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John A. Logan Statue

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1891, Franklin Simmons and Richard Morris Hunt. Logan Circle, Vermont Ave. at 13th and P streets NW
  • (The George F. Landegger Collection of District of Columbia Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
  • John A. Logan Statue (HABS/HAER)
  • (The George F. Landegger Collection of District of Columbia Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
  • (The George F. Landegger Collection of District of Columbia Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Iowa Circle, renamed Logan Circle in 1930, was not formally landscaped until 1874, although it had been designated on L'Enfant's 1791 plan of Washington. The bronze statue of John A. Logan, a Civil War general, was dedicated on 9 April 1901. It was the second collaboration of the New England sculptor Franklin Simmons with Richard Morris Hunt, although the Parisian-trained American architect had previously designed the bases for several sculptural works including the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and an elaborate gateway entrance to Central Park. The Logan monument is unique in Washington in being entirely of bronze; Hunt's Italian Renaissance—inspired base has at least as much prominence as the equestrian figure it carries. High-relief panels on the two flanks depict events in Logan's career (criticized as inaccurate in Washington newspapers at the time), while single figures on the ends are allegorical. All are set within a densely architectural framework reminiscent of Renaissance tombs, rectangular boxes decorated with a full complement of architectonic sculpture derived from the column and all its parts, emphasizing in this case multitiered pedestal and base moldings and an entablature with spread-winged eagles at the corners.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

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Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "John A. Logan Statue", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-NE14.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 294-295.

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