John Paul Jones Memorial

John Paul Jones Memorial

National Park Service photo by Mike Litterst

Quick Facts

Location:

Washington, DC

Significance:

Revolutionary War naval hero

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The John Paul Jones Memorial, located across from the Tidal Basin at the terminus of 17th Street at Independence Avenue SW, honors the Scottish‑born naval commander whose daring exploits during the American Revolutionary War helped define the fledgling nation’s naval tradition.

John Paul Jones was born John Paul in 1747 in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, and began life at sea as a young boy of 13, gaining experience that would shape his extraordinary maritime career. In 1774, just before the outbreak of the Revolution, he moved to Virginia, added Jones to his name, and soon accepted a commission in the Continental Navy. Jones quickly demonstrated exceptional skill and boldness, commanding vessels such as the sloop Providence and the brig Ranger before taking command of the Bonhomme Richard, a converted French merchantman. It was aboard this ship that he won his most famous victory on September 23, 1779, when his squadron engaged a British convoy off Flamborough Head. In the fierce battle with the British frigate HMS Serapis, the Bonhomme Richard was badly damaged, yet Jones refused to surrender, reputedly declaring, “Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight!”, words immortalized on his memorial. His tenacity ultimately forced the Serapis to strike her colors, even as his own ship sank from battle damage.

After the war, Jones was hailed in the United States and abroad for his courage and tactical brilliance. His career later took him to European courts and even into service with the Russian navy before his death in 1792 in Paris. His remains were interred in an unmarked grave until 1905, when they were rediscovered and brought back to American soil to rest with honor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. This rediscovery rekindled national interest in commemorating Jones’s contributions and led Congress to appropriate $50,000 in 1909 for a memorial to stand in the nation’s capital.

The memorial was designed by Charles Henry Niehaus, one of the most prominent American sculptors of his era, with architectural contributions from Thomas Hastings of the firm Carrère & Hastings. Niehaus’s vision brought forth a commanding bronze statue of Jones, approximately ten feet high, clad in his naval uniform, standing confidently with his left hand on the hilt of his sword and his gaze cast outward as if surveying distant seas. This bronze figure is set before a tall marble pylon which is decorated with carved military imagery and inscriptions, and on its rear face a bas‑relief panel showing Jones raising the American flag aboard the Bonhomme Richard, the moment many consider the first time the Stars and Stripes flew over an American warship. At the base of the pylon, water flows from the mouths of stylized dolphins into small reflecting basins on either side, symbolically linking Jones’s life to the sea he mastered.

The John Paul Jones Memorial was formally dedicated on April 17, 1912, with President William Howard Taft presiding over the ceremony. It was the first memorial erected in Potomac Park, marking an early chapter in what would become a landscape of national remembrance along the Mall and Tidal Basin.