Early Memorial Efforts and Washington Memorial Park
The idea to construct a Masonic memorial for George Washington was first proposed in 1852 by the Washington area's "mother lodge," Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 (located in Fredericksburg, Virginia). Funds were sought from Grand Lodges (state-level Masonic organizations) throughout the United States to construct a memorial Masonic Temple with a large statue in the vestibule. Enough funds were raised to commission a life-size bronze statue of Washington in full Masonic regalia from a sculptor named Powers who was living in Rome, Italy. The statue reached Alexandria in early 1861, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War. It remained on display in Alexandria until the summer of 1863, when it was moved to Richmond, Virginia. The statue was destroyed in the fire which occurred as Richmond surrendered to the Army of the Potomac on April 3, 1865.
Plans for a Masonic memorial moved forward again in 1909 after work on a competing memorial began. The proposed site for the new memorial was Shooter's Hill, which at one time had been seriously considered by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson as the site of the United States Capitol building. On May 8, 1900, citizens of Alexandria formed the "Washington Monument Association of Alexandria" (WMAA), a nonprofit organization whose mission was to build a memorial to George Washington in the city of Alexandria. Little was accomplished in the organization's first few years of life, but in February 1908 the WMAA purchased an option to buy a 50-acre (20 ha) tract of land on and around Shooter's Hill and the nearby Alexandria Golf Course. Most of the land immediately on either side of King Street was subdivided into housing tracts and sold, with 25 acres (10 ha) on top of Shooter's Hill reserved for a memorial. The sale of the housing subdivisions paid for the purchase of the entire tract, with enough left over to provide for construction of a memorial.
Within a month of the purchase of Shooter's Hill, the WMAA decided to build a park rather than a memorial. About 15 acres (6.1 ha) were set aside for the George Washington Memorial Park, while another 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) were set aside for a small memorial within the park. The new subdivision, named Fort Ellsworth (after an American Civil War fort which formerly occupied Shooter's Hill), was platted in November 1908, and public streets laid out. (The subdivision contained a restrictive covenant which limited purchases of lots in the subdivision to whites only.) The park was ready for dedication on April 30, 1909—the 120th anniversary of the inauguration of Washington as President. Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 (George Washington's Masonic lodge, as well as the lodge he led as a Master Mason) was asked to preside over its dedication. President William Howard Taft, Vice President James S. Sherman, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson, Virginia Lieutenant Governor J. Taylor Ellyson, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, Baltimore Mayor J. Barry Mahool, and numerous other dignitaries attended the dedication ceremony. (Shooter's Hill was incorporated into the city of Alexandria on April 1, 1914.)
Read more about this topic: George Washington Masonic National Memorial
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