Most war memorials are obsessed with hierarchy. They want you to see the generals first, then the colonels, then the grunts. The District of Columbia War Memorial lists 499 fallen residents in strict alphabetical order - no regard for rank, gender, race, or national origin.
Designed by Frederick H. Brooke, the structure is a 47-foot tall domed, peristyle Doric temple. It was built to function as a bandstand for public events, meaning it was meant to be used, not just stared at from a distance. It stands on a 1.2-meter high marble base with a diameter of 43 feet 5 inches. A list of 26,000 Washingtonians who served in the Great War is preserved in the cornerstone.
President Herbert Hoover dedicated the place on Armistice Day in 1931. It was the first war memorial in West Potomac Park and remains the only local District memorial on the National Mall. In September 2008, Rep. Ted Poe of Texas proposed a bill to designate the memorial as the national memorial to World War I, a plan supported by the last living US veteran of the war at the time.
Restoration work finished in 2011. You can visit the memorial today in the grove of trees off Independence Avenue.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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