Photo by John Sonderman

Despite some earlier misreporting by the head of the National Park Service, the Washington Monument will be illuminated as it undergoes a year of repair work to fix damage caused by the August 2011 earthquake. The 555-foot-tall obelisk will be lit up next Monday night at a special National Park Service ceremony and will glow in the dark until work is completed in spring 2014, NPS announced today.

As scaffolding rose around the monument earlier this year, anticipation grew that it would once again be lighted for decorative effect, as it was in 1999 and 2000 during its last major repair job. Then, scaffolding designed by the architect Michael Graves included lighting to make the monument stick out as a glowing spire in the D.C. skyline.

Along with the current scaffolding, the Washington Monument is dressed in a blue-gray scrim decorated to mimic the obelisk’s marble blocks. At next Monday’s ceremony, scheduled to begin at 7:45 p.m., NPS officials will switch on a lighting system behind the scrim, giving the monument an effect of glowing in the dark. The lights will go on at sunset, following remarks by NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis (who erroneously tweeted about when the lights would go on), National Mall superintendent Bob Vogel, and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, who is footing half the bill for the monument’s $15 million repair job.

Still, while the lighting should be impressive, one can’t help think the timing is a little off. Not for nothing, but a glowing Washington Monument would have been a great finale to, say, a giant fireworks spectacle.

Photos of the 1999-2000 lighting job: