Mount Vernon Square, 1887

History

Mount Vernon Square, 1887

by Kent Boese • August 14, 2009 4:00 pm

While we tend to think of most of the circles and squares in Washington as having been planed to be exactly what they are today, most of them changed as new monuments and buildings were planned for the city.

Here we have Mount Vernon Square ca. 1887. Instead of a building dominating the square, it is an open park with a fountain in the middle.

The old City Library that is there now was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style. Currently, the building is home to the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

First floor and basement floor plans for the Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C.

Here is the list of what trees and shrubs were growing in the square ca. 1887.

10 comments

Tags: DC, history, Mount Vernon Square, parks

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Kent Boese posts items of historic interest primarily within the District. He's worked in libraries since 1994, both federal and law, and currently works on K Street. He lives in the Park View neighborhood, and is the force behind the blog Washington Kaleidoscope.

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I posted a video a while back about some student plans to revive and retrofit the Carnegie Library, take a look:

http://beatusest.blogspot.com/2008/11/nd-architecture-schools-redesign-for.html

by Boots on Aug 14, 2009 5:12 pm

For anyone interested in the history of Washington's public spaces, I recommend reading L'Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, D.C. by Michael J. Bednar. It's a good chronology of all the major spaces in the L'Enfant plan.

by Monumentality on Aug 14, 2009 5:12 pm

What are the lines that are on some of the streets but not others?

by Tim on Aug 14, 2009 7:00 pm

streetcar tracks.

by Steve on Aug 14, 2009 7:29 pm

Uhhh ... I don't think Andrew Carnegie actually built the library, unless he was out there with a brick and trowel. It's more like he funded its construction.

by martindelaware on Aug 14, 2009 10:14 pm

I believe that before it became a park, it was an open area known as the Northern Liberties and was at some point was home to an open air (?) market known as the Northern Liberites Market before being displaced a couple of streets over to 5th Street by the building of the Carnegie Library where a building like the one at Eastern Market was built for it. More interesting is the story of Logan Circle (orginally known as Iowa Circle) which served as a gallows during the Civil War ... before becoming a park.

by Lance on Aug 14, 2009 10:26 pm

I have mixed feelings about the old library. On the one hand, it is a great focal point when looking down New York Avenue at it. But...

-But to locate it smack right there? It turned what was a nicely proportioned open space into little marginal lawns of little use. Now folks are excited that a portion of the site of the old Convention Center might be turned into an open space. You'd already have that if Mount Vernon square wasn't filled up with buiding.

-Sure the Beaux Arts design gives the neighborhood some civic dignity, but how incredibly inflexible! Designers even in ca. 1880 had to realize that buildings have to get bigger to serve more residents as a city grows. And if you locate it there, where could you expand it?

by DCist on Aug 15, 2009 7:41 am

If Mt Vernon Square was to be restored with the removal of the library, where would be the best site for its relocation?

by Douglas Willinger on Aug 17, 2009 8:38 pm

The building would be a perfect art gallery and an excellent location for one. The "DC city museum" try was dumb.

by Tom Coumaris on Aug 18, 2009 10:07 am

Despite the fact that the building is small and its location reduces the utility of the rest of the square, the building is a beautiful and protected historic landmark and cannot be removed.

The video in comment #1 briefly shows some sketches of possible ways to expand the building and restore it as the central library, essentially doubling, tripling, or quadrupling the square footage.

No matter what, the current situation is certainly less than ideal.

by Monumentality on Aug 18, 2009 10:47 am