Pierre Charles L’Enfant

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Pierre Charles L’Enfant

Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant
Born August 9, 1754
Died June 14, 1825
Nationality American

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

Contents

[edit] Early life

L’Enfant was born at the Gobelins, Paris, 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

In 1777, L’Enfant moved to the American colonies as a military engineer with Major General Lafayette and served in the Continental Army.[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. He was promoted by brevet to Major of Engineers on May 2, 1783 in recognition of his service to American liberty.[3]

[edit] Architect and planner

L’Enfant's plan for Washington, as revised by Andrew Ellicott
L’Enfant's plan for Washington, as revised by Andrew Ellicott

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.[4] He also designed coins, medals, furniture and houses of the wealthy, and was a friend of Alexander Hamilton.

In 1791, President George Washington appointed L’Enfant to design a new federal 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. L’Enfant arrived in Georgetown on March 9, 1791, and began his work.[5] He presented his plan to George Washington on August 19, 1791.[6] He 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.[7]

However, his temperament and his insistence that his city design be realized as a whole, brought L'Enfant into conflict with the District commissioners, who wanted to direct the limited funds available into construction of the federal buildings. In this, they had the support of Thomas Jefferson. As a result of L'Enfant's contentiousness, George Washington dismissed him from the project in March 1792, before L'Enfant was able to find a publisher for his plan.[8] However, George Washington retained a copy of one of L’Enfant's original plans, which is now in the possession of the U.S. Library of Congress.[9] 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.[10][11]

Following L’Enfant's dismissal, the commissioners placed the planning for the capital city in the hands of the surveyors, Andrew and Joseph Ellicott, who had earlier conducted the original boundary survey of the future District of Columbia. Andrew Ellicott then revised L’Enfant's plan and, unlike L'Enfant, succeeded in having his own version of the plan engraved, published, and distributed.[12] Ellicott's revision subsequently became the basis for the capital city's development.

L’Enfant was not paid for his work and fell into disgrace, spending much of the rest of his life trying to persuade Congress to pay what he felt he was owed. He was offered a position as Professor of Engineering at West Point, in 1812, but declined. L’Enfant died in poverty and was buried at the farm of a friend in Prince George's County, Maryland.

[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 a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, L’Enfant's remains were reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery, on a hill overlooking the city that he had partially designed.[13] 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.[14]

[edit] Honors

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Morgan, J.D. (1899). "Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 118. 
  2. ^ Bowling, Kenneth R., Peter Charles L’Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic. George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 2002.
  3. ^ Morgan, J.D. (1899). "Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 119. 
  4. ^   "Pierre-Charles L'Enfant". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  5. ^ Stewart, John (1899). "Early Maps and Surveyors of the City of Washington, D.C.". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 50. 
  6. ^ Stewart, John (1899). "Early Maps and Surveyors of the City of Washington, D.C.". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 52. 
  7. ^ Morgan, J.D. (1899). "Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 120. 
  8. ^ Bryan, W.B. (1899). "L’Enfant's Personal Affairs". Records of the Columbia Historical Society 2: p. 113. 
  9. ^ U.S. Library of Congress: Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's 1791 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government ...." Retrieved March 31, 2008. Note: The original copy of the L'Enfant's plan in the Library of Congress identifies the plan's author as "Peter Charles L'Enfant". The Library's website nevertheless identifies the author as "Pierre-Charles L'Enfant."
  10. ^ A copy of the oval in L'Enfant's plan that identifies the plan's author as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" is inscribed several yards west of an inlay of the plan in Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. The coordinates of the inscription are: 38°53′45″N 77°01′53″W / 38.895845, -77.031286 (Inscription of name of "Peter Charles L'Enfant" in inlay of L'Enfant's plan in Freedom Plaza)
  11. ^ The United States Code states in 40 U.S.C. 3309: "(a) In General.--The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant." [1] Retrieved April 15, 2008.
  12. ^ Washington Map Society: Plan of the City of Washington
  13. ^ Coordinates of gravesite of Peter Charles L'Enfant in Arlington National Cemetery: 38°52′52″N 77°04′20″W / 38.881093, -77.072313 (Peter Charles L’Enfant gravesite)
  14. ^ Arlington National Cemetery: Historical Information: Pierre Charles L’Enfant

[edit] References

  • 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. 
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