Pierre Charles L’Enfant

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Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant
Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant
Born	August 9, 1754 (1754-08-09) Anet
Died	June 14, 1825 (1825-06-15)
Nationality	French American

Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant (August 9, 1754 – June 14, 1825) was a French-born American architect and civil engineer.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Military service 3 Architect and planner 4 Later recognition 5 Honors 6 References 6.1 Bibliography 6.2 Notes

[edit] Early life

L’Enfant was born at the Anet, Eure et Loire, the third child and second son of Marie Charlotte L’Enfant (aged 25 and the daughter of a minor marine official at court) and Pierre L'Enfant (1704–1787), a painter with a good reputation in the service of King Louis XV. In 1758, his brother Pierre Joseph died at the age of six, leaving him the eldest son. He studied at the Royal Academy in the Louvre before enrolling to fight in the American Revolution.

[edit] Military service

L'Enfant was recruited by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais to join in the American Revolutionary War in the American colonies. L’Enfant arrived in 1777 and served as a military engineer in the Continental Army with Major General Lafayette.^[1] L’Enfant became closely identified with the United States, adopting the name Peter.^[2] He was wounded at the Siege of Savannah in 1779, but recovered and served in General George Washington's staff as a Captain of Engineers for the remainder of the Revolutionary War. During the war, L'Enfant was with George Washington at Valley Forge. While there, Marquis de Lafayette commissioned L'Enfant to paint a portrait of Washington. L'Enfant was promoted by brevet to Major of Engineers on May 2, 1783 in recognition of his service to American liberty.^[3] After the war, L'Enfant designed the badge of the Society of the Cincinnati, shaped as an eagle, at the request of Washington, and was sent to France to give the badges to French officers who fought in the war.^[4]

[edit] Architect and planner

Following the war, L'Enfant established a successful and highly profitable civil engineering firm in New York City. He achieved some fame as an architect by redesigning the City Hall in New York for the First Congress in Federal Hall.^[5] He also designed coins, medals, furniture and houses of the wealthy, and he was a friend of Alexander Hamilton.

In 1789, when discussions were underway regarding a new capital city, L'Enfant expressed interest to President Washington in being commissioned as the architect. However, any decision on the capital was put on hold until July 1791 when Congress passed the Residence Act.^[6] The legislation, which was the result of a compromise brokered by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, specified the new capital be situated on the Potomac River, at some location between the Eastern Branch (the Anacostia River) and the Connogochegue, near Hagerstown, Maryland. The Residence Act gave authority to President Washington to appoint commissioners and oversee the construction of the new capital.^[7][8]

President George Washington appointed L’Enfant in 1791 to design the new capital city under the supervision of three Commissioners, whom Washington had appointed to oversee the planning and development of the ten-mile square of federal territory that would later become the District of Columbia. Thomas Jefferson, who worked alongside President Washington in overseeing the plans for the capital, sent L'Enfant a letter outlining his task, which was to provide a drawing of suitable sites for the federal city and the public buildings. Though Jefferson had modest ideas for the Capital, L'Enfant saw the task as far more grandiose, believing he was to not only locating the capital, but also included devising the city plan and designing the buildings.^[9]

L’Enfant arrived in Georgetown on March 9, 1791, and began his work, from Suter's Fountain Inn.^[10] Washington arrived on March 28, to meet with L'Enfant and the Commissioners for several days.^[11] L'Enfant's plan, which was completed and presented to George Washington on August 19, 1791,^[12] specified locations for the Capitol (on Jenkins Hill) and the White House, situated on a ridge parallel to the Potomac. L'Enfant envisioned the President's House with public gardens, monumental architecture, and specified the size at five times what was actually built, reflecting his grandiose visions.^[9]

President Washington retained this plan, which the U.S. Library of Congress now possesses.^[13] The last line in an oval in the upper left hand corner of the plan identifies the plan's author as "Peter Charles L’Enfant", as does the United States Code.^[14][15]

L'Enfant secured the lease of quarries at Wigginton Island and along Aquia Creek in Virginia to supply stone for the foundations of the Capitol in November 1791.^[16] However, his temperament and his insistence that his city design be realized as a whole, brought him into conflict with the Commissioners, who wanted to direct the limited funds available into construction of the federal buildings. In this, they had the support of Thomas Jefferson.

During a contentious period in February 1792, Andrew Ellicott, who had been conducting the original boundary survey of the future District of Columbia and the survey of the federal city under the direction of the Commissioners, informed the Commissioners that L'Enfant had not been able to have the city plan engraved and had refused to provide him with the original plan (of which L'Enfant had prepared several versions). Ellicott, with the aid of longtime family friend, astronomer Benjamin Banneker, then revised the plan, despite L'Enfant's protests. Shortly thereafter, Jefferson dismissed L'Enfant. After L'Enfant departed, Ellicott and Banneker continued the city survey in accordance with the revised plan, several versions of which were engraved, published and distributed. As a result, their revisions subsequently became the basis for the capital city's development. ^{[17][18][19][20][21][22]}

L’Enfant was not paid for his work, and he fell into disgrace, spending much of the rest of his life trying to persuade Congress to pay him what he thought that he was owed. He was offered a position as a Professor of Engineering at United States Military Academy in 1812, but he declined that post. In 1814, L'Enfant worked briefly on the construction of Fort Washington on the Potomac River southeast of Washington, D.C., but others soon replaced him.^[23]

L’Enfant died in poverty, and he was buried at the Green Hill farm in Chillum, Prince George's County, Maryland. He left behind three watches, three compasses, some books, some maps, and surveying instruments, whose total value was about forty-six dollars.^[24] In 1909, his remains were reinterred at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.^[25]

[edit] Later recognition

In 1901, the McMillan Commission used L'Enfant's plan as the cornerstone of its 1902 report, which laid out a plan for a sweeping National Mall. At the instigation of the French ambassador, Jean Jules Jusserand, L’Enfant's adopted nation then finally recognized his contributions. In 1909, after lying in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, L’Enfant's remains were re-interred in the Arlington National Cemetery, on a hill overlooking the city that he had partially designed.^[26] In 1911, he was honored with a monument placed on top of his grave. Engraved on the monument is a portion of L'Enfant's own plan, which Andrew Ellicott's revision had superseded.^[27]

[edit] Honors

• In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Pierre L'Enfant was launched. In 1970, she was shipwrecked and abandoned.
• L'Enfant Plaza, a complex of office buildings, a hotel, and an underground shopping center in southern Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1968. Meeting rooms in the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel bear the names of French artists, military leaders, and explorers. The central portion of the plaza has a map of the city, with a smaller map shown on the map where L'Enfant Plaza is located.
• Beneath the L'Enfant Plaza is one of the central rapid transit Metro stops in Washington, D.C., the L'Enfant Plaza station.
• In 2003, L'Enfant's plan for Washington was commemorated on a USPS postage stamp ^[28]. The diamond shape of the stamp reflects the original 100 square miles (259 km²) tract of land selected for the District. Shown is a view along the National Mall, including the US Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. Also portrayed are cherry blossoms around the tidal basin and row houses from the Shaw neighborhood.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Berg, Scott W. (2007). Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-375-42280-5. 
• Bowling, Kenneth R., Peter Charles L’Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic. George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 2002.
• Caemmerer, H. Paul (1970). The Life of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. Da Capo Press. 
• Ellis, Joseph J. (2002). Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Vintage. ISBN 0375705244. 
• Jusserand, Jean Jules, "Major L’Enfant and the Federal City" in With Americans of Past and Present Days. 1916. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916; New York; Bartleby.com, 2000 in "Great Books Online": Official website of Bartleby.com. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
• Kite, Elizabeth Sarah; Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1929). L'Enfant and Washington, 1791–1792. Johns Hopkins University Press. 
• Morgan, J.D. (1899). "Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2. 
• Ellis, Joseph J. (2002). Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Vintage. ISBN 0375705244. 
• Stewart, John (1899). "Early Maps and Surveyors of the City of Washington, D.C". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2. 

[edit] Notes

Honorary titles
Preceded by William McKinley	Persons who have lain in state or honor in the United States Capitol rotunda April 28, 1909	Succeeded by George Dewey