IWALKED WASHINGTON D.C.’S GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
George Washington University, also known largely via the initials “GW,” is the largest university in Washington, D.C. This private school is, of course, named in honor of our nation’s first president, George Washington. Washington had tried unsuccessfully on a number of occasions to begin an institution of higher learning within the city. His original plan was to erect a school atop Observatory Hill off of Massachusetts Avenue. When this effort did not come to fruition he ensured that suitable funds were set aside for the establishment of a university in the future. Washington donated the sum of fifty shares of stock in the Potomac Company, a company created in 1785 to help establish canals throughout the area. Seen as a strong investment at the time, Washington could not have foreseen that railroads would supersede canals and by the early nineteenth century the stocks were of no value.
Luckily another individual held a similar lofty goal for establishment of a university, a Baptist minister named Luther Rice. Rice donated a substantial sum of land for construction of a university (forty-seven acres in total) along Boundary Street (now known as Florida Avenue, NW) between the block of 14th and 15th Streets. A large building was constructed on-site and on February 9, 1821 President James Monroe officially approved a congressional charter creating Columbian College. The inaugural class for Columbian only featured thirty enrolled students which were instructed via three full-time faculty. Tuition for each of those students seems to have been a relative bargain at $200 for the year versus the $8,673 for residents as of 2012. The first graduate class from Columbian College was in December 1824 and was an assumingly close knit group of three individuals.
Over the ensuing year the college would begin a massive expansion. A medical school was introduced in 1824 and a law school would follow just two years later. In 1873 graduate classes were offered for the first time and school was granted university status. The University was officially renamed in honor of our first president in 1904 and moved to Foggy Bottom in 1912.
Growth during this period did not occur without some setbacks though. During the Civil War the University saw a significant decline in enrollment as many students left to enroll in the war. Ironically much of the student population was southern sympathizers and thus a majority of the students fought for the Confederacy. Spare buildings and bunks during this period were refitted for usage as hospitals and barracks for soldiers.
Today GW is not only one of the most prestigious schools in the area but also one of the wealthiest. The university lays claims to over forty-two acres of land within the Foggy Bottom area alone, making it the second largest land owner in the area less the U.S. government. Its approximate ninety buildings are spread across three campuses that are located within Foggy Bottom, Mount Vernon and Ashburn, VA.
With more than twenty-thousand students in attendance here annually, it goes without saying that GW has had its share of noted alumni. On January 26, 1939 it was here that Niels Bohr announced that Otto Hahn had split the atom for the first time. Nobel Prize winner George Gamow also developed the Big Bang Theory here in the 1930s and 1940s. Other celebrities have included the likes of the former head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, actor Alec Baldwin, former Boston Celtics coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The heart of the campus is located near the intersection of 20th Street, NW and H Street, NW–the University Yard. The brick paved paths leading you to the Yard are beautifully decorated with rose gardens that bloom here each spring through early fall. While the University Yard primarily serves as a gathering place for either student or social functions, it is also home to a cast bronze statue of George Washington.
This bronze statue was cast as a replica of the original marble version by sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. The original statue currently graces the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Houdon was a well-known sculptor in his time including noted works of individuals such as Benjamin Franklin (1778) and Thomas Jefferson (1789). In fact, it was Jefferson that recommend Houdon create a tributary portrait statue of Washington. Franklin made the added effort of actually sailing over to France in 1785 to convince Houdon to visit Mount Vernon. After some persuasion Houdon agreed to a two-week stay in October in which he could study Washington in preparation for a new work.
Houdon’s resulting sculpture shows Washington in the uniform he wore during the Revolutionary War. In his right hand Washington holds a cane while his left hand rests atop a stack of thirteen rods (selected to symbolize the original thirteen colonies). When Washington’s friend Marquis de Lafayette saw the statue for the first time he was quoted as saying, “That is the man himself. I can almost realize he is going to move.”
Additional castings of the original work were made (with some reluctance) during the years 1840-1910. During this period, thirty-three replicas were made of both bronze and plaster. The work in front of you was acquired by George Washington University in 1932 in celebration of the former president’s two-hundredth birthday. The statue has seen a number of homes throughout the years on this campus but finally made its way to the University Yard on September 6, 1991 and it has remained here ever since.
One other interesting fact related to the former first president and his association with the University exists around Washington’s own Freemason Bible. It is said that this Bible is the same one on which each university president must take his oath of office.
Website: http://www.gwu.edu/
Address: 2000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC. (Note: Address is related to LawSchool located near University Yard.)
Cost: Free
IWalked Audio Tours To See This Site: Washington D.C’s White House and Foggy Bottom. (Download the MP3 tour here. iPhone application tour is available here. Please note, all WashingtonD.C. tours are now available as in-app purchases upon download of ourFREEWashingtonD.C.Tours application, which includes a nearly 4-hour tour of the National Mall.)