Megan Cloherty | mcloherty@wtop.com Jessica Kronzer | jkronzer@wtop.com

February 20, 2023, 2:02 PM

A dark, vaulted enormous space on the National Mall unseen by the public is now under construction with a plan to create an immersive visitor experience underneath the Lincoln Memorial.

It’s part of a $69 million makeover in store, funded through the National Park Foundation and philanthropist David Rubenstein, to bring a bookstore and museum to the space underneath the famed Lincoln statue.

The project is expected to begin in March and wrap up in 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s independence, according to a news release from the National Park Service. The NPS on Monday morning announced that it awarded a contract for the improvements.

Where will I see the biggest changes?

Some of the biggest changes to the monument won’t be inside the chamber most visitors are familiar with that hosts a statue of the nation’s 16th president. Instead, visitors will see a transformation below.

The 15,000 square foot museum will be inside a cavernous area called the undercroft, now marked by concrete walls and dirt floors. When the project is completed, the undercroft will be lined by floor-to-ceiling glass walls and images of historic events will be projected onto the foundations.

“So the beauty of this is we’re going to be creating a 15,000 square foot glass visitor area, so visitors will be suspended in the undercroft and can look out into the space, but yet also learn about some of the stories behind the memorial itself,” said Superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks Jeff Reinbold, during a tour with reporters of the space under the monument.

Some of those stories are told through the graffiti discovered at the base of the columns, which includes figures scribbled by the engineers as well as cartoons that were likely drawn by the construction workers when the memorial was being constructed.

Graffiti scrawled in the undercroft of the Lincoln Memorial believed to have been scribbled by engineers and construction workers when the memorial was being constructed. (Courtesy National Park Service)

“This was built during World War I — coming out of the shadow of the Civil War,” Reinbold said. “It’s a memorial to unification right as the world is kind of pulling apart. And so all of those motivations behind the symbolism in the memorial, we’ll get a chance to talk about, but most excitingly is we’re gonna have an audiovisual program that we’ll talk about what happened after it was dedicated. So you get the Marian Anderson concert, you get the March on Washington, you get all of the protests that have made this America’s premier civic space.”

Though the site is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, the museum will explain how the memorial become associated with historical figures such as Marian Anderson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who NPS says “shaped the history of the memorial.”

Inside the ‘undercroft’

The dark, cold undercroft is dimly lit by construction lights, which cast expansive shadows up and across the space.

“The first time people see this, it’s unexpected that you have this enormous undercroft,” said Mike Litterst with the National Park Service.

“So the columns that you’re looking at are 40 to 50 feet in height, they go down into the floor and other 40 to 50 feet until they hit bedrock. So all told, it’s about 90 feet worth of columns. And this was done specifically to create the illusion that the Lincoln Memorial sits up on a hill,” Litterst said.

The money for the museum comes from a public-private partnership project that was announced back in 2016.

The immersive museum, announced by the National Park Foundation years ago, has gone up in cost.

“We thought the total budget might be $35 or $40 million,” said Will Shafroff with the National Park Foundation. “Because of a change in security screening protocols, the price has gone up. Then you have COVID supply chain construction costs, and so we’ve had to really kind of, it’s taken us longer to get here. But fortunately … once we kind of got through this phase, the Park Service and the National Park Foundation each contributed an additional $25 million to the project, so that we’re at a total budget of $69 million now. And now it’s ready to go.”

Any other improvements?

Besides the museum, NPS said the project includes adding new restrooms, refurbishing the elevator to the chamber level of the memorial and expanding the bookstore.

“Improving the visitor experience at the Lincoln Memorial is vitally important to connecting Americans to the rich history of our country, the triumphs, the failures, and the lessons learned,” said David M. Rubenstein, who donated $18.5 million to the project back in 2016.

Can I visit the monument during the construction?

The public will still be able to access the memorial, including the chamber with the towering statue of Lincoln, during the construction. But the bathrooms and the elevator will close this spring.

Temporary restrooms and a handicapped accessible lift will be available during the renovations.

Photos:

The undercroft of the Lincoln Memorial is seen during a tour in Washington, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, after a ceremony announcing David Rubenstein’s gift to the National Park Foundation’s Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks. Rubenstein, who has already donated tens of millions of dollars to refurbish the Washington Monument and other icons, is giving $18 million to fix up the Lincoln Memorial. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The undercroft of the Lincoln Memorial is seen during a tour in Washington, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, after a ceremony announcing David Rubenstein’s gift to the National Park Foundation’s Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks. Rubenstein, who has already donated tens of millions of dollars to refurbish the Washington Monument and other icons, is giving $18 million to fix up the Lincoln Memorial. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A rendering showing the undercroft exhibit in relation to other parts of the memorial, (Courtesy Michael Litterst)

A rendering showing an exhibit in the Lincoln Memorial undercroft. (Litterst, Michael)

Images showing the monument’s history will be projected onto the walls. (Courtesy Michael Litterst)

A rendering of the south portion of the galley. (Courtesy Michael Litterst)