Peace Monument

Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Landmarks and monuments

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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The Peace Monument, also called the Naval Monument, is a 44-foot marble and granite memorial to Navy personnel who died in the Civil War, carved by Franklin Simmons and erected in 1877 to 1878 in the circle west of the Capitol at Pennsylvania Avenue and First Street NW.

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Peace Monument

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38.89065° N, 77.01233° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The Peace Monument was built to remember sailors rather than generals. According to the Architect of the Capitol, it commemorates Navy personnel who died at sea during the Civil War, and the idea came from Admiral David D. Porter, who had led gunboat and troop-transport fleets in that war. He sketched a design and began raising private donations in 1865, and he first intended the monument for Annapolis.

Franklin Simmons, a Maine-born sculptor who worked in Rome after 1867, carved the 44-foot-high monument in Carrara marble. Bonanni Brothers of Carrara carried out the architectural work under his direction, and the Architect of the Capitol, Edward Clark, designed the Maine blue granite base. It was commissioned in 1871 and erected in 1877, and the final figure, Peace, was set in place in January 1878.

The Architect of the Capitol describes its allegory in detail. At the top, facing west, Grief covers her face while History holds a stylus and a tablet inscribed "They died that their country might live." Below them are a life-size Victory holding a laurel wreath and an oak branch, and infant figures of Mars and Neptune. Facing the Capitol, Peace holds an olive sprig. The agency also notes that a dove once nested on a sheaf of wheat but is now missing.

Carrara marble has not weathered easily in Washington. The agency records damage from acid rain, pollution and lichen, and breakage when people climbed on the monument, and describes conservation in 1991, 1999 and 2010. Responsibility for the monument passed to the Architect of the Capitol in 1973.

It stands in a circle at the west edge of the Capitol grounds, so it is best approached on foot from the surrounding pavements.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

An open-air marble monument in a circle west of the Capitol, with allegorical figures on each face. It can be walked around from the pavements; the Architect of the Capitol describes figures facing both west and toward the Capitol.

ACCESS

Public open-air monument in the circle west of the U.S. Capitol at Pennsylvania Avenue and First Street NW, viewed from the surrounding pavements. It is maintained by the Architect of the Capitol.

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Statue of Freedom

Washington, District of Columbia

The Statue of Freedom is a bronze figure 19 feet 6 inches tall that crowns the dome of the U.S. Capitol, designed by Thomas Crawford and raised in 1863. Its full-size plaster model is displayed in Emancipation Hall.

Public art

0.3 km away

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