Smithsonian Institution Building ("The Castle") (Washington, D.C.)

USA / District of Columbia / Washington / Washington, D.C. / Jefferson Drive Southwest, 1000
 institute, tomb(s), museum, headquarters, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, 1850s construction, Norman (architecture), U.S. National Historic Landmark
www.si.edu/visit/infocenter/sicastle.htm

siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/pictures/south-yard

The original Smithsonian Institution Building, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. behind the National Museum of African Art, houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices, information center and a restaurant.

The building is constructed of red sandstone in the faux Norman style (a 12th-century combination of late Romanesque and early Gothic motifs) and is appropriately nicknamed The Castle.

What most visitors do not know is that James Smithson, the British scientist who bequeathed the funds to create the Smithsonian, is buried in a tomb to the left of the main entrance.

Smithson, who had never visited the United States, willed his entire fortune to this country "to found, at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge."

Smithson died in Genoa, Italy in 1829, but his remains were brought to the United States in 1904 for reinterment in the Crypt Room.
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Institution_Building
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Coordinates:   38°53'19"N   77°1'33"W

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  • Pictures added by my username were taken by me 3/2008
This article was last modified 6 years ago