A manual on the origin and development of Washington

by H. Paul Caemmerer

The park system of the National Capital is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

Since 1871 in many ways, particularly municipal affairs, the National Capital has been in the lead among American cities. Having begun with a logical and well-thought-out plan for the original city, the new Federal City was provided with an ample system of public reservations and parks.

However, in the early days of the city there was so much unoccupied land that it was hard to believe there would ever be any necessity for parks and open spaces developed and maintained at public expense. For three-quarters of a century Washington was so spread out within the borders of the original plan that the street rights-of-way and public grounds reserved by the L’Enfant plan seemed to be entirely out of scale with the needs of the city and were looked upon by some as a burden rather than as a benefit. It was not until the increase in population, which has continued steadily since the Civil War, and the congestion of the streets in recent years with automobiles and a great volume of traffic, that the building lots have been occupied with structures and the full width of the streets needed for traffic, so that the public reservations have become the only refuge for the play of children and the recreation of older people.

It is, therefore, easy to understand the lack of appreciation of the city park system during the first half of the nineteenth century. A few far-sighted individuals only realized the necessity for preserving these reservations until they would be needed as breathing spaces in a thickly settled city, and they had to wage a persistent and hard-fought campaign through the years against those who constantly wanted to sell off the public reservations for building development of some kind or other, or to have the Government itself use them for buildings. In the two or three cases in which the latter was done we now have reason to regret it; in a few cases in which the reservations were sold the Government is now having to buy them back at considerable cost. It was not a matter of little importance which led President Thomas Jefferson to exclaim: “How I wish that I possessed the power of a despot.” The company at the table stared at a declaration so opposed to his disposition and principles. “Yes,” continued he, in reply to their inquiring looks, “I wish I was a despot, that I might save the noble, the beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifices to the cupidity of their owners, or the necessity of the poor.” “And have you not authority to save those on the public grounds?” asked one of the company. “No,” answered Mr. Jefferson, “only an armed guard could save them. The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder; it pains me to an unspeakable degree.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE, NORTHWEST

The same desire to cut down trees in order to make room for more concrete and masonry persists to this day and can only be controlled by constant vigilance. The importance of open spaces and city parks, developed into beauty spots by the art of the landscape architect, should be evident to all.

As a matter of fact, perhaps the most unusual and original feature of the L’Enfant plan was the idea of building the city about two coordinate axes of parks—one a park system nearly a third of a mile wide, leading from the Capitol westward to the Potomac River, and the other the same width, leading from the White House south to the river, with the Washington Monument at their intersection. This was an innovation and a departure from the usual development of a city about a commercial street—a main street or a market street. Provision was made in the plan for such a great commercial street on the diagonal of the triangle, the avenue joining the Capitol with the White House, and named Pennsylvania Avenue, for the State in which the Federal Government had up to then spent the greater part of its life.

Much of the Mall leading westward from the Capitol was unfortunately taken up by the estuary of Tiber Creek, which overflowed at high tide. It was the intention of Major L’Enfant and his urgent recommendation that this creek be confined to a canal which he proposed to construct along the northern part of the proposed park. This canal would not only afford water transportation for heavy and bulky materials to and from the business part of the city but at the same time would be a water feature of the proposed park. Unfortunately, while the canal was built, Tiber Creek was not entirely confined to it, and its estuary was allowed to continue to overflow the Mall area and thus delay its development.

When the Washington Monument was located, instead of being placed at the exact intersection of the two park axes, it was placed on a natural hill near by which was safely above tide level. The idea of an avenue from the Capitol to the Washington Monument seems to have been abandoned for many years, and when the Smithsonian Institution was built in the Mall the plan made by A. J. Downing was adopted for the entire Mall, superseding that of L’Enfant. These were the days when the so-called naturalistic park development was in vogue, and everything had to be consciously picturesque. No road or path could be straight, and no regularity in planting or plan was tolerated. The L’Enfant plan was again disregarded in laying out the Department of Agriculture grounds in 1867. With the avenue of the Mall out of the picture, there was no reason apparent to those in authority for refusing permission to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to run its tracks across the Mall and build its passenger station in the Mall itself, at Sixth Street.