The Franciscan Monastery in Washington was started in 1898 by a group of Franciscans who wanted to create a facsimile of Christian Holy Places in the U.S.A. The idea was to offer a reliable copy (in smaller scale) of these places to people who could not afford the trip to Europe and the Middle East. This was a very common idea in the United States that led to the birth of many religious theme parks during the twentieth century.
Within this large park there are also crypts for prayer and various underground attractions. One of these is a small catacomb accessed by reinforced concrete reproductions of underground galleries with loculi. There are reproductions of arcosoli and cubiculae decorated with typical red lines on white plaster. On the walls are painted simplified copies of the paintings of the catacombs (in particular from the Catacomb of Callistus), or large paintings of famous scenes from the catacombs reproduced in enlarged size. 
Authorisation for the construction of these catacombs came directly from the Holy See along with some relics that arrived in Washington from the catacomb of St. Callistus in the late 1920s.
The project was designed by the famous Roman architect Aristide Leonori, a Franciscan tertiary, who had already been involved in building churches in the early Christian style in Italy.