he assembled one of the first important collections of American art. In 1851 Corcoran purchased the second marble version of American sculptor Hiram Powers scandalous statue The Greek Slave, and considered it his most prized acquisition. By the mid-1850s his pictures and sculpture were overflowing his mansion on Lafayette Square and in 1859 he hired the foremost architect of the day, James Renwick, to build a picture gallery in the Second Empire style on Pennsylvania Avenue. Before the gallery was ready, however, the Civil War began, and Corcoran, a Southern sympathizer, left Washington for Paris, where his son-in-law, George Eustis Jr., was a representative of the Confederacy. The half-finished building designed by Renwick was taken over by the U.S. Government and used as a supply depot. When the war was over, Corcoran returned to Washington; the building was finished in 1869 and the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened in 1874, but the structure was soon outgrown. A new building for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its nascent school of art (now the Corcoran College of Art + Design) was designed by American architect Ernest Flagg in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1897, nine years after Corcoran's death. The façade of the building reflects the "Neo-Grec," an offshoot of Beaux-Arts that attempted to reflect the functions of the building by revealing detailed and decorative accents on the exterior. The Corcoran Gallery's first home is now the Renwick Gallery, a Smithsonian museum. Philanthropy In 1854, after his retirement, he devoted himself and his substantial fortune to art and philanthropy. In 1848, Corcoran had purchased 15 acres (6 ha) of land for Oak Hill Cemetery, which overlooks Rock Creek Park. He organized the Oak Hill Cemetery Company to oversee the cemetery, which was formally incorporated by Act of Congress on March 3, 1849. Corcoran paid for the construction of a Gothic Revival chapel in Oak Hill Cemetery, commonly known as the Renwick Chapel. It is the only building designed by Renwick in Washington other than Corcoran's original museum (see below) and the first ("Castle") building on the Washington Mall of the Smithsonian Institution. Corcoran also established a $10,000 fund, administered by the Benevolent Society, to purchase firewood for the poor in Georgetown. Corcoran also gave many gifts to several universities, including The George Washington University, the Maryland Agricultural College, the College of William and Mary, and Washington and Lee University. Corcoran