page_title: United States Navy Memorial
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: United States Navy Memorial / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The United States Navy Memorial, located on the 700–800 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: The United States Navy Memorial, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 7th Street Northwest and 9th Street Northwest in Washington, D.C., honors those who have served or are currently serving in the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Merchant Marine.
  The National Park Service, through its National Mall and Memorial Parks administrative unit, provides technical and maintenance assistance to the foundation. The memorial is adjacent to the Archives station of the Washington Metro and the National Archives building.
  Associated with the memorial is the Naval Heritage Center. The Heritage Center is open 362 days a year, closing only on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. The Heritage Center offers unique space available for rent. The event/meeting space includes the gallery deck with full view of the memorial exhibition area and can hold up to 400 guests for standing receptions. The President's Room is ideal for board meetings or smaller receptions holding up to 50 seated guests and The Burke Theater that offers state of the art projection system and seats up to 242.
context_section_description: For U.S. sea services, The United States Navy Memorial is the triumph of a centuries-old dream. In the early days of U.S. independence, architect Pierre L'Enfant envisioned a memorial in the nation's capital "to celebrate the first rise of the Navy and consecrate its progress and achievements." But it was only in the twentieth century that L'Enfant's vision was realized.
  Pennsylvania Avenue, "America's Main Street," the boulevard that links the U.S. Capitol and White House, the scene of many parades, pageants, and national memories, was chosen to be the location.
  After President John F. Kennedy—himself a Navy war hero—inspired the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue, another Navy war hero, Admiral Arleigh Burke, proclaimed in 1977 that "we have talked long enough about a navy memorial and it's time we did something about it."
  In the spring of 1977, Burke—World War II war hero and former three-term Chief of Naval Operations—started to recruit a group to form the private, non-profit U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation. The following year, the foundation, led by Rear Admiral William Thompson, USN (Ret.), started to work on the five steps necessary in the building of a memorial in Washington: enabling legislation, design, site selection, fund raising, and construction and maintenance.
  Congress authorized the memorial in 1980, with the stipulation that funding come solely from private contributions. In March 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Public Law 96-199, which authorized the memorial as a part of a larger Department of the Interior bill.
  Although a number of sites in Washington, DC, were possible, the foundation teamed up with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation to use Market Square as the site for the memorial. The foundation and the corporation selected  William Conklin and James Rossant of New York as architects.
  By December 1985, the foundation had raised enough funds to warrant a go-ahead approval from the Secretary of the Interior, and construction got underway the following month. (The foundation staff and Board of Directors had raised $18-million by opening day of the visitors center, and fund raising continues today, to retire remaining construction debt and support educational programs undertaken by the foundation.)
  By August 1987, Stanley Bleifeld completed work on The Lone Sailor statue as construction of the memorial neared completion at the site.
  The memorial was dedicated on October 13, 1987.
  From late 1987 to mid-1990, two buildings were constructed on the memorial's northern perimeter. The eastern of the two buildings was selected for the memorial's visitors center. The building's shell was sufficiently completed by September 1989 to allow construction to begin for the interior of the Visitors Center. The visitors center opened in June 1991 and was formally dedicated on October 12, 1991.
  During the summer of 2006, the water in the fountains of the Navy Memorial was colored blue due to the presence of chemicals added to the water to fight algae growth. According to a spokesperson for the memorial, the algae has been surprisingly difficult to remove, and that they "figured it was better to have blue water than to have an algae-encrusted memorial." The blue water was gone by the end of the summer.
  The United States Navy Memorial is home to the Memorial Plaza, which features Stanly Bleifield's famous statue, The Lone Sailor. The Lone Sailor—a tribute to all personnel of the sea services—overlooks the Granite Sea, a map depicting the world's oceans, using an azimuthal projection centered on Washington, DC. Surrounding the Granite Sea are two fountain pools, honoring the personnel of the American Navy and the other navies of the world. The southern hemisphere of the Granite Sea is surrounded by 26 bronze high reliefs commemorating events, personnel, and communities of the various sea services.
  Adjacent to the Memorial Plaza is the United States Navy Memorial Visitor Center, which features the Arleigh & Roberta Burke Theater, several rotating exhibits about the sea services, and several Navy Log kiosk
caption: The Navy Memorial in 2010
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