A manual on the origin and development of Washington

by H. Paul Caemmerer

It was this station, however, which brought about the restudy of the plan of Washington and the return to the Mall development in accordance with L’Enfant’s principles, for Col. Theodore A. Bingham, then in charge of Public Buildings and Grounds, on hearing that legislation was about to be passed authorizing the railroad to build a viaduct across the Mall to this station, and realizing that this expensive structure would probably make the carrying out of L’Enfant’s plan impossible, got the plan out of the files and started a campaign to prevent the legislation from passing and to rehabilitate the authority of the L’Enfant plan. He was fortunate in finding those among his superiors who appreciated the situation, and in securing the very wise and effective help of Senator McMillan and of the American Institute of Architects.

Indeed, the interest in the National Capital, excited in this way and more or less focused upon it by the centenary of its occupation as the seat of the Federal Government, resulted in the McMillan Park Commission of 1901 and its very valuable recommendations for the development and beautification of the National Capital. In recent years the development of the Mall in accordance with the plan of 1901 has been authorized by Congress and is being carried on step by step as it becomes possible in connection with the public-buildings program.

The smaller reservations and parks suffered neglect equally, as was to be expected. In making his plan L’Enfant had located public reservations at various important street and avenue intersections. Where more than two streets crossed at one point, a circle or square to take up and distribute the traffic among the various streets was almost necessary, or at least would be necessary to-day, and it is fortunate that what L’Enfant did for appearance should now be proving to have real utilitarian value. His own ideas about the purpose and function of these squares are expressed in his report, as follows:

The center of each Square will admit of Statues, Columns, Obelisks, or any other ornament such as the different States may choose to erect: to perpetuate not only the memory of such individuals whose counsels or Military achievements were conspicuous in giving liberty and independence to this Country; but also those whose usefulness hath rendered them worthy of general imitation, to invite the youth of succeeding generations to tread in the paths of those sages, or heroes whom their country has thought proper to celebrate.

The situation of these Squares is such that they are the most advantageously and reciprocally seen from each other and as equally distributed over the whole City district, and connected by spacious avenues round the grand Federal Improvements and as contiguous to them, and at the same time as equally distant from each other, as circumstances would admit. The Settlements round those Squares must soon become connected.

This mode of taking possession of and improving the whole district at first must leave to posterity a grand idea of the patriotic interest which prompted it.

While Lafayette Park, in front of and north of the White House, was graded as early as 1826, it was not planted and really developed as a park for some time after that. In 1853 the Clark Mills statue of Jackson was placed in it as its central feature.

Similarly, the equestrian statue of Washington brought about the improvement of Washington Circle at the westerly end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Garfield Park, now one of the most beautiful parks in the city, was graded and to some extent improved in 1838, in connection with its use as a nursery for trees to ornament the public grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue.

A botanic garden, which had been talked about from the very first, and was finally brought to a head by the necessity for providing for the botanic collection of the Smithsonian Institution, was gradually established at the east end of the Mall between First and Third Streets. It did not become a really important feature of public benefit to the city until 1852, when it was placed in the hands of William R. Smith, who had had experience in Kew Gardens in England and made sufficient progress for the Botanic Garden to be described in 1859 “as a pleasant place to visit, with gravel walks, bordered with box, rare plants, and trees.”

How little these parks were needed then to give the requisite touch of nature in urban surroundings and to what extent the National Capital still retained its character of a few scattered settlements in the midst of farm land is shown by the fact that the one or two which had been improved had to be fenced in to protect their young trees and shrubs against the cattle, goats, and sheep that roamed the streets. As late as 1870 the danger to pedestrians from the domestic animals allowed at large was the subject of protest in formal speeches in Congress. During the Civil War many of the public reservations were used for camps, hospitals, and drill grounds, which use naturally did not help their appearance.