Albert Pike Memorial

Albert Pike Memorial

Albert Pike Memorial in 2008
38°53′41″N 77°00′57″W / 38.8946°N 77.0157°W / 38.8946; -77.0157
Albert Pike Memorial
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Part of	Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C.
NRHP reference No.	78000257[1]
Added to NRHP	September 20, 1978[2]
Location	3rd and D Streets NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Designer	Gaetano Trentanove
Material	bronze (sculpture) granite (base)
Height	28 feet (8.5 m) (sculpture and base)
Opening date	October 23, 1901
Dedicated to	Albert Pike
Dismantled date	June 19, 2020

The Albert Pike Memorial is a public artwork in Washington, D.C., erected in 1901, and partially demolished in 2020 by protestors responding to the murder of George Floyd. It honors Albert Pike (1809–1891), a senior officer of the Confederate States Army as well as a poet, lawyer, and influential figure in the Scottish Rite of freemasonry. The memorial—which now only includes the base and Goddess of Masonry sculpture—sits near the corner of 3rd and D Streets NW in the Judiciary Square neighborhood. The memorial's two bronze figures were sculpted by Gaetano Trentanove, the Italian-American sculptor of another Washington, D.C., sculptural landmark, the Daniel Webster Memorial. The dedication ceremony in 1901 was attended by thousands of Masons who marched in a celebratory parade.

The memorial is one of 18 Civil War monuments in Washington, D.C., which were collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The memorial is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, a federal agency of the Interior Department. The Pike statue was the only outdoor sculpture in Washington, D.C., honoring a Confederate general. Though Pike was depicted as a Mason, not a soldier, the memorial stirred controversy for decades.