Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.) | Second Empire (architecture), 1874_construction, art museum / art gallery, U.S. National Historic Landmark

 Second Empire (architecture), 1874_construction, art museum / art gallery, U.S. National Historic Landmark

The Renwick Gallery building was originally built to be Washington, D.C.'s first art museum and to house William Wilson Corcoran's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and completed in 1874. The building was near completion when the Civil War broke out, and was used as a temporary military warehouse and to house the federal Court of Claims. When the building was finally completed in 1874, the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened to the public. The gallery quickly outgrew the space and relocated to a new building nearby in 1897.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order transferring the Renwick building to the Smithsonian Institution for use as a "gallery of arts, craft and design." After a renovation, it opened in 1972 as the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft program.

americanart.si.edu/visit/renwick