American National Red Cross
- Year
- 1915
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- the city beautiful
Built between 1915 and 1917 on a block west of the Ellipse devoted entirely to Red Cross facilities, this Neoclassical headquarters serves a double purpose: it is both the national headquarters of the American Red Cross and a memorial to women who served in the Civil War. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
the building
Marble temple front. The building is faced in white Vermont marble and roofed in Ludowici tile, three stories tall with the third floor recessed behind a balustrade. Its east-facing facade centers on a classical temple portico with six Corinthian columns supporting a gabled pediment marked with a red cross, flanked by bays articulated with more attached Corinthian columns.
The entrance hall. Bronze doors at the main facade open into a large central marble entrance hall, with a broad stairway rising to the second floor and niches set into the walls.
the style
The Neoclassical design is anchored by an east-facing temple portico — six Corinthian columns carrying a pediment stamped with a red cross — a direct way of stating the building's identity.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
The Red Cross headquarters was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and is also a DC Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It commemorates women's Civil War service alongside housing the Red Cross's national operations.
nearby
- Corcoran Gallery of Art
- Constitution Hall
- Memorial Continental Hall
- Octagon House (John Tayloe House)
- Pan American Union (Organization of American States)
- Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building