It required 14 years to build Washington, D. C.’s first art museum. After opening in 1873, it served the Corcoran Gallery of Art plus the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 1965, those institutions and their collections were acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Renwick Gallery now exhibits decorative arts and crafts. The museum’s namesake is the architect, James Renwick Jr. His Second Empire design was inspired by the Louvre in Paris.
