Grant's Tomb - Design Competition

Design Competition

On February 4, 1888 after a year’s worth of delay, the GMA publicly announced the details of a design competition, in a newsletter entitled “To Artists, Architects, and Sculptors”. This information was made public to the entire nation, and was also published in Europe. The GMA also proposed a new figure for the cost of the monument from $1,000,000 to $500,000. The deadline for all designs was rescheduled three times and was then set for a final date of January 10, 1889. The winner of the contest was an architect named John Hemenway Duncan. Duncan was one of sixty-five contestants. John Duncan made his first architectural claims in 1883, designing the “Washington Monument at Newburgh”, “The Newburgh Monument”, and the “Tower of Victory.” Duncan built these structures as a celebration of the one hundred year anniversary of the revolutionary war. He became a member of the Architectural League in 1887. Duncan cited the objective of his design was, “to produce a monumental structure that should be unmistakably a tomb of military character.” And he wanted to avoid “resemblance of a habitable dwelling.” The structure was meant to be the epitome of reverence and respect. He estimated his design would cost between $496,000 and $900,000. The tomb's granite exterior is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and but for the Ionic order, resembles the Tropaeum Alpium. While within the tomb the twin sarcophagi of Grant and his wife Julia are based on that of Napoleon Bonaparte at Les Invalides.