The New Deal Around DC: Floating "Sunset Symphonies" on the Potomac

Above: An audience enjoys a "Sunset Symphony" on the Potomac River, behind the Lincoln Memorial, on July 12, 1939. The band shell on the barge was built by WPA workers (see, "Potomac River Barge and Band Shell - Washington, DC," The Living New Deal; "Sunset Symphonies Planned in Washington," The Baltimore Sun, June 5, 1938, noting $25,000 in federal funds for a new acoustical shell; and "The World of Music," The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana), July 17, 1938, reporting: "The orchestra's acoustic shell, anchored 30 feet out, has been built by the WPA on a steel barge lent by the U.S. Navy." Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: Another "Sunset Symphony" concert scene, ca. 1938-1942. Note that the audience is facing west, and thus would literally enjoy a sunset when the concerts got underway. Photo by Underwood and Underwood, from The WPA Guide to Washington, DC, George Washington University, 1942, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Above: The scene today. The Arlington Memorial Bridge, and the steps where much of the audience sat, still exist; but the "Sunset Symphonies" are long gone. According to the Histories of the National Mall, the concerts lasted into the 1960s ("First Watergate Barge Concert"). A fellow who runs "The DC Bike Blogger" and appears to have done some competent research, has an interesting blog post on "The Watergate Steps" and the symphonies, and found that "the concerts were discontinued in 1965 when jets started flying into Washington National Airport, and the noise was just too loud and would drown out the concerts." However, a person commenting on the blog post writes: "Well, not entirely discontinued in 1965. I recall going to see the Ramsey Lewis Trio perform at the Watergate shell in the early 1970s with my family when I was a kid. I believe we saw other concerts there, although none with such a large audience." (See more information I found on this issue, in the next caption). Photo by Brent McKee, September 2018.

Above: Looking up the steps towards the Lincoln Memorial (which is currently undergoing roof repairs). In 1965, a newspaper article reported that the Watergate Barge was to be demolished, due to its being "beyond economic repair," and that alternatives for the concerts were being investigated ("U.S. To Scuttle Concert Barge," The Baltimore Sun, June 9, 1965). However, a newspaper article the following year was advertising various concerts on the Watergate Barge, for example, the United States Marine Band ("Recreation Calendar," The Baltimore Sun, July 24, 1966). And an April 6th, 1969 article in the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) recommended "An inexpensive way to have fun is to catch a free, outdoor concert, at the Watergate Concert barge, moored in the Potomac below the Lincoln Memorial ("Taking a trip to Washington? Here are tips on how to see it"). So, it seems the Watergate Barge was repaired, replaced, or just had its demolition postponed. Photo by Brent McKee, September 2018.

Above: The description for this photograph, taken on July 12, 1939, reads: "The president and Mrs. Edwin M. Watson, wife of [FDR's] aide, sitting in the presidential car listening to the Washington Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Hans Kindler as the orchestra played from its barge on the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial. The open-air concerts, which began tonight, will be conducted twice a week during the Summer season, and Washingtonians turn out to sit on the steps or in nearby boats to listen." Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: The description for this photograph reads: "Music hath charms to draw canoeists - Even the canoeists in Washington paddled around, to hear the season's first sunset concert by the national symphony with Hans Kindler conducting. Orchestra plays on barge anchored in Potomac." This photograph is from the July 17, 1940 edition of The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), and is used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Above: Hans Kindler (1892-1949), date and location unknown, but probably around 1920. Kindler was the "driving force" behind the creation of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in 1930-1931 (see "Hans Kindler," The Kennedy Center). Born in the Netherlands, Kindler recalled his formation of the NSO: "Just I get mad at the American capital has no summer symphony. So when I get mad I do something. I get some committee members--I think Alice Roosevelt Longsworth was along--and we ride and we look. I see those [Watergate] steps and I say 'That's it.' And it is" ("Capital Maestro Builds Orchestra on Words," The Tampa Tribune, October 3, 1939). Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: I didn't run across any information that the WPA's Federal Music Project ever played on the Watergate Barge during those early years, but certainly the National Symphony Orchestra was not the only performer on its deck. For example, the August 10th, 1941 edition of the Baltimore Sun reported that Japanese singer Hizi Koyke, among others, would be on the Watergate Barge, in a production of "Madame Butterfly." How many tens of thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans were entertained by shows and concerts on the Watergate Barge, made possible, in part, by WPA workers? Photo of Hizi Koyke, 1947, from the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

"Since WPA set up [the Federal Music Project] to retrain and rehabilitate unemployed professional musicians, aggregate audiences exceeding 93,000,000 persons have heard these musicians in more than 133,000 programs and performances…There is abundant reason to believe there is now a desire for music commanding a greater audience than the nation had ever known before, and this brings us to a proposition of whether music in the United States shall be a luxury available only to persons of the higher income levels or whether music will take its place in the cultured program and pattern of this country side by side with the free public library, the public museum and the educational system."

--Nikolai Sokoloff, director of the WPA's Federal Music Project, quoted in "6,000 On WPA Join Music Week Fetes,” New York Times, April 24, 1938.