NATIONAL CAPITAL t PARKS UNITED STATES Page National DEPARTMENT OF THE Rock Creek Park .8 INTERIOR Anacostia and Fort Dupont OPEN Capital Parks J. A. Krug, Secretary Parks 8 ALL YEAR WASHINGTON Meridian Hill Park 9 19 49 Prince William Forest Park THE MALL and Catoctin Park . 9 FROM THE CAPITOL NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Newton B. Drury, Director Parkway 9 C 0?iT EDIT S Mount Vernon Memorial HE PARKS of the National ated on the remaining reservations Highway 9 Capital embrace 750 reser­ from time to time, the most impor­ The Washington Monument vations totaling approxi­ tant being Lafayette, Judiciary, (Cover) T Roaches Run Waterfowl mately 42,000 acres of land in the Franklin, and Garfield Parks. Sanctuary 10 District of Columbia and its environs, The original areas donated for Page including the Chesapeake & Ohio streets were exceedingly wide and Early History 3 Kenilworth Aquatic Canal, which extends from Washing­ permitted the establishment of parks, ton to Cumberland, Md. The park circles, and triangles at intersections. Gardens 10 The Mall 4 system was established under author­ From such areas came Lincoln, Smaller Parks 10 ization of act of July 16, 1790, and Stanton, Farragut, McPherson, Mar­ The Washington has remained under continuous Fed­ ion, and Mount Vernon Parks; Famous Circles 11 eral control for a period of 159 years. Washington, Dupont, Scott, Thomas, Monument 4 On August 10, 1933, it became a unit and Logan Circles; and many small The White House ... 5 Additional Units of the of the National Park Service. reservations. As the Capital grew in size and The President's Park 5 System 12 EARLY HISTORY importance, additional park areas were acquired including East and The Lincoln Memorial 6 Historic Structures . ... 12 In addition to the street areas for West Potomac Parks, Rock Creek Administration 12 the Federal City, which were donated Park, the Rock Creek and Potomac West Potomac Park . 7 by the original owners, President Parkway, Theodore Roosevelt Is­ Hotels and Tourist Washington acquired 17 reservations land, the Mount Vernon Memorial The Thomas Jefferson by purchase. Among these were the Highway, Anacostia Park, Fort Du­ Camp 13 pont Park, Meridian Hill Park, the Memorial 7 Mall, the Capitol Grounds, and the Statues and Memorials . 13 White House Grounds or President's Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Prince Recreation 15 East Potomac Park .... 7 Park, all of which were included in William Forest and Catoctin Parks, Pierre Charles L'Enfant's plan for Fort Washington, Md., and numerous General Information ... 16 Rock Creek and Potomac the capital. Other parks were ere- smaller parks and recreational areas. Parkway 8 3 834,758 O—49 a period of many trials. One inter­ In the china room on the ground ruption in the work lasted 22 years. floor are cabinets containing speci­ An impressive obelisk, the monument mens of china used by the various is now host to approximately 1 mil­ Presidents. The second and third lion visitors each year. floors are devoted to the family and guests of the President. The second THE WHITE HOUSE floor has seven bedrooms and baths, The White House was the first in addition to the library, the public building to be erected in President's study, and a wide hall Washington, the cornerstone having extending the length of the building. been laid on October 13, 1792. The third floor has 14 rooms. The architect was James Hoban of Charleston, S. C. The design is of THE PRESIDENT'S PARK THE WHITE HOUSE SOUTH PORTICO AND THE ENCLOSED PRESIDENT S PARK the classic style of architecture. The The President's Park is divided exterior walls are light gray sand­ THE MALL the National Museum buildings. into the inner and outer portions. stone from Aquia Creek, Va., painted Along Constitution Avenue, border­ The inner portion includes the 18 The L'Enfant plan included the white. The building was first occu­ ing the Mall on the north, the acres within the iron fence enclosing unique feature of making the main pied by President and Mrs. John buildings of the "Government Tri­ the Executive Mansion and grounds central axis of the city, westward Adams in November 1800, although angle," housing the Departments of proper. The outer portion, also from the Capitol to the Potomac not entirely completed at that time. Commerce, Justice, and Labor, the known as "Grounds South of the River, a great Mall parkway about The'east and west terraces were con­ Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Executive Mansion" and the "White 1,500 feet wide containing 256 acres. structed during Jefferson's adminis­ other Federal establishments, face Lot," contains 52 acres and includes The White House is located at the tration. On August 24, 1814, the the formal parkway. The United the Ellipse. It is bordered by north end of a similar park forming building was burned by the British, States Department of Agriculture Treasury Place, South Executive a cross axis which continues south to who had captured Washington. group is located on the south side of Avenue, State Place, Fifteenth Street, the Tidal Basin and the river, inter­ Reconstruction was completed in the Mall between Twelfth and Seventeenth Street, and Constitu­ secting the Mall at the Washington December 1817. The south portico Fourteenth Streets. West of Four­ tion Avenue. Monument Grounds. The Mall was was completed in 1824, and the teenth Street is the Washington The Ellipse, bordered by stately extended west of the latter late in north portico in 1829. The execu­ Monument. American elms, provides playing the last century and reclaimed from tive offices were constructed in 1902. fields for various sports and is one the river's tidal flats to become West and the East Wing in 1942. THE WASHINGTON of the most intensively utilized rec­ Potomac Park and the site of the The main floor includes the East MONUMENT reation grounds of the park system. Lincoln Memorial. Room; the Green Room; the ellipti­ The "Grounds South" provides a Today the Mall is one of the The Washington Monument is to cal-shaped Blue Room, where the park setting for the south facades of world's famous parkways. In an a high degree the symbol of the President receives foreign diplomats the Treasury and State-War-Navy impressive plaza in the Mall, at the Capital City which George Wash­ presenting credentials and guests at Buildings, the Commerce Building foot of the Capitol, is Union Square. ington founded and planned. Begun State dinners and receptions; the on the east; and the Corcoran Art At Sixth Street is the National Gal­ in 1848 by a society which had Red Room, in which the First Lady Gallery, the American Red Cross lery of Art. Continuing west, be­ been formed in 1833 under the receives guests by appointment; the Building, the National Headquarters tween Seventh and Twelfth Streets, chairmanship of Chief Justice John State Dining Room, used for all of the Society of the Daughters of are the United States Army Medical Marshall, the monument was carried large dinners and luncheons; and the American Revolution, and the Museum, the Smithsonian Institu­ to a total height of 555 feet 5/8 the Private Dining Room, reserved Hall of the Americas, home of the tion, the Freer Art Galleries, and inches and completed in 1884, after for the use of the President's family. 4 5 English elms. At the eastern end cellence and beauty of setting it com­ of the main pool is an oval basin and pares favorably with the Lincoln fountain. This basin is 300 feet long Memorial and provides a suitable by 160 feet wide. companion edifice, completing the 5-point design plan for the central WEST POTOMAC PARK area, which embraces the Capitol, At the western extremity of West the Washington Monument, the Potomac Park is the memorial to White House, and the Lincoln and John Ericsson, inventor of the screw Jefferson Memorials. propeller. To the east is the Tidal On the four diagonal panels and Basin, surrounded by the famous along the frieze of the main entabla­ Oriental cherry trees presented by ture encircling the memorial room the city of Tokyo during the Taft are found inscriptions based upon the administration. These trees provide writings of Jefferson embodying the a picturesque setting for the Thomas principal tenets of his philosophy. A Jefferson Memorial. In spring, when sculptural group in the center of the in blossom, they are a feature of tympanum of the north portico de­ THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL especial beauty and interest. They picts Jefferson reading his draft of the Declaration of Independence before Pan-American Union, on the west. a colossal marble statue of the were planted in 1912 by Viscountess the committee appointed by the Con­ It contains an equestrian statue of Emancipator. On the north wall is Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambas­ tinental Congress to draft this noted Gen. William T. Sherman, the Butt- inscribed Lincoln's Second Inaugural sador, and Mrs. William Howard American document. Millet Memorial, the First and Address and on the south wall, Taft. The pansy beds of West The Jefferson Memorial was dedi­ Second Division (A. E. F.) Me­ the Gettysburg speech. Above are Potomac Park, containing more than cated on April 13, 1943, the 200th morials, and the Zero Milestone. two paintings on canvas, represent­ 1,000,000 blooms, are also a major anniversary of the birth of Jefferson. ing "Reunion and Progress" and attraction during the spring months. THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL "Emancipation of a Race." Subor­ The park contains extensive facilities EAST POTOMAC PARK West of the Washington Monu­ dinate groups represent "Civiliza­ for recreation, featuring golf, polo, ment is the Lincoln Memorial.