Written by DCist contributor Benjamin Schuman-Stoler

Last week in our “revisiting sites we’ve walked by a hundred times” series we presented the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This week, we’ll look at that huge phallus in the exact center of the original D.C. map — the Washington Monument.

Screaming nothing but glory and testament, it is the classic D.C. monument. But we know its background isn’t as simple as its geometric profile. The National Park Service commissioned a fascinating history of the Monument in the early 1970s. The text of the resulting book, A History of the Washington Monument, 1844-1968, Washington, D.C., by George J. Olszewski, is now available in full online, and history buffs will find it worth a thorough read from the proposals to the dedication.

We’ve all seen that point where the stones abruptly change color, but even though we know the Monument’s construction was delayed because of funding or the Civil War or something, we don’t really think twice about it. Though it’s tempting to list the number of times the organizers behind the Monument’s construction ran out of money, marble, or public enthusiasm, we were intrigued by Olszewski’s take on how one antebellum political party managed to derail the entire project and, by stealing the Pope’s Stone, add further infamy to their already ignominious reputation.