Originally met with mixed reviews, Meigs' Pension Building, later home to the US General Accounting Office, and today the National Building Museum, this project broke ground on July 1, 1881, and was completed seven years later. The exterior was modeled closely on the monumentally scaled Palazzo Farnese, in Rome, completed to Michelangelo's specifications in 1589. The building's interior, with open, arcaded galleries surrounding a central hall, mirrored the early 16th century Palazzo della Cancelleria. Though still under construction, the first major event held in the building was Grover Cleveland's 1885 Inaugural Ball.
The above four pictures are from various stages of the building's construction in the 1880s
A view of the Grand Gallery in 1918
Clerks working in the Grand Gallery in the 1930s
Officers in the Grand Gallery circa 1960, when the building was considered for demolition
The Grand Gallery at a 2010 Award Ceremony
The Grand Gallery as it appears today
It remains one of the better locations for large events and rallies in Washington, DC
A modern exterior view of "Meigs's Big Red Barn" with the Capitol Dome, another Meigs project, in the background
Closeups of the 26-panel frieze, a monument to Civil War veterans, around the building's exterior
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, opened in 1991, is located behind the museum today
Another of Meigs's major post-Civil War projects included the second building in the Smithsonian Institution complex. It opened in 1881 as the first US National Museum and is today called the Arts and Industry Building.
Meigs's Civil War headquarters is now the Renwick Art Gallery, part of the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art and, according to Google Maps, is less than a quarter of a mile from the White House
Montgomery and Luisa Meigs were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Grave 1-EH
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