The National Building Museum is a museum of architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning. The museum was created by an act of Congress in 1980 and hosts various exhibits in galleries around the Great Hall.
The building that houses the museum was completed in 1887 for the United States Pension Bureau. It is an early example of Renaissance Revival architecture.
The building is notable for several architectural features:
- The interior Corinthian columns are among the largest in the world, measuring 75 ft. (23 m) tall and 8 ft. (2.4 m) in diameter.
- A frieze stretching around the exterior of the building was sculpted by Caspar Buberl and depicts Civil War soldiers.
- The frieze sculpture consists of 28 different scenes, totaling 69 feet (21 m) in length with over 1,300 figures.
- The sculpture includes infantry, navy, artillery, cavalry, medical, and quartermaster functions, from the Civil War.
- An African American teamster freed by the war is depicted in the quartermaster panel.
- All the building’s offices had exterior windows and were opened onto the court, which was designed to admit fresh air at ground level and hot exhaust air at the roof.
- The stairs were designed for disabled and aging veterans, having a gradual ascent with low steps.
- The Great Hall, measuring 316 × 116 feet (96 × 35 m), has been used for United States presidential inaugural balls.
- A Presidential Seal is set into the floor near the south entrance.
The building’s architect departed from the established Greco-Roman models that were the basis of most government buildings in Washington, D.C. The design was based on Italian Renaissance precedents, notably Rome’s Palazzo Farnese and the Palazzo della Cancelleria.
The building was used for federal government offices until the 1960s, and later the building has formally renamed the National Building Museum in 1997.
The frieze stretching around the exterior of the building depicting Civil War soldiers
National Building Museum
- Museum: National Building Museum
- City: Washington, D.C.
- Country: United States
- Built: 1887
- Type: Specialist Museums
- Category: National Museum of the United States
- Location: 401 F St. NW, Washington, D.C.
The National Building Museum building
National Building Museum Map
National Building Museum – 360 views
National Building Museum – 360 views
National Building Museum – 360 views
National Building Museum – 360 views
Virtual Tour of the National Museums of the United States
- The National Museum of the United States
- National Museum of the United States Air Force
- National Museum of the Marine Corps
- National Air and Space Museum
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- National Museum of Natural History
- National Portrait Gallery
- National Veterans Memorial and Museum
- National Nordic Museum
- National Museum of the United States Navy
- National Constitution Center
- The National WWII Museum
- National World War I Museum and Memorial
- National Civil War Museum
- National Civil Rights Museum
- National Museum of the American Indian
- CIA Museum
- National Cryptologic Museum
- National Postal Museum
- National Museum of Health and Medicine
- National Museum of African Art
- National Museum of the Pacific War
- National Railroad Museum
- National Quilt Museum
- National Building Museum
National Building Museum
National Building Museum
National Building Museum
Virtual Tour of American Museums
- Museums in New York
- Museums in Washington, D.C.
- Museums in Boston
- Museums in Los Angeles
- Museums in San Francisco
- Museums in Chicago
- Museums in Cleveland
- Museums in Philadelphia
- Museums in Wilmington
- Museums in Houston
- Museums in Honolulu
- Museums in Columbus
- Museums in New Haven
- Museums in Baltimore
- Museums in Massachusetts
- Museums in Buffalo, New York
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- Museums in Indianapolis
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- Museums in Cincinnati
- Museums in Phoenix, Arizona
- Museums in Pasadena, California
- Museums in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Museums in Richmond, Virginia
- Museums in Kansas City, Missouri
- Museums in Miami, Florida
- Museums in Hartford, Connecticut
- Museums in New Orleans, Louisiana
- American Proverbs and Quotes
National Building Museum
National Building Museum
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“The higher the buildings the lower the morals.”
– Noël Coward
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Photo Credit: Daderot / Public domain; See page for author / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/); AgnosticPreachersKid / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
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