It would be remiss of me, as the resident historian, not to mention an important anniversary: On this day, ten years ago, the very first post of this blog would go live. Since then, we have posted over 6,000 items related to the Hill, some of momentary interest, some of lasting importance. Amazingly, that first post has survived multiple migrations and can still be seen here. We will be marking our anniversary year over the next couple of months, but for today, let me just do what I always do: Hill history.
Every tour of the Capitol includes a stop in the crypt, during which the guide points out the star that marks the spot where George Washington was to be buried. What most visitors do not see is the final resting place itself.
Directly underneath the star is a small space, separated from the corridor by an iron grate. While it is just large enough to hold a catafalque supporting a single body, it instead contains only the platform, but no casket. The question, of course, is whose catafalque this is.
In 1826, the Capitol was finally completed according to William Thornton’s original plans. Two small wings, north and south, contained the chambers in which Senate and House met. In the middle, stood a slightly larger structure topped by a low dome. With the final resting place of George Washington now completed, Congress approached John Augustine Washington, owner of Mount Vernon, for permission to move the body of the father of our country. Washington, however, refused to give permission. With no body to store the space under the crypt was used rather for tools and other detritus of the Capitol.
In 1865, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, workers built a catafalque to hold his body while laying in state in the rotunda. After the body had began its slow trip to Springfield, Illinois, the question arose as to where to store the catafalque. Unsurprisingly, Washington’s final resting place was chosen for this. The bier would be removed only when needed for a lying-in-state in the rotunda of the Capitol, which happened about a dozen times over the next hundred years.
In 1958, building on the success of the selection of one unknown soldier of the first World War to represent all those who not only died but lost their identity in the process, plans were set in motion to select unknown soldiers from both the Second World War and the Korean conflict, and add them to the original grave in Arlington Cemetery. After a lengthy process that culminated in the choice of a soldier from the Second World War by William Charette (pictured), the two coffins were brought to the Washington Navy Yard for transport to the Capitol.
As these two were to lie in state at the same time, it made for a problem – there was only one catafalque to hold them. In the end, the compromise was to have the workers at Fort Myer build a second catafalque, based on the design of the original one, and to have the two caskets switch places midway through their time in the rotunda. After they had been buried in Arlington Cemetery, the Lincoln catafalque was returned to the Washington tomb, the new one was moved to Fort Myer.
Fifty years later, the Lincoln catafalque received a new home, a few feet east of its original resting place. The new Capitol Visitor Center museum contains a small alcove that now holds the bier when it is not in use. This left the Washington tomb empty, once again.
However, a few months ago, the visitor center museum was closed for renovation. The dioramas showing Capitol Hill’s evolution over the years as well as the podium Lincoln used at his second inauguration were moved out in the visitor center as well, while the catafalque was moved, according to the guides at the Capitol, back into the Washington tomb where it had resided for so long. It will move back to its accustomed spot in about two years, if the work in the museum goes as planned.