By John Kelly
Monday, January 23, 2006

O ne of my French friends was in town and asked whose statue was in the middle of Lafayette Square. He wanted to know why Lafayette wasn't in the middle of his square. I was able to tell him that Andrew Jackson is in the middle and that Lafayette is in the southeast corner. But I don't know why Jackson is in the central place of honor instead of Lafayette. Do you?

Gordon Thompson, Washington

Oh, those French. Always avec the questions insolentes .

It wasn't until sometime after 1824 that the plot of land north of the White House -- which had been a cherry orchard and a family graveyard -- became known as Lafayette Square. That's the year the Marquis de Lafayette , the Frenchman who fought the British alongside George Washington , returned to the United States for a triumphal tour.

Over time, the square became surrounded by fashionable homes, but as late as 1850 the park itself was a pretty ramshackle place, wrote historian William Seale in the Journal of the White House Historical Association in 1997. Bounded by a whitewashed wooden fence and crisscrossed by ragged paths, the square was thick with elm trees. Grass and weeds grew knee-high, and sheep were occasionally let in to chew them down.

The square was soon to get some pizazz, however, in the form of a massive equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson , our seventh president.

Jackson, who defeated the British at New Orleans in the War of 1812, had been incredibly popular with the common people, Democrats especially, not least because he had sent tubs of alcohol to citizens celebrating his inauguration. His supporters wanted to honor him in a very prestigious place. It seemed not to bother anyone that his statue was to go in the middle of a square named for someone else.

To modern eyes, sculptor Clark Mills 's statue might look a little naive. Jackson stiffly doffs his hat as his horse rears up on its hind legs. But it won raves at its 1853 dedication. It was the first equestrian statue cast in the United States, and it seemed to defy gravity. People wondered how Mills was able to get it to balance so perfectly.

Congress liked the statue so much that Mills was immediately hired to cast one of Washington for the circle named after him.

Lafayette hadn't been totally forgotten, however, and in 1884 Congress passed an appropriation to honor him in bronze. But where to put the statue? Lafayette Square made sense, except there was a statue there. In April 1888, a congressman told a Washington Post reporter: "If anything should be done, it is that the name of the square should be changed to Jackson Square." He recommended putting Lafayette in what is now Logan Circle.

All sorts of ideas were floated. In March 1890, a reader wrote The Post to say that "there is no square in Washington big enough for two such men." He recommended that Jackson be moved to Judiciary Square, which would allow that "outlandish name" to be changed to Jackson Square. Another reader suggested moving Washington from Washington Circle to the White House grounds, putting Jackson's statue in Washington Circle, renaming that Jackson Circle, and putting Lafayette in his eponymous park.

Congress briefly considered sites near the Treasury Building and the Capitol before settling on Lafayette Square, wrote Margaret Grubiak in a history of the statue prepared in 2001. Even that was touch-and-go, as the original spot was to be on the south side of the park, in line with 16th Street. But this, a senator from Jackson's home state of Tennessee complained, would block the view of Old Hickory from the White House.

When Lafayette's statue, by French sculptors Alexandre Falguiere and Marius Jean Antonin Mercie , was finally set in place in 1891, it was in the southeast corner of the square. The statue shows a naked woman -- representing America -- lifting the sword of liberty up to Lafayette, who holds a cloak in his hands. The statue hadn't been up long before wags suggested a caption: "Give me back my clothes, and I'll give you back your sword."

Just to show that some things never change, in 1967 a U.S. representative from North Carolina recommended that Jackson be moved to a spot near the Rayburn Building and Lafayette be put in the place of honor that had been denied him for so long.

Give Answer Man his questions, and he'll give you your clothes back. Writeanswerman@washpost.

com, or John Kelly, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.