The James Madison Memorial Building is one of three United States Capitol Complex buildings that house the Library of Congress. The building was constructed from 1971 to 1976, and serves as the official memorial to United States Founding Father and president James Madison. It is located between First and Second Streets SE on Independence Avenue, across for the main library Thomas Jefferson Building, in Washington, D.C. In addition to various book and multimedia collections, it houses the United States Copyright Office, which is under the administration of the Librarian of Congress. [1]
With the help of former Librarian of Congress Lawrence Quincy Mumford, plans for a third Library of Congress building were started in 1957. [3] Congress appropriated planning funds for the structure in 1960, and construction was approved by an act of Congress on October 19, 1965, that authorized an appropriation of $75 million (equivalent to $696 million in 2022). [3] The architect was John George Stewart (1890–1970), Architect of the Capitol. Excavation and foundation work began in June 1971, and work on the superstructure was completed in 1976. [3] The cornerstone, inscribed with the date 1974, was laid on March 8, 1974. [3] Dedication ceremonies were held on April 24, 1980, and the building actually opened on May 28, 1980. [3] It was decided to name the building after Madison largely because he was the person who originally suggested in 1783 that the Continental Congress form a library containing a list of books that would be useful to legislators.
The Architect of the Capitol was charged with the responsibility for the construction of the Madison Building under the direction of the Senate Office Building Commission, the House Office Building Commission, and the Joint Committee on the Library. The Madison building was originally designed and constructed with the intent to store books, and only after completion did they decide to use the building as office space for Library of Congress officials. These bodies also consulted with a committee appointed by the American Institute of Architects and the James Madison Memorial Commission. [4] The total authorization for construction eventually was increased to $130.675 million.
Designed by the firm of DeWitt, Poor, and Shelton Associated Architects, the James Madison Memorial Building is one of the three largest public buildings in the Washington metropolitan area (along with The Pentagon and the F.B.I.’s J. Edgar Hoover Building). The building contains 2.1 million square feet (200,000 m2) with 1.5 million feet (460,000 m) of assignable space.
On January 6, 2021, at 1:11 p.m. EST, the Madison Building and the Cannon House Office Building were the first buildings in the Capitol Complex to be ordered to evacuate as rioters breached security perimeters before storming the Capitol building. [5] [6] [7] Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said two days later that rioters did not breach any of the Library's buildings or collections and that all staff members had been safely evacuated. [8]
The Madison Building is home to many of the reading rooms of the Library of Congress:
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although no longer at the geographic center of the federal district, the Capitol forms the origin point for the street-numbering system of the district as well as its four quadrants.
The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title researchers who are attempting to clear a chain of title for copyrighted works.
Thomas Ustick Walter was an American architect of German descent, the dean of American architecture between the 1820 death of Benjamin Latrobe and the emergence of H.H. Richardson in the 1870s. He was the fourth Architect of the Capitol and responsible for adding the north (Senate) and south (House) wings and the central dome that is predominantly the current appearance of the U.S. Capitol building. Walter was one of the founders and second president of the American Institute of Architects. In 1839, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.
The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex. It is an agency of the legislative branch of the federal government and is accountable to the United States Congress and the Supreme Court. Both the agency and the head of the agency are called "Architect of the Capitol". The head of the agency is appointed to a 10-year term by the President of the United States, confirmed by the United States Senate, and is accountable to the President.
The Cannon House Office Building, often called the "Old House Office Building," completed in 1908, is the oldest congressional office building as well as a significant example of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture. It occupies a site south of the United States Capitol bounded by Independence Avenue, First Street, New Jersey Avenue, and C Street S.E. In 1962 the building was named for former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon.
Ainsworth Rand Spofford was an American journalist, prolific writer and the sixth Librarian of Congress. He served as librarian from 1864 to 1897 under the administration of ten presidents. A great admirer of Benjamin Franklin, he wrote a twenty-one page introduction in Franklin's autobiography, which he edited and published.
Edwin Howland Blashfield was an American painter and muralist, most known for painting the murals on the dome of the Library of Congress Main Reading Room in Washington, DC.
The Burning of Washington was a British invasion of Washington City, the capital of the United States, during the Chesapeake campaign of the War of 1812. It was the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a foreign power has captured and occupied the capital of the United States. Following their defeat of an American force at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814, a British army led by Major-General Robert Ross marched on Washington City. That night, his forces set fire to multiple government and military buildings, including the Presidential Mansion and the United States Capitol.
The Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB) is a congressional office building for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., between South Capitol Street and First Street.
Independence Avenue is a major east-west street in the southwest and southeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States, running just south of the United States Capitol. Originally named South B Street, Independence Avenue SW was constructed between 1791 and 1823. Independence Avenue SE was constructed in pieces as residential development occurred east of the United States Capitol and east of the Anacostia River. Independence Avenue SW received its current name after Congress renamed the street in legislation approved on April 13, 1934. Independence Avenue SW originally had its western terminus at 14th Street SW, but was extended west to Ohio Drive SW between 1941 and 1942. The government of the District of Columbia renamed the portion of the road in the southeast quadrant of the city in 1950.
The Longworth House Office Building (LHOB) is one of five office buildings used by the United States House of Representatives. The building is located south of the Capitol, bounded by Independence Avenue, New Jersey Avenue, C Street S.E., and South Capitol Street, in southeast Washington. It has a floor area of 599,675 square feet (55,711.6 m2) and has a total of 251 congressional offices and suites, five large committee rooms, seven small committee rooms, and a large assembly room now used by the Ways and Means Committee.
The United States Capitol Complex is a group of twenty buildings and facilities in Washington, D.C., that are used by the federal government of the United States. The buildings and grounds within the complex are managed and supervised by the Architect of the Capitol.
The Thomas Jefferson Building is the oldest of the United States Library of Congress buildings. Built between 1890 and 1897, it was originally known as the Library of Congress Building. It is now named for Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father and the third U.S. president, whose own book collection became part of the library in 1815. The building is located on First Street, S.E. between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street in Washington, D.C. across from the U.S. Capitol. The library's John Adams Building is adjacent to it across 2nd Street, and the James Madison Memorial Building faces it across Independence Avenue.
The John Adams Building is the second oldest of the buildings of the Library of Congress of the United States. Built in the 1930s, it is named for John Adams, the second president, who signed the law creating the Library of Congress in 1800. The building is in the Capitol Hill district of Washington D.C. next to the library's main building in the Capitol Complex. The Adams building opened to the public on April 5, 1939, and before being named for the president, it was long known as The Annex building. It is designed in a restrained but very detailed Art Deco style and faced in white Georgia marble. It is located on Second Street SE between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street in Washington, DC.
The Law Library of Congress is the law library of the United States Congress. The Law Library of Congress holds the single most comprehensive and authoritative collection of domestic, foreign, and international legal materials in the world. Established in 1832, its collections are currently housed in the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress. Law staff rely on and utilize 2.9 million volumes of primary legal sources, 102.18 million microforms, 99,000 reels of microfilm, 3.18 million pieces of microfiche, and 15,600 tangible electronic resources, making it is the largest law library in the world.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) refers to the agency in the state of Texas that assists the people of Texas to effectively use information, archival resources, public records and library materials to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and their communities. The agency is charged with overseeing statewide library programs, meeting the reading-related needs of Texans with disabilities, and preserving and providing access to significant Texas documents.
The United States Senate Library is the official library of the United States Senate. While the Library informally began in 1792, it was officially established in 1871 and today holds an estimated 220,000 volumes.
Willoughby James Edbrooke (1843–1896) was an American architect and a bureaucrat who remained faithful to a Richardsonian Romanesque style into the era of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, supported by commissions from conservative federal and state governments that were spurred by his stint in 1891-92 as Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department.
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., that serves as the library, research service of the U.S. Congress and the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, the library is the United States's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library is housed in three elaborate buildings on Capitol Hill. It also maintains a conservation center in Culpeper, Virginia. The library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its collections contain approximately 173 million items, and it has more than 3,000 employees. Its "collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages."
The Washington State Library is a government agency that operates public libraries in Washington state's prisons and mental hospitals, and maintains collections related to the state government. Based in Tumwater, it is a service of the Washington Secretary of State and was founded in 1853 as the Washington Territorial Library. The library has a collection of 2.25 million physical items and other online resources available to residents of the state.
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