Smithsonian Castle

The Smithsonian Castle displays jagged red sandstone walls and nine distinct towers that separate it from the limestone and marble buildings on the National Mall. James Renwick Junior designed this structure in eighteen forty-six to house the laboratories, library, and museum collections of the newly formed institution. When fire swept through the building in eighteen sixty-five, it destroyed the original manuscript of the first Smithsonian secretary, Joseph Henry, along with portraits of Native American leaders painted by John Mix Stanley.