Behold the Beauty: George Washington’s Centennial Arch

Behold the Beauty: George Washington’s Centennial Arch

In 1889, architect Stanford White made a wooden triumphal arch for New York’s Washington Square Park to celebrate the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration at the city’s Federal Hall. The temporary arch, topped with a wooden sculpture of the first president, was decorated with classical motifs made of papier-mâché and plaster. The centennial arch was deemed so impressive that White was commissioned to make a permanent monument in the pa…