Congress couldn't settle on a site. Today a bronze, marble and granite sculpture of Buchanan by Hans Schuler sits there. He is in good company with one of North America's largest cascading fountains, an armillary sphere and a bronze of Dante, by sculptor Ettore Ximenes, and a nine-foot equestrian statue of Joan of Arc. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed a concert grove for Meridian Hill, said to be the first U.S. park for the performing arts. The National Park Service credits Horace W. Peaslee as its principal architect.
Aggregate concrete gives glitter to walls, stairs, fountains and urns.
According to legend, in the 1860s Mary Foote enticed then-Missouri Sen. John B. Henderson by sitting in the gallery concentrating worshipful looks at him during the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. Henderson's was an important vote against impeachment. His introduction and support of amendments abolishing slavery ended his senatorial career in 1869. The Hendersons, who had married in 1868, moved to St. Louis. George Oakley Totten Jr. designed some dozen 16th Street houses that Mrs. Henderson built to sell to embassies.