Qualla: Arlington Memorial Amphitheater

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Avriette at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk into the marble amphitheater on the hill at Arlington National Cemetery on any clear morning, and the white Vermont and Massachusetts stone seems to catch and hold the light without giving any of it back. Five thousand seats curve around the open central stage, with a colonnaded Doric peristyle behind them and a small chapel and apse on the east side. The structure was designed in 1913 and dedicated on May 15, 1920, in the immediate aftermath of the war that had transformed every previous American definition of military sacrifice. It anchors the eastern steps of what is now the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On Memorial Day, on Veterans Day, and on the days when an unknown serviceman is brought home from a foreign battlefield to lie in honor in this country, this is the room where it happens. Three Presidents have laid wreaths here in the same year. The building itself remembers that it was Ivory Kimball's idea.

Image: Avriette at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater: Judge Kimball's Project

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Arlington National Cemetery was established in 1864, and by 1873 the crowds attending Memorial Day services there had become too large for any temporary gathering place. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs - the man who had ordered the cemetery created in Mary Lee's flower ...

Image: Public domain

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater: Carrere and Hastings

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim1965, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Arlington Memorial Amphitheater Commission contracted on October 12, 1914, with the New York architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings to design the building. Thomas Hastings, of the firm that had designed the New York Public Library, led the architectural team. The civilian...

Image: Tim1965 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater: The Tomb on the Steps

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Duane Lempke, CC0. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed in the center of the amphitheater's east steps. Congress had authorized in 1921 the burial of an unidentified American soldier from the First World War on the plaza outside the amphitheater, to symbolize all American war dead. The first ...

Image: Duane Lempke | CC0

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater: What the Marble Holds

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Duane Lempke, CC0. The amphitheater has hosted state funerals and memorial services for many decades. Confederate veteran and sculptor Sir Moses Ezekiel was buried at his Confederate Memorial in front of the amphitheater in 1921. Pulitzer Prize-winning soldier and poet Joyce Kilmer was honored here...

Image: Duane Lempke | CC0