Washington Navy Yard
- Architect
- Benjamin Henry Latrobe
- Year
- 1799
- Style
- Colonial Revival
- City
- Washington, DC
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Established in 1799 on the Anacostia River, the Washington Navy Yard is the oldest shore establishment in the U.S. Navy, built as a shipyard and ordnance plant with early design work credited to Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Today it is a ceremonial and administrative center headquartering the Chief of Naval Operations along with commands including Naval Sea Systems Command, the Naval History and Heritage Command, and the U.S. Navy Band, and it houses the National Museum of the United States Navy.
the building
A working yard's legacy. Two centuries of shipbuilding and ordnance manufacturing left the yard so contaminated that the EPA listed it as a Superfund site in 1998, an industrial legacy now enclosed within a ceremonial Navy campus.
the style
The yard's surviving buildings reflect the Victorian and Colonial Revival architecture of its long institutional life, spanning from its founding-era construction through later 19th- and early 20th-century rebuilding.
More on Colonial Revivalthe architect
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, credited in the record as a foundational figure in early American architecture, is named as the yard's architect, tying the country's oldest naval shore establishment to one of the era's most significant architectural figures.
significance
The Washington Navy Yard is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places; in 1998 it was also designated an EPA Superfund site due to extensive environmental contamination from its industrial history.
nearby
- Washington Navy Yard, Tingey House (Commandant's House)
- Latrobe Gate
- Washington and Georgetown Railroad Car House
- Marine Barracks and Band Hall
- District of Columbia Main Sewerage Pumping Station
- Christ Church