(Washington, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the U.S. House of Representatives has accepted the District’s donation of a statue of Pierre Charles L’Enfant to honor DC residents in the U.S. Capitol. L’Enfant, a French engineer and architect, designed and developed the original city plan for the District of Columbia as the nation’s new capital in 1791.
“While we continue to fight to secure our full democratic rights as American citizens by becoming the 51st state, placing Pierre L’Enfant’s statue in the Capitol is a fitting way to honor DC’s 705,000 taxpaying residents and our contributions to the nation,” said Mayor Bowser. “I thank Speaker Pelosi, House Administration Committee Chairperson Zoe Lofgren, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for working to achieve this agreement.”
The statue will be the District’s second, joining the Frederick Douglass statue, which was placed in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center in 2013. All 50 states are allowed to place statues of two significant individuals in the Capitol. The L’Enfant statue was commissioned by the District and currently resides in One Judiciary Square.