The Jefferson Memorial

The Memorial
The architecture of this memorial is John Russell Pope. He used Thomas's own taste in architecture to build this. His idea was to combine all of Jefferson's elements like: statesman, architect, President, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, advisor of the Constitution, and founder of the University of Virginia, to make this memorial. Pope later died in August 1937, and the work was passed onto architects Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers. The memorial was then opened on April 13, 1943.

Facts to know:

• This memorial was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome.
• At first the Jefferson statue was plastic, but later the restrictions of metal from WWII were taken off and the statue was then made from metal.
• This memorial contains 26 pillars which represents the number of states that were in existence at the time of Jefferson's death.

The Jefferson Statue

• Rudolph Evans was commissioned to build this statue in 1947.
• This statue was intended to symbolize The Age of Enlightenment and Jefferson as a statesman and philosopher.
• This memorial weighs 5 tons and is 19 feet tall.