As part of his gift to the nation, Charles Lang Freer provided one million dollars for the construction of a museum to house his collections of Asian and American art. He selected Charles Adams Platt, an architect and landscape designer who was trained as a painter, to design the museum in 1913. Together they devised a two-story plan for the building, settling on the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo with a central court open to the sky. The museum's design reflected Freer's belief that the appreciation of art could be enhanced by "lack of confusion, sympathetic surroundings, and perfect opportunity to observe or study the exhibits in a proper way." On the main floor, eighteen galleries and Whistler's Peacock Room were linked to each other by four connecting corridors. Planned in every respect for the comfort and convenience of visitors, the museum was said to be one of the healthiest spots in the District of Columbia. The cornerstone was laid in 1916. Freer was unwell and could not attend the ceremony, but he kept an eye on the work in progress. Although construction was interrupted by the First World War, the museum was virtually complete by the autumn of 1919. Charles Freer died that September, never having seen the building that would, at his request, bear his name in a "modest and appropriate form." In May 1923, the Freer Gallery of Art opened to the public as the first art museum in the Smithsonian Institution. The Freer Gallery of Art and the neighboring Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the Smithsonian's national museums of Asian art. Facts about the building: 1) The Freer Gallery of Art was the first museum in the Smithsonian Institution devoted exclusively to the fine arts. It so embodies the spirit of its founder that an acquaintance of Charles Lang Freer once called it "Mr. Freer's autobiography." 2) During a major renovation in the early 1990s, the Freer courtyard was entirely removed, leaving a gaping hole at the center of the building. Some 27,000 works of art were kept in temporary quarters while expanded space for collections storage was created below the courtyard. 3) When the museum opened in 1923, live peacocks roamed the Freer courtyard as living tributes to the golden birds that adorn the walls of Whistler's Peacock Room. One of the Freer Gallery's most widely known works, it was named an "icon of American Art" by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Freer Gallery of Art, located on Jefferson Drive at 12th Street SW, on the National Mall in Washington, is open every day except December 25. Hours are from 10 am until 5:30 pm, and admission is free.

For more information about the gallery watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeDG8XDt2mc