiative within Freemasonry that was truly national in scope within an entity that, in the United States, is primarily organized at the state and local levels. The architectural outcome was as unprecedented as the Association and its mission. Within the context of the skyscraper mania between World War I and the Great Depression, the Association unabashedly merged the traditional classical motifs and iconography of memorial and monument design with the daring set-back profile of contemporary high-rise buildings. Not coincidentally, Harvey Wiley Corbett, the principal architect for the building, was one of the individuals closely involved with the development of building profile that came to define the 1920s. The Memorial building and landscape largely dates to between 1922 and 1932, although it was not fully completed until 1973 (thus Criterion Exception 8 applies).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Kocyba, PhD, Kate M.
- Date of Issue
- 2015-07-21
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Keywords
- Alexandria, Allyn Cox, Freemasonry, Harvey Wiley Corbett, National Historic Landmark, Olmsted Brothers, Schuter's Hill, Virginia