Tourist attraction
D.C. World War I Memorial
Circular marble Doric bandstand honoring war dead, names inscribed without rank, race, or gender.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the D.C. World War I Memorial on the National Mall opens with John Philip Sousa leading the Marine Band here on Armistice Day in 1931, when architect Frederick Brooke's marble bandstand was still a working stage for concerts. It traces the memorial's purpose honoring more than 26,000 D.C. residents who served, including 499 who did not return, and the plain, rank-free listing of their names in a segregated capital. Sousa, born just blocks from here, personally endorsed this circular shape as the ideal bandstand design.
This audio guide was created using AI.