When the Islamic Center of Washington opened in 1952, the U.S. President Dwight, D. Eisenhower, speaking at its dedication ceremony, described it as one of the “most beautiful buildings in Washington.”

The oldest mosque in the U.S. capital was founded by a group of diplomats and local Muslims who set up the Washington Mosque Foundation in 1944. They then appointed the Italian architect Mario Rossi to build the mosque because of his experience working on them in Egypt. Rossi based his design on the country’s classical Mamluk architectural style.