Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel
- Architect
- James Renwick Jr.
- Year
- 1850
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Washington, DC
James Renwick Jr. designed this small Gothic Revival chapel in 1850 for Oak Hill Cemetery, founded the year before by banker and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran on a 15-acre tract called Parrott's Woods, which Corcoran purchased from Lewis Washington, a great-grandnephew of George Washington. The chapel stands on the cemetery's highest ridge, near 29th and R Streets NW, overlooking Rock Creek Park.
the building
Ridge-top siting. Corcoran and Renwick placed the chapel on the highest ridge in Oak Hill Cemetery, near the intersection of 29th and R Streets NW, giving it a commanding position over Rock Creek Park.
the style
The chapel is Gothic Revival, and it is James Renwick Jr.'s only known example of Gothic Revival church architecture in Washington, D.C.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
James Renwick Jr. (1818–1895) was chosen by William Wilson Corcoran to design the cemetery chapel in 1850; it stands as his only known Gothic Revival church design in the city.
significance
The chapel is one of two structures in Oak Hill Cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places, alongside the Van Ness Mausoleum. Together with the mausoleum and cemetery, it is a contributing property to the Georgetown Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and it is also DC Historic Landmark #L_0483.
nearby
- Evermay
- Tudor Place
- Dumbarton House (Nat'l Society of Colonial Dames of America; Bellevue)
- Mount Zion United Methodist Church
- Islamic Center of Washington
- Beall, Thomas, House (Newton D. Baker House)