Planning Meridian Hill Park is a urban park in
Washington, D.C., located between 15th,
16th, Euclid, and W Streets NW. It was built between 1914 and 1936 as part of the
City Beautiful movement and at the behest of
Mary Foote Henderson, an activist and real estate developer whose mansion overlooked the park. The park was originally planned by
landscape architect George Burnap, but after he left the project, architect
Horace Peaslee oversaw its completion. Plans for the park included spaces for public art installations. During the 1920s, the
Dante Alighieri,
Joan of Arc, and
Serenity statues were dedicated. A fourth installation, a
memorial to President James Buchanan, was dedicated in 1930. Inspired by
Paul Manship's Cochran Armillary located on the campus of
Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, CFA member and landscape architect
Ferruccio Vitale suggested an
armillary sphere be installed on the southern end of the park, below the
Cascading Waterfall and reflecting pool. After Moore was informed of the estimated $30,000 cost of Manship's design, the commission was given to sculptor
C. Paul Jennewein, whose design was based on the one by Manship. Peaslee was selected to design the sphere's pedestal.
Production and installation By 1931, Jennewein had completed sculpting the sphere. Due to a limited budget, Jennewein's suggestion that the bronze sculpture be
fire gilded and "burnished to a bright color" did not occur. After
Congress passed the final bill on June 10, 1932, to accept the sculpture and approve its location, President
Herbert Hoover signed the bill into law. In December 1933, CFA members traveled to
Brooklyn to assess the sculpture's progress at the
Roman Bronze Works company. The
founding process had taken 14 months and cost $2,800. Although the sphere was ready to be transported to Washington, D.C., there were delays in installing the foundation at the park and the sphere remained in New York. It wasn't until spring 1935 that the foundation was installed, followed by the sphere a few months later. The total cost of the project was $31,199. Work continued on the sphere through the following year. After the inscription "Given to the Federal City, MCMXXXVI, for Edith Noyes" was engraved, the sphere was dedicated on November 10, 1936. A bronze
calibration plaque, located on a cast iron post by the sphere, was later installed to correct errors with time precision. In addition to the damage children did to the sphere, it was possibly vandalized during the
1968 Washington, D.C., riots. Based on original drawings and photographs of the sphere, Kreilick Conservation LLC used techniques including
computer numerical control and
3D modeling to create a replica. The new sphere was installed in November 2024. ==Location and design==