- Born:
- Nov. 28, 1866, Watseka, Ill., U.S.
- Died:
- Feb. 16, 1924, New York City (aged 57)
- Notable Works:
- Lincoln Memorial
- Reflecting Pool
Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon (born Nov. 28, 1866, Watseka, Ill., U.S.—died Feb. 16, 1924, New York City) was an American architect, best-known as the designer of the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in ,Washington, D.C.
Bacon studied briefly at the University of Illinois, Urbana (1884), but left to begin his architectural career as a draftsman, eventually serving in the office of McKim, Mead & White (New York City), probably the most widely known architectural firm of its time. Bacon’s works of that period were in the late Greek Revival and Beaux-Arts modes associated with the firm’s creations. His more important works include the Danforth Memorial Library, Paterson, N.J. (1908); the train station in Naugatuck, Conn., built as an Italian villa; the Observatory and other buildings at Wesleyan University; and the Union Square Savings Bank, New York City.
Bacon was very active as a designer of monuments and settings for public sculpture. He collaborated with the sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French. It was the latter who carved the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits within Bacon’s last and most famous work, the Lincoln Memorial (dedicated May 30, 1922).
Bacon also designed the Reflecting Pool, which visually connects the Lincoln with the Washington Monument. Bacon’s conceit for the reflecting pool was to create a mirror in water. While both the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool were built on former swamp land near the Potomac River and the Tidal Basin, the monument to Lincoln was shored up with more than 100 concrete pillars that were driven deep into the earth to reach bedrock and secure the foundation. No such lengths were gone to for the Reflecting Pool, which has been dogged by problems of foundation cracks and leaks for more than a century.