Renwick Gallery (Old Corcoran Gallery)
- Architect
- James Renwick Jr.
- Year
- 1972
- City
- Washington, DC
Built beginning in 1859 to house William Wilson Corcoran's art collection, this building was Washington's first purpose-built art museum and was known in its day as "the American Louvre." Construction was interrupted when the Union Army seized the unfinished building in 1861 as a warehouse, and General Montgomery C. Meigs later converted it for military use; it was finally completed in 1874. Renamed for its architect, James Renwick Jr., the building has housed the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery of American craft and decorative art since 1972.
the building
Wartime detour. Seized by the U.S. Army in August 1861 for use as a records and uniform warehouse for the Quartermaster General's Corps, the half-built museum spent years in military hands, delaying its opening as an art gallery by more than a decade.
the style
Renwick modeled the building on the Tuileries addition to the Louvre in Paris, giving Washington's first art museum a French Second Empire grandeur intended to rival European institutions.
the architect
James Renwick Jr. designed the building, and it was later renamed the Renwick Gallery in his honor.
significance
The building is a National Historic Landmark, a DC Historic Landmark (#L_0233), and listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it was DC's first purpose-built art museum.
nearby
- Blair House (Blair-Lee House; President's Guest House)
- Peter Parker House
- American Peace Society house
- Decatur House
- Eisenhower Executive Office Building
- Winder Building