Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/460

Rh rearing of a memorial such as the world has never heretofore beheld. A temple to liberty, a mausoleum of memory, and, withal, a building wherein the Daughters of the American Revolution may gather officially for the transaction of business. The society has grown in its twenty-one years of existence, from the three members in attendance at the first meeting to a present membership of eighty thousand. Who could have foreseen such a phenomena of patriotism? Hence the necessity for business offices in addition to a revolutionary memorial. Continental Hall is the trunk from which spring all branches of sentiment and of active work. It is built of white marble and in pure colonial type; it is situated in Washington, the nation's Capital, and is adjacent to the White House and the Washington Monument; its cost, including the land, was half a million dollars; it stands now complete, without and within. The most notable feature of the exterior is the "memorial portico," looking southward down the Potomac; it is semi-circular in shape, and its roof is supported by thirteen monolithic columns memorializing the thirteen original states. The notable feature of the interior is the auditorium, seating two thousand; its walls finished in highly ornate colonial decoration and its roof of translucent glass, in medallion designs, harmonizing with the mural ornamentation. There is a fireproof museum for revolutionary relics, documentary and otherwise, upon one side of the auditorium; upon the other is a library containing volumes chiefly pertaining to historical and genealogical research. Thus it would seem that Memorial Continental Hall, in itself, is the fulfillment of the first clause of the constitutionally stated "objects of the society". Had the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution achieved naught else, the erection of such a monument would justify the existence of the organization and shed lustre upon it. But the society is engaging in other and important activities throughout the country.