D.C. officials joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday morning to unveil a statue in the Capitol of the architect who designed the federal district, Pierre L’Enfant — giving D.C. two statues in the building, like all the states.
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City leaders see the statue symbolically as one more small step in its long pursuit for D.C. statehood, and to be treated as equals with the states. Since 1864, all U.S. states — but not the District of Columbia — were invited to contribute two statues of figures important to their history.
D.C. got its first statue in the Capitol, of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in 2013. Now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, with L’Enfant, “D.C. will finally have equal recognition in the Capitol when it comes to statues — another step toward statehood the District deserves.”
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Joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting representative in the House, pulled down a black sheet to reveal the towering bronze statue of L’Enfant, holding a pair of calipers and resting a map of his design of the federal city on his knee.
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The sculptor, Gordon Kray, said he envisioned L’Enfant standing on Capitol Hill, then a rugged, forested terrain known as Jenkins Hill. L’Enfant’s foot rests on a log as he peers in the direction of Georgetown — a bustling area in the nascent capital — and points on his map to the spot he hoped the Capitol Building would go.
“In this statue of Pierre L’Enfant, we tell the story of our very first days,” Bowser said, “a transformation from rural port towns to a thriving metropolis, a transformation that began as one man’s vision for a capital city that would represent the founding principle that all men are created equal.”
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By contrast, Bowser said, the statue’s pairing with Douglass represents the nation’s struggle to live up to those founding principles, both in equal representation for Black Americans and residents of the nation’s capital who are still disenfranchised, she said.
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Norton first introduced a bill to allow D.C. to have statues in the Capitol like the states in 2002. Commissioned by D.C., both statues of Douglass and L’Enfant were initially unveiled in 2008 at the Marion S. Barry Jr. Building, with the hope of one day going to the Capitol.
The debate over whether to allow D.C.'s statues in the Capitol dragged on for more than a decade, as Republicans opposed allowing D.C. to have equal footing with the states — until finally, in 2013, D.C.’s Douglass statue was installed in Emancipation Hall. “Nine years later,” Norton said, “D.C. takes its rightful places among the states in the Capitol” with its second statue.
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Norton stressed the importance of L’Enfant’s story in the fight for D.C. statehood, not just in his vision to build D.C. into a regal capital city but also in his service in the Revolution. L’Enfant, a Frenchman, came to the United States to serve in the war as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, including under George Washington at Valley Forge, and was taken as a prisoner of war by the British in 1780, according to the National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.
In his service, Norton said, he fought to end taxation without representation and for the consent of the governed — the same thing D.C. is fighting for now, she noted.
After serving in the war, L’Enfant racked up a prestigious career as an architect, and when he heard Washington would be soliciting designs for the new federal city, L’Enfant was quick to raise his hand.
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“[H]aving had the honor to belong to the Corps of Engineer acting under your orders during the late war, and being the only officers of that Corps remaining on the Continant I must Confess I have long flattered myself with the hope of a reappointment,” L’Enfant wrote in a 1789 letter to Washington. “I view the appointment of Engineer to the United States as the one which could possibly be most gratifying to my wishes.”
And Washington obliged them, selecting L’Enfant to design the new federal city in 1791. The architect envisioned a grandiose capital rising up from what was then largely a rural, marshy wilderness. He selected a large hill overlooking the Potomac, a “pedestal awaiting a monument,” for the “Congress House” — the Capitol — and sought to connect the legislative branch to the “President’s House” through a main thoroughfare, Pennsylvania Avenue. He envisioned a great tree-lined “public walk” — now the National Mall, even though the details may differ from L’Enfant’s idea — and 13 diagonal avenues representing the original colonies slicing through the city grid, interspersed with parks and market squares.
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“To change a Wilderness into a City, to erect and beautify Buildings to that degree of perfection, necessary to receive the Seat of Government of so extensive an Empire, in the short period of time that remains to effect these objects is an undertaking vast as it is Novel,” he wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1792.
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But L’Enfant’s ornery personality made him difficult to work with. He earned a reprimand from Washington when he demolished a Maryland man’s house against his will and without seeking permission from anyone, something that Washington said caused him “sincere concern.” And he refused to listen to the federal commissioners Washington appointed to supervise him, believing they were impeding his vision.
After Washington repeatedly urged him to stop his insubordination, L’Enfant resigned. Washington dismissed him 230 years ago and expressed regret, still holding L’Enfant’s architectural genius in high esteem. “The continuance of your services (as I have often assured you) would have been pleasing to me,” the president wrote.
Even though L’Enfant didn’t finished what he started, his imprint on the federal district remained.
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Bowser said that while having the second statue of L’Enfant was important for the District, she said she wanted to make sure this “is not where we stop,” listing the numerous impediments the District encounters while Congress still has oversight of its laws and residents have no voting representatives.
“We know achieving this milestone is so important, but we also know our goal is two senators,” she said. “The goal is D.C. doesn’t have to rely on the Senate to confirm local judges. The mayor doesn’t have to ask for the D.C. National Guard.” And in a dig at Republicans who have been challenging her directives relating to pandemic mandates or other local laws, she added: “The goal is D.C. residents who elect their local leaders to represent their values don’t have those values or laws questioned by lawmakers from thousands of miles away.”
The House passed legislation to make D.C. the 51st state last year, but the bill faces steep opposition in the evenly divided Senate, where not all Democrats have said they would support it and the Senate filibuster would require the support of 60 senators.