To "encourage American genius", in 1869, the financier and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) donated his collection of plots of land and the Renwick Gallery building to open the Corcoran Gallery of Art and two years later the Corcoran School of Art. Squeezed into Renwick House, Corcoran's creation was moved out in 1897 into this Beaux-Arts building. The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is still active today.