Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ofthe Pilgrims, and a Conflict between Daniel Boone and the In-dians, by Causici, a pupil of Canova ; and The Preservation otCaptain John Smith by Pocahontas, by Capellano. The relievoscost $14,000, and the arabesque designs and heads, $9,500. Within the sunken space about nine feet wide which encircles theRotunda above the architrave, is a series of frescos in light andshade illustrating the principal epochs of American history. Thework was begun by Brumidi, and after his death was continued byCastigini. Each fresco is broad in its eflect, and of sufficient size tobe clearly seen from the floor. The Rotunda has a freestone floor which is supported by brickarches resting upon peristyles of forty Doric columns. These columnsform the subterranean chamber called the Crypt, in which it was pro-posed to place the body of Washington when the Rotunda was origin-allv designed. The plan was to have a galleried opening in the centreof the floor through which the sarcophagus could be seen. Mrs.
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STATUARY HALL.. 93 Washington consented to the proposition, but after her death Washing-tons heirs decided that by the terms of his will the body must remainat Mount Vernon. Henry Clay, DanielWebster, John Quincy Adams,and other distinguished men endeavored for a long time to secure theremoval of the body to the Crypt, but as the Washington family werefirm in refusal, the project was abandoned in 1832. When the Cryptwas first constructed. Congress appointed a keeper of it, and ordereda light to be kept burning continuously within it. This light was notextinguished for over fifty years, and it was not until after the CivilWar that the office of Keeper of the Crypt was abolished. The National Statuary Hall is entered at the south doorfrom the Rotunda. This beautiful hall was occupied by the Houseof Representatives until the new legislative hall, in the House exten-sion, was completed. It is ninety-five feet long, and sixty feet highto the top of its magnificently painted dome. It has a

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