The Mall

The Mall in transition, from Victorian gardens and a railway station to museums and wartime offices.

Wooden scaffolding and a long low building frame under construction, Washington Monument in the distance — 1917 A wartime temporary office building rises on the Mall in 1917, with the Washington Monument beyond the scaffolding.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H25- 2099 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

History

At the start of the century the Mall was not the open lawn of today. It was laid out as separate wooded gardens, with the Smithsonian Castle (1855) and the Arts and Industries Building (1881), and the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad’s station and tracks crossed it at 6th Street. The McMillan plan of 1902 proposed the long open vista, and the railway left after Union Station opened in 1907.

The Department of Agriculture’s wings went up on the south side in 1904–1908, the new National Museum (now Natural History) opened in 1910 as the first building on the north side built to the plan, and the Freer Gallery followed in 1923. In 1918 the vast “temporary” Main Navy and Munitions buildings went up along B Street, now Constitution Avenue, and other wartime offices filled the Mall itself.

What's there now

The Mall is the open lawn the McMillan plan imagined, lined with elms and Smithsonian museums. The Main Navy and Munitions buildings came down in 1970 and their site became Constitution Gardens.

Then and now

The Castle and the Natural History Museum are recognisable; almost everything else in these photographs, from the gardens and greenhouses to the temporary buildings, has gone. B Street was renamed Constitution Avenue in 1931.

Photographs 25, oldest first

High view over trees and paths to a distant obelisk — c. 1900–15 Looking northwest from the tower of the Smithsonian Castle over the Mall to the Washington Monument, early 1900s.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D4-37211 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A domed museum building beyond a lawn with trees — c. 1910–15 The new National Museum (now the Museum of Natural History) across the Mall, about 1912.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D418-72245 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Bird's-eye view over parkland and large government buildings to the Capitol far off — c. 1909–20 The Mall seen from the top of the Washington Monument, with the Agriculture Department and the Natural History Museum in the trees and the Capitol dome on the horizon.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 3673 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Dozens of women working at long tables in a large factory-like hall with hanging lamps — c. 1910–20 Rows of women work at long tables piled with paper in a great hall of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H25- 2628 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Smoke billowing from a large building with fire engines in front — February 21, 1916 Smoke pours from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing during a fire caused by spontaneous combustion, February 21, 1916.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 6022 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A wooden building framework going up beside a dirt road and a truck — 1917 Headquarters for the Council of National Defense under construction, 1917. place uncertainHarris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 9533 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A cleared park strewn with felled trees beside city buildings — 1917 Trees felled on the Mall to clear sites for wartime office buildings, 1917.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 9561 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A long building and an obelisk across a wide stretch of water — c. 1910–26 The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Washington Monument across the Potomac.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 1059 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Aerial view of a large factory-like building complex by a river — 1918 The Bureau of Engraving and Printing from the air, 1918, with wartime buildings and the river beyond.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 23131 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Aerial view of a long park with buildings either side and the Capitol far away — 1918 The Mall from the air in 1918, looking east toward the Capitol over the museums and wartime buildings.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 24663 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Aerial view of long rows of low buildings beside a river — 1918 Rows of wartime temporary buildings by the river, seen from the air in 1918. place probableHarris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 24665 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A long plain office building beside a road with parked cars — 1918 The new Navy Department building on B Street at 17th, 1918, with motor cars along the kerb.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 29768 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A large ornate brick museum building with towers and arched windows behind a lawn — c. 1918–20 The red-brick towers and arched windows of the old National Museum (the Arts and Industries Building) seen across a lawn.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 1621 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Crowds of office workers leaving a long, low concrete government building, cars in the street — 1919 Crowds of workers stream out of the new Navy Building at the end of the day in 1919.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 30162 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Aerial view down onto the obelisk with the Mall behind — 1919 The Washington Monument and the Mall from the air, 1919, with the new National Museum beyond.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 30455 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A large domed museum building with a columned entrance across a broad lawn — c. 1915–23 The domed Natural History Museum stands across an open lawn on the Mall, framed by bare trees.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H27- A-614 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A covered wagon with two horses beside a brick building — c. 1909–32 A horse-drawn wagon outside the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LOT 12356-2 [item] [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

High view of long temporary buildings being demolished, two tall chimneys behind — August 4, 1921 Wartime temporary office buildings being torn down in August 1921, their frames half stripped, with power-plant chimneys beyond. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 15346 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A crowd of men in straw hats outside the door of a building marked Agriculture — 1923 Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace speaks to a crowd in straw hats outside the Agriculture building, 1923.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H27- A-6078 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A long plain multi-storey office building beside a tree-lined road with parked cars — 1925 The Munitions Building on B Street, one of the vast temporary offices built on the Mall in 1918, about 1925.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 36569 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

High view of long low government buildings, gardens and a river beyond — 1925 The Mall from the Washington Monument in 1925: the long Navy and Munitions buildings, the Potomac and the Virginia shore beyond. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 37537 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

High view over trees and museum buildings toward a distant Capitol dome — 1925 Looking east from the Washington Monument in 1925 over the Mall and its museums to the Capitol dome. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 37539 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Uniformed guards with pistols pushing wheeled wooden crates out of a loading dock — June 26, 1929 Armed guards wheel crates of new money from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for the trip to the Treasury, June 1929.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 42980 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Rows of seated guests at an outdoor ceremony with flags — November 11, 1931 Guests at the dedication of the District of Columbia War Memorial, November 11, 1931, including Edith Wilson.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H2- B-4893 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Nearby: Center Market · Pennsylvania Avenue · Downtown and F Street · The Washington Monument · The Southwest waterfront