Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.

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Description

Grand Avenues tells the riveting story of Pierre Charles L’Enfant and the creation of Washington D.C.–from the seeds of his inspiration to the fulfillment of his unusual vision.

L’Enfant’s story is one of consuming passion, high emotion, artistic genius, and human frailty. As a boy he studied drawing at the most prestigious art institute on the planet. As a young man he left his home in Paris to volunteer in the army of the American colonies, where he served under George Washington. There he would also meet some of the people who would have a profound have an effect on on his life, including Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe. And it was once Washington himself who, in 1791, entrusted L’Enfant with the planning of the nation’s capital–and reluctantly allowed him to be dismissed from the project eleven months later. The plan for the city was once published under another name, and for the rest of his life L’Enfant fought for recognition of his achievement. But he would not live to see that day, and a century would pass before L’Enfant would be given credit for his brilliant design.

Scott W. Berg recounts this tale, richly evocative of time and place, with the narrative verve of a novel and with a cast of characters that ranges from Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers to the surveyor who took credit for L’Enfant’s plans, the assistant who spent a week in jail for his loyalty to L’Enfant, and the men who in the end restored L’Enfant’s reputation originally of the twentienth century.

Here is an engaging, little-explored episode in American history: the story of a visionary artist and of the founding of the magnificent city that may be his enduring legacy.

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