BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021)

DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021):

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[1] PERSH_970413_01.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] PERSH_970413_02.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. PERSH_970413_01.JPG: Willard Hotel; Pershing statue The park in front is a memorial park to General John J. Pershing, who led the US forces during World War I and led one of the city's great victory parades in 1919. He later died at the Walter Reed Medical Center. You can see the back of the Pershing statue, with a pair of binoculars in his hands. The park also includes an ice-skating rink. Behind the park, though, are three buildings. See the WILLARD2.GIF file for a description of the three including the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel.
2. PERSH_970413_02.JPG: Willard Hotel; front view Behind Pershing Park in the front are three buildings. The one on the left is the Hotel Washington. Next to it, the smaller building with interesting green covers on its windows, is an office building used by Oliver Carr, the company that rebuilt the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel as well as does much of the construction in Washington DC. The building on the right is the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel. This hotel is 12 stories tall and was built built in 1901. The hotel was closed in 1968 but the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation took over the property and rebuilt it, reopening it in 1986. It is an amazing place to look at now, incredibly ornate. And not inexpensive either... On the same site have been extravagent hotels since 1816. The Willard is where the president-elect traditionally slept on the eve of his inauguration. Abraham Lincoln slept here before his inauguration in 1861, having been snuck into the city because of fears that he would be assassinated as the Civil War began. The president and his family of five spent ten days at the hotel and the bill was $773.75. He left for the Capitol and his inauguration in a rushed manner and didn't have time or apparently the money to pay his bill. He paid it after he got his first paycheck as president. A copy of the bill is on display at the Willard. (Just FYI, as of 1996, rates at the hotel vary but the one-person rate during the week is $149/night. If Lincoln crammed his entire family into one room with two beds for ten days, the bill would be $2170 not including food or tax or any tips. Suites are $550 to $2700 per night.) The hotel brochure mentions that the first group of Japanese ever to leave their island kingdom stayed at The Willard in 1860, being in town to sign the first trade and friendship treaties between Japan and the US. Due to the rich and important people who stayed at the hotel, the lobby of the Willard swarmed with hangers-on and hangers-around. They annoyed Ulysses Grant so much that he coined the term "lobbyists" to describe the office- and favor-seekers in constant attendance. The Willard was also the site where Julia Ward Howe penned the famous lines that became the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." According to The Willard, Ward was inspired to write the song while staying at the hotel when Union soldiers walked by her window singing "John Brown's Body." Another source said that she actually saw the troops passing at Bailey's Crossroads in Virginia and then came back to the hotel to write the song. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson held the meetings of the League to Enforce Peace, the predecessor to the League of Nations, at The Willard. Wilson's vice president, Thomas Marshall, in criticizing the price of cigars at the hotel news stand said, "What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar." Oddly enough, The Willard brochures publicize this. Martin Luther King finished up his "I Have A Dream" speech and delivered it at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 while staying at The Willard.
3. PERSH_970507_01.JPG: Willard Hotel; Pershing Park Another view of the Willard Hotel and the water area of Pershing Park. This becomes an ice skating rink in the winter.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: National World War I Memorial (Washington, D.C.)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National World War I Memorial is a national memorial commemorating the service rendered by members of the United States Armed Forces in World War I. The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the World War I Centennial Commission to build the memorial in Pershing Park, located at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The park, which has existed since 1981, also contains the John J. Pershing General of the Armies commemorative work. In January 2016, the design commission selected the submission "The Weight of Sacrifice", by a team consisting of Joseph Weishaar, Sabin Howard, Phoebe Lickwar, and GWWO Architects, as the winning design, which is expected to be completed by 2024.

On April 16, 2021, the flag was raised at the memorial and President Biden spoke at a virtual ceremony opening it to the public.

Pershing Park

The Pershing Park site was originally occupied by a variety of 19th-century structures until about 1930, when the federal government took legal title to the block and demolished the structures on it. Legislation officially designating the plot as Pershing Square subsequently was adopted by Congress in 1957. Development of the square proved controversial, as different groups offered competing proposals for memorials to John J. Pershing, who had served as General of the Armies in World War I. These disagreements led to inaction, and by 1962 the square remained bare and often cluttered with trash. In September 1963, District of Columbia officials finally planted grass and flower beds to temporarily beautify the square.

In November 1963, the President's Council on Pennsylvania Avenue proposed a master plan for the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue NW from the White House to the United States Capitol. The master plan proposed constructing a National Plaza (also called the Western Plaza), which would have required the de ...More...
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- National World War I Memorial (Pershing Park)) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2022_DC_Pershing: DC -- National World War I Memorial (Pershing Park) (39 photos from 2022)
- 2021_DC_Pershing: DC -- National World War I Memorial (Pershing Park) (324 photos from 2021)
- 2020_DC_Pershing: DC -- National World War I Memorial (Pershing Park) (376 photos from 2020)
- 2019_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (6 photos from 2019)
- 2018_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (10 photos from 2018)
- 2017_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (17 photos from 2017)
- 2016_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (18 photos from 2016)
- 2015_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (42 photos from 2015)
- 2013_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (32 photos from 2013)
- 2009_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (2 photos from 2009)
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- 2006_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (5 photos from 2006)
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- 2002_DC_Pershing: DC -- Pershing Park (became National World War I Memorial in 2021) (10 photos from 2002)
Sort of Related Pages: Still more pages here that have content somewhat related to this one :
- 2023_02_25C_USWWI_Taps: Natl World War I Memorial -- Evening Taps Event (w/Arturo Sandoval) (74 photos from 02/25/2023)
- 2023_04_29E5_USWWI_Taps: Natl World War I Memorial -- Evening Taps Event (7 photos from 04/29/2023)
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Memorials] [Park (National Park Service)] [World War I] [Display ALL World War I photos] [(NPS) Natl Mall Parks -- World War I Mem] [Display ALL (NPS) Natl Mall Parks -- World War I Mem photos] [(NPS) Natl Mall Parks]
1997 photos: Since 1984, I've lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. From 1981 to 2002, photos were taken using a Pentax ME Super camera. From 1989 to 2002, I was doing all pictures as prints (instead of slides which I had grown up on). In 1997, at the age of 40, my photo obsession began and I started taking thousands of photos per year. In September, 2002, I switched to digital cameras and the number of photos exploded. Image quality is going to be variable because these are scans of slides and/or prints. The images shown here were scanned in two phases. In the early years of the website, I rescanned a selection of pre-digital images, all at fairly low quality settings. During the COVID pandemic, I launched the Great Rescanning Effort, rescanning ALL of my pre-digital images from various media (prints, slides, negatives, etc) at higher resolution and quality settings. Mutilple versions of images -- some from the initial scannning phase, some from prints, some from slides/negatives -- were posted so there are frequently duplicate images on the same page. At some point, I hope to have time to do a final review and get rid of the duplicates but that'll have to wait until all of the pre-digital images are finally posted. Trips this year: North Carolina (Dad), Florida (Mom), using a time share in Arkansas to visit Civil War sites in Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Civil War became my excuse to see places I'd never been to in my life and it was a great motivator for 20 years or so.
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