Caption: Aerial view from the north. Jack Boucher, photographer; February 1992.

Jefferson Memorial, East Potomac Park, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. HABS No. DC-4

Significance: One of Washington's largest and most famous memorials, this structure serves as the southern anchor of the city's monumental plan, the other elements of which include the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and White House. The Jefferson Memorial was built to commemorate Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), architect, principal author of the Declaration of the United States, esteemed as an advocate for national independence and personal spiritual freedom. Jefferson's philosophy is perhaps best expressed in the declaration of Independence where he wrote that "All men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The memorial built in his honor, with the classical serenity of its architecture reflected in the tidal basin and framed y ornamental Japanese Cherry Trees remains one of the most familiar and popular images of the nations capital.

See the documentation in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0473/

Learn more about this site online at http://www.nps.gov/thje/index.htm

HABS is soooo old, we even have dinosaurs in our collection!

HABS photographer Renee Bieretz takes a large format photograph for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Library of Congress. HABS architect Paul Davidson provides assistance... and protection.

This photograph was taken in September 2011 when the HABS team was in South Dakota to document the Cedar Pass Lodge at Badlands National Park. For more information on the Badlands HABS documentation project, visit: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.210777102319581.52778.130899723640653&type=1&l=26621c027b

For more information on Dinosaur Park, visit: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10514 — at Dinosaur Park.

Photo Caption: View looking down the north vista.
Photographer: Jack E. Boucher, 2000.

HABS Project:
Dumbarton Oaks, 3101 R Street, Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: No other property combines mansion, collections, and gardens into such an aesthetically compelling early to mid-twentieth century vision of estate living in Georgetown. Starting with the Bliss's occupancy and continuing under Harvard's ownership, Dumbarton Oaks has been a site of internationally significant cultural and political events. In 1938, Nadia Boulanger conducted, in the music room, the world premier of Igor Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, commissioned by Mrs. Bliss, and nine years later Stravinsky conducted his concerto at Dumbarton Oaks. Stravinsky and Boulanger were two of this century's most important musicians. In 1944, the planning sessions that led to the creation of the United Nations were held in the Dumbarton Oaks music room. Two of this century's most important architectural firms, McKim, Mead and White and Philip Johnson, have designed major spaces at Dumbarton Oaks. Furthermore, the present Georgian Revival house incorporates a Federal Period house dating from approximately 1800. In addition, several locally prominent and one nationally prominent man associated with the house in the nineteenth century.

See the HABS Documentation - large-format photographs, historical report and architectural measured drawings - in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0970/

Learn more about this site at http://www.doaks.org/

Interior view looking north from the midpoint of the attic's central passage. This view captures the manner in which skylights and monitors provided light for the attic's interior rooms and spaces.

Photographer: Joseph Elliott, 2003.

HABS Project: The Woodlands, 4000 Woodlands Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Significance: William Hamilton's (1745-1813) house at The Woodlands in Philadelphia stands as one of the greatest American domestic achievements of the eighteenth century. From its beginnings around 1771- which included what was likely the first monumental portico in Philadelphia- to is neoclassical reconstruction between 1786 and 1789, Hamilton's residence at The Woodlands represents nearly every aspect of contemporary genteel culture as individually interpreted by one native North American. As a setting for both formal and informal entertainment, the display of art, and day-to-day living, the house also boasted what were likely the best-finished and most sophisticated service spaces created at the time in Philadelphia, and perhaps in the country as a whole. The house's imported avant-garde neoclassical design presaged the formation of architectural trends in America that would dominate building design and construction for the first decades of the nineteenth century. Beyond its singular importance and survival as a structure, the house at The Woodlands was not conceived in an isolated manner. Its aesthetic and functional qualities were intimately related to, indeed inseparable from, the surround estate. These eighteenth-century pleasure and work landscapes have passed from existence; however, the house and its accompanying stable/carriage house remain as testimony to the grand estate that William Hamilton visualized, built, and rebuilt on the banks of the Schuylkill River over the course of his adult life.

See the HABS/HAER/HALS Documentation at the Library of Congress at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=habs+pa-1125&fa=displayed%3Asurveys_only&sp=1&co=hh

Learn more about The Woodlands Historic Mansion, Cemetery and Landscape online at: http://www.woodlandsphila.org/

or

on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/woodlandsphila

USS Arizona (HAER No. HI-13)
Submerged off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI

Other Title: World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument BB-39

Date of Construction: Began March 16, 1914. Completed June 19, 1915.

Significance: USS ARIZONA, a steel hulled battleship, was destroyed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Struck by a bomb and possibly torpedoes, this ship was sunk, along with others, at its mooring. ARIZONA received the greatest battle damage and 1,177 crew members were killed and hundreds remain entombed in the ship. This attack catapulted the United States into World War II and the ARIZONA remains today a war grave and memorial to those who fought in the war.

Project Information: Documentation of USS ARIZONA was conducted by the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) of the National Park Service in 1984 and 1986. This HAER project incorporates the archeological drawings with new interpretive drawings on Mylar in the HAER format.

View the HAER Documentation of the USS Arizona in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in the Library of Congress at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hi0096/

Learn more about the USS Arizona and the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at: http://www.nps.gov/valr/index.htm

HABS No. DC-532

Meridian Hill Park, Bounded by Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Euclid & W Streets, Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC.

Significance: Located between 15th, 16th W, and Euclid Streets, NW is one of the most distinguished examples of Landscape design in Washington. The Hilly Terrain of the Twelve Acre Site and the beaux-arts training of the designers produced a design that is an elaborate architectural composition as well as a landscaped park. Among the major features are the mall, the Italianate cascade, the Great Terrace and the monument to President Buchanan. The architectural elements are constructed with exposed pebble concrete, and represent some of the earliest uses of this material in the United States.

Building/structure Dates: ca. 1936 Initial Construction

HABS Documentation:
Photo(s): 51
Color Transparencies: 5
Measured Drawing(s): 25
Data Page(s): 70
Photo Caption Page(s): 5

View the HABS Documentation of Meridian Hill Park in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in the Library of Congress at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0188/

Learn more about this site online at: http://www.nps.gov/mehi/index.htm

HAER Photographer Jet Lowe photographs a column capital for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection using a large-format camera.

HABS Team Documents Arlington Cemetery Gate Stones

In 1879, Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General of the U.S, Army, salvaged six columns from the portico of the old War Department building (James Hoban, architect, 1818) adjacent to the White House, which was being demolished for the construction of the new State, War and Navy Building. The columns were brought to Arlington Cemetery where Meigs incorporated them into the design of two gates, the Ord-Weitzel Gate and the Sheridan Gate. The gates, in turn, were demolished in 1971 and the stones dumped in the woods behind the maintenance building at Arlington, where they languished for 40 years. In June 2012, after several years of discussion and planning, the stones were removed and placed in a protected area for conservation and study. On 14-15 August a HABS team, consisting of architects Mark Schara, Paul Davidson, Ryan Pierce, and Jobie Hill (summer hire), together with HABS Historian Gigi Price and HAER Photographer Jet Lowe, undertook field documentation of the stones. It is anticipated that the resulting HABS drawings will aid in the eventual reconstruction of the gates. The project was sponsored by Arlington National Cemetery and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District.

HABS/HAER/HALS has undertaken several recording projects in Arlington National Cemetery. See the documentation produced in our national collection at the Library of Congress by visiting: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=arlington+Cemetery&fa=displayed%3Asurveys_only&sp=1&co=hh

To see the more pictures of the team documenting Arlington Cemetery Gate Stones, see our Facebook ablum at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.407668662630423.92832.130899723640653&type=1&l=6e2d327f72