I am always on the lookout for times when the Washington Navy Yard was used for purposes not directly related to their mission, whether building a ducking stool, a model ship, or an observatory chair. Thus, when I recently read an article about a statue that was cast there, I decided to search the literature for more information on this statue, and for other non-military articles cast at the Navy Yard. The list is not long, but there were some interesting items included.
The earliest use of the Navy Yard for casting non-military items that I have been able to find is a set of urns that were created from Civil War-era cannons in 1872. Unfortunately, the historic record is extremely thin when it comes to these two pieces. This is all the more remarkable given where they have been located since their creation: Just north of the White House in Lafayette Square, next to the statue of Andrew Jackson that graces the very center of that park.
The contemporary newspapers are entirely silent on the subject, it is not until 1881 that they are mentioned in a dash-heavy description of Lafayette Square published in the Evening Star of October 22 of that year:
Mounted on square, narrow granite pedestals, and located equi-distant on either side of the statue are a pair of curiously wrought, urns fac-similes, cast at the naval ordinance yard, of a pair imported by W. W. Corcoran, esq., from Paris. Excepting in winter they contain inner vessels of palms and other large and graceful growths.
Sadly, even the reference to William Wilson Corcoran does not help in getting any more information on these urns – no other source makes this connection, nor are there any famous Parisian urns connected to this banker and art collector.
A 1999 comprehensive plan for the White House adds a a few more details:
In 1872 Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson [pictured above] ordered two memorial urns to be cast at the Washington Naval Yard brass foundry. Weighing about 1,300 pounds each and 7’ in height, they were installed on granite pedestals in Lafayette Park. In 1879 they were fitted with galvanized iron pans and used for ornamental plannings.
In 1919, there was some excitement around the urns when a group of suffragettes lit a fire in one of the urns, a flame that was to “burn until the Senate act[ed] favorably on the woman suffrage amendment.” The fire was quickly extinguished by “a crowd of citizens and men in uniform” but relit in a metal washtub. How long the latter fire burned was not related by the newspapers of the time.
Slightly less than 20 years later, the urns were relocated, but just a few feet further to the east and west from their original location. This was part of a major redesign of the square. A further, smaller, redesign in 1962 had them moved further south, and their previous location was given over to two water features that remain there today.