Pope was also the architect of the National Archives Building and original (west) building of the National Gallery of Art. The Commission chose John Russell Pope as the architect in 1935. Jefferson warns that a nation cannot be "ignorant and free." Boylan was appointed the Commission's first chairman and Congress eventually appropriated $3 million for a memorial to Jefferson. Boylan jumped off FDR's starting point and urged Congress to create the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission. The Memorial's chance came in 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt, an admirer of Jefferson himself, inquired to the Commission of Fine Arts about the possibility of erecting a memorial to Jefferson, including it in the plans for the Federal Triangle project, which was under construction at the time. The plan was never funded by Congress and was not built. The winning design was submitted by John Russell Pope and consisted of a half-circle memorial situated next to a circular basin. The Tidal Basin Beach, on the site of the future Memorial, opened in May 1918 and operated as a "Whites Only" facility through 1925, when it was permanently closed to avoid the question of racial integration.Ī design competition was held for a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in 1925. In 1918, large liquid-chlorine dispensers were installed under the bridge to treat the water and make the Tidal Basin (also known as Twining Lake) suitable for swimming. The completion of the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge in 1908 helped to facilitate the recreational usage of East and West Potomac Parks.
By 1901 the Senate Park Commission, better known as the McMillan Commission, had proposed placing a pantheon-like structure on the site hosting "the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future" no action was ever taken by Congress on this issue. It became apparent that the site was well suited for another high-profile memorial since it sat directly south of the White House.
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