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Pride Month Historic Spotlight - Pierre Charles L’Enfant

Pierre Charles L’Enfant was born to father Pierre L’Enfant, a painter and professor of art, and mother Marie Leullier, on August 2, 1754.

In 1776, L’Enfant was recruited to serve on the colonial side in the American Revolutionary War, and he left behind his art education at the Royal Academy. In America, Pierre changed his name to Peter. L’Enfant produced several portraits and paintings of Continental Army officers and encampments throughout the war. He was discharged at the rank of Major at the disbandment of the army in December of 1783.

Following the Revolutionary War, Peter L’Enfant formed a successful civil engineering firm in New York City. Outside the firm, he designed furniture, houses, currency, and medals. L’Enfant maintained a friendship with Alexander Hamilton, and was initiated into the Freemasons, though he progressed through only the first of the Lodge’s three degrees.

The Constitution of the United States designated the formation of a 10-square-mile federal district. In 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which established the site of the federal district upon the Potomac River at modern-day Washington, DC. The Residence Act also gave the new President George Washington the authority to commission the survey and planning of the district. In 1791, Washington appointed L’Enfant to develop the plans for the city.

Thomas Jefferson, who was aiding President Washington in the capital planning, sent a letter to L’Enfant outlining the simple task of delivering a drawing of suitable sites for the district and its buildings. L’Enfant took the task to a much more developed level and went on to devise a full city plan complete with architectural building designs.

L’Enfant’s plans included a grid layout for the city, the grand avenue that would become Pennsylvania Avenue, and a vision for the “President’s House” that would have been five times the size of the White House that was constructed.

The relationship between Peter L’Enfant and Washington grew strained as L’Enfant’s grandiosity both professionally and personally began to exceed what was deemed suitable for Washington’s moderate vision. L’Enfant’s original plans were revised the following year by surveyors (and brothers) Andrew and Benjamin Ellicott, but many aspects of L’Enfant’s plan, namely the grid layout and the grand Pennsylvania Avenue, were retained.

Some of L’Enfant’s other accomplishments include the schematics for the planning of the city of Paterson, New Jersey, the design of founding father Robert Morris’ unfinished mansion, and an engineering professorship at West Point from 1813 to 1817.

In the early 20^th century, Senator James McMillan of Michigan commissioned a plan to develop the park and “monumental core” of Washington, DC. The plan was developed from L’Enfant’s original plan, and DC’s National Mall was developed from this McMillan Plan.