SeeHistory museumNational Mall

Arts and Industries Building

This beautiful building was the first major museum on the mall, built as the National Museum in 1881 to house the Smithsonian's earliest collections. The collections have since been moved to the Natural History and American History museums, but the building still does host occasional exhibits (and serves as office space for the Smithsonian).

Address: 900 Jefferson Dr SW
Phone: +12026331000
Website: si.edu (opens in a new tab)

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Washington, D.C./National Mall, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Also listed in Overture Maps open data.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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SeePublic art
Spencer Fullerton Baird
DoPark
Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
belongs to Smithonian Institution
DoPark
Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden
SeeMemorial
Andrew Jackson Downing Urn
The Andrew Jackson Downing Urn, also known as the Downing Urn, is a memorial and public artwork located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden of the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The outdoor sculpture of a garden vase−urn commemorates Andrew Jackson Downing (1815–1852), an American landscape designer and horticulturalist, and considered to be one of the founders of American landscape architecture. Shortly before dying at the age of 37, Downing developed a landscape plan for the National Mall that the United States government partially implemented until replacing it with the McMillan Plan of 1902 (see History of the National Mall).
Built 1856