The Thomas Jefferson Memorial

In 1937, they decided on the location where it is today. Russell Pope was chosen as the architect and his design came from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Mansion in Virginia.  Mr. Pope died in August 1937, and then Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers supervised the construction.  In 1941, Rudolph Evans was asked to create a statue of Thomas Jefferson.  The statue looks out towards the White House. It weighs five tons and is 19 feet tall.  There is a sculpture showing some of the committee who drafted the Declaration of Independence and five quotes from Jefferson's writings.

There was a lot of controversy about the Memorial. First, people didn't like the site because Japanese flowering cherry trees had to be removed from the land to build the memorial.  Next, people were worried about the pantheon design because it was too much like the Lincoln Memorial.

President Roosevelt decided that he liked the pantheon design and on November 15, 1939 he laid the cornerstone.  The memorial was finally finished in 1943.  Every year there are different types of ceremonies held at the Jefferson Memorial.