Today In History; John Russell Pope, Architect, Jefferson Memorial

1874: Architect John Russell Pope designed the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., which is perhaps his best-known work. The son of a New York portrait painter, Pope studied architecture at Columbia University and then received a scholarship to the American Academy in Rome. He traveled throughout Italy and Greece, studying and sketching many of the Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance structures. After further studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he returned home to New York. Pope's architectural designs switched between neoclassical, Gothic, Georgian, and classical styles. Among his well-known creations are the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; private homes for families such as the Vanderbilts; the Roman-arch entranceway to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, built as a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt; and Union Station in Richmond, Virginia.