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Foundation Document Overview, the White House

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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview The White House and President’s Park Washington, D.C. Contact Information For more information about The White House and President’s Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or (202)208-1631 or write to: President’s Park, 1100 Ohio Drive, SW, Washington, D.C. 20242 Purpose The purpose of the PRESIDENT’S PARK is to: • Preserve the cultural resources of the White House—its architecture, artifacts, landscape design, gardens and grounds, and the surrounding parklands—in ways that foster and preserve dignity and respect for the office of the presidency, while still allowing for their use. • Provide a dignified transition area from an urban environment to the White House environs. • Interpret the history and significance of the presidency, the White House, and President’s Park, including their relationship to the American public, our republican form of government, and the growth of Washington, D.C. • Preserve existing historic memorials as examples of memorial art. • Provide a large open area associated with the White House for freedom of public expression and assembly activities, as well as for public use and enjoyment. The purpose statements are reprinted from the Comprehensive Design Plan for the White House and • Protect and enhance views to and from the President’s Park (2000). White House and provide a setting for viewing the White House. • Preserve Lafayette Park as open public space in The purpose of THE WHITE HOUSE is to: the foreground of the White House, as a setting for passive activities (reflecting, observing, • Provide a residence that offers privacy, making a personal connection with the protection, and recreational opportunities for presidency), First Amendment activities within the first family. legal limitations, and as a support area for • Provide a suitable location for the official presidential inaugural activities. functions and activities of the presidency. • Preserve and interpret Lafayette Park as one • Provide office facilities for the president and element of the oldest planned federal reservation immediate staff. in the nation, an example of early American landscape design, and the 19th century • Preserve and interpret the museum character neighborhood of the president. of the White House; provide public access to the principal corridor on the ground floor and to • Provide a setting for viewing the White House the state rooms on the first floor. and elements of the Lafayette Square National Historic Landmark District. Significance Significance statements express why The White House and President’s Park resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit. President’s Park reflects the growth of the presidency, as well The following significance statements are reprinted from as the evolving social and cultural experiences of our nation. the Comprehensive Design Plan for the White House and The park is the oldest federal reservation in the nation, and President’s Park (2000). it is a nationally significant historic landscape that continues to reflect the design principles of Pierre Charles L’Enfant in The White House is significant as the official residence and 1791, Andrew Jackson Downing in 1851, and the Olmsted office of every U.S. president and his family except George brothers in the 1930s—design principles that have withstood Washington. It is the only official residence of a head of the test of time. President’s Park is integral to the historic state in the world that is regularly open to the public free of layout of the city, which was initially designed to physically charge. The White House is also an extraordinary museum represent the functional relationships of the three branches of comprising rare and fine arts, furnishings, and objects— our government. Memorials that have been incorporated into many of which are associated with past presidents, making the historic landscape design commemorate significant events it possible for people to come in direct contact with our and individuals in the nation’s history. The White House nation’s history. grounds contain commemorative plantings by presidents and first ladies. The White House is the oldest federally built building in Washington, D.C., and it is one of the foremost examples of The White House and President’s Park contain valuable open the 18th century architecture and stone carving in the United space in the center of a densely urban environment. This States. The White House also serves as a sustaining focal space is available for use by the president, the first family, and point for an important historic neighborhood. the public. The surrounding President’s Park also allows for public access and assembly close to the White House, and The White House is a symbol of the power and authority it serves as a national and even international stage for the of the U.S. presidency, the center of the executive branch expression of First Amendment rights and for U.S. citizens to of government, and the focus of diplomatic relations with petition their government. other countries. As such, the White House is the setting for interactions between the public and the president, as Lafayette Square National Historic Landmark District, well as between the president and other heads of state. To which includes adjacent buildings, represents the president’s many the White House is a symbol of a free and democratic neighborhood; its function, landscape design, architecture, nation because it is accessible and open, as is the ideal of the and social purpose as a place for people to gather are democratic process. Its endurance for over 200 years reflects historically significant. the stability of our nation. As a result, the White House evokes an extraordinary range and depth of emotions among As a focus of national events for over 200 years, The White U.S. citizens and visitors from other cultures and countries. House grounds and President’s Park contain important historic archeological resources relating to the history of the American presidency and to the history of Washington, D.C. Fundamental Resources and Values Fundamental resources and values are those features, • White House Grounds. The White House grounds systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, cultural landscape consists of the gardens and grounds smells, or other attributes determined to merit primary within the iron fence line of the White House that provide consideration during planning and management processes privacy, protection, and recreation for the first family because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the as well as the backdrop for official events. The grounds park and maintaining its significance. were originally designed by Thomas Jefferson and have evolved through designs by Andrew Jackson Downing and • The White House and the Wings. The White House is the Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. as well as others. The north oldest public building in the District of Columbia and has grounds consist of a semi-circular drive arching around a been the home and office of every president of the United circular fountain centered on the house. Groves of trees, States except for George Washington. The White House, many commemorative, flank the drive to the east and west. including its wings, serves as the residence of the first The south grounds consist of a circular drive reached by family, offices for the president and staff, and an evolving a tangential road on the south with entrances at the east museum. A number of state rooms are used for a variety of and west end. A circular fountain, centered on the house, functions from presidential staff meetings to formal dinners is located further south of the drive. Groves of trees and honoring visiting dignitaries. While the White House itself bushes, many commemorative, flank the east and west sides has expanded since its original construction, it remains of the south lawn. relatively unaltered and its design and architecture continue to serve as a symbol of a stable nation. • The Ellipse (President’s Park South). The Ellipse area, or President’s Park South, to the south of the White The White House and President’s Park comprise three distinct House grounds is another important cultural landscape. cultural landscapes that are each fundamental to the park and President’s Park South consists of the rectangular park provide the setting for the “President’s Park” as defined by area known as the Ellipse, Sherman Park to the northeast, Pierre L’Enfant in 1791. and First Division to the northwest. An elliptical roadway serves as the centerpiece of the Ellipse with narrow curved • Lafayette Park. Lafayette Park to the north of the White House is a 19th-century public park redesigned in the roads, referred to as dog legs, in the northeast, southeast, 1960s. The park is bounded by H Street to the north, and southwest corners. President’s Park South is ringed Madison Place to the east, Pennsylvania Avenue to the with a series of monuments and memorials that include: south, and Jackson Place to the west. Two brick elliptical the First Division Monument, the Zero Milestone, General paths bisected by two brick parallel straight walkways William T. Sherman Statue, the Boy Scout Commemorative inscribe the rectangular park. Elliptical fountains accent the Tribute, and the Second Division Memorial. The park also east-west line of the park. Monuments to Revolutionary is significant for its views to and from the National Mall, War heroes (Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, Comte Jean de Washington Monument, and Jefferson Memorial.
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