L'Enfant Plan was a French engineer who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
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15 Facts About L'Enfant Plan
2.
In 1789, discussions were underway regarding a new federal capital city for the United States, and L'Enfant wrote to President Washington asking to be commissioned to plan the city.
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3.
However, L'Enfant saw the task as far more grandiose, believing that he was devising the city plan and designing the buildings.
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4.
L'Enfant Plan's plan specified locations for two buildings, the "Congress House" and the "President's House" .
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5.
L'Enfant Plan envisioned the President's House to have public gardens and monumental architecture.
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6.
L'Enfant Plan specified that most streets would be laid out in a grid.
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7.
L'Enfant Plan identified some of the circles and rectangular plazas as numbered reservations.
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8.
L'Enfant Plan chose the west end of this grand avenue to be the location of a future equestrian statue of George Washington for which the Continental Congress had voted in 1783.
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9.
L'Enfant Plan proposed the erection of an historic column that would be located within an open space at the intersection of several streets and avenues that would be one mile east of the Congress House.
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10.
L'Enfant Plan's changes included the straightening of a grand avenue, the removal of L'Enfant's Square No 15 and several other open spaces, as well as the conversions of some circles and arcs to rectangles and straight lines .
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11.
L'Enfant Plan's revisions identified L'Enfant's Congress House as the Capitol.
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12.
Stewart stated that surveyors had used the copy to lay out the city's streets and that L'Enfant Plan had employed a Philadelphia architect to draft a copy of the larger version for L'Enfant Plan's own use.
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13.
L'Enfant Plan reported that the plan was still in that office in 1898.
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14.
The last line in an oval in the upper left corner of Stewart's reproduction contains the words "Peter Charles L'Enfant Plan", which are written in a typeface and alignment that are similar to those in the line that precedes it.
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15.
L'Enfant Plan further stated that although L'Enfant had produced a number of versions of his plan, only one was still known to exist.
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