President's Park South Cultural Landscape

Aerial view of the Ellipse and White House Grounds, looking northeast.

NPS Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

President's Park, Reservation No. 1. The map is oriented with north to the bottom. Office of Public Buildings & Grounds [1877].

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Located in the center of Washington, DC, President’s Park South has comprised the grounds south of the White House since 1791. Descending in a gradual sloping lawn south from the White House grounds, the park features the Ellipse at its center, Sherman Park in the northeast corner, and the First Division Monument in the northwest corner. On either side of the Ellipse, a variety of deciduous trees and conifers frame the vista toward the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.

Pierre Charles L’Enfant first identified this location in 1791 as the site for a park associated with the White House. He envisioned a swath of green connecting the White House with the National Mall, and he dubbed this greensward “President’s Park.” This 82-acre tract was purchased by the federal government in 1792 and became an official part of what is now U.S. Reservation 1. However, the landscape to the south, the future Ellipse, remained relatively untouched.

By 1851, renowned landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing was hired to prepare a new development plan for both the National Mall and President’s Park, with hopes of transforming these areas for public use. Downing’s plan called for the creation of a circular parade ground, the first progenitor of the present day Ellipse, as well as an associated network of paths and trees along the park border. Downing’s death delayed the realization of his vision, and the site's heavy use during the Civil War resulted in severe park damage. From 1861 to 1865, the Ellipse and Lafayette Park areas were used as a military barracks, parade grounds, and for animal grazing.

Girl Scouts on the Ellipse in 1917.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Harris and Ewing Collection

Earnest development of President’s Park South did not take place until the 1870s-1880s, when the site was reshaped into a public park through grading, tree plantings and circulation networks. The Ellipse was filled and sculpted to create a slope down to Constitution Ave. The landscape became further refined with the 1901 McMillan Plan, which set out a series of plans based on L’Enfant’s 1791 plan.

With the exception of the National Christmas Tree, the locations chosen for each of these features were restricted to areas outside of the central Ellipse, allowing this area to remain the same open lawn originally envisioned by Downing. As a landscape closely associated with the Presidents of the United States, Downing, and several other preeminent landscape architects and sculptors, President’s Park South is a unique resource with national significance.

View of the Ellipse and surrounding area from the Washington Monument. The shadow of the Washington Monument falls in the foreground, and the White House is visible near the center.

NPS

The landscape meets National Register Criteria A, B, and C for its contribution to broad patterns of American history and landscape design, association with the lives of persons significant to our past, and its representation of the distinctive styles and specific characteristics of some of the nation’s foremost planners, designers, landscape architects, and sculptors. In addition, several of the landscape features within President’s Park South also meet Criteria Consideration F for their exceptional commemorative value. The historic period of significance for the park is defined as 1791 through 1947, lasting from the initial establishment of L’Enfant’s plan identifying this tract as the heart of the federal city, to the completion of the primary design laid out by both L’Enfant and the McMillan Plan; a vista captured with the clearing of the 150-foot wide view to the Jefferson Memorial. President’s Park South has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980.

President’s Park South retains a high level of integrity to the period of significance. The open vista from the White House to the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial remains intact, bordered on either side by trees marking the perimeter of the Ellipse. A collection of historic features still stand throughout the park landscape, including the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain, the Bulfinch Gatehouses, the Ellipse Meridian Stone, the First Division Monument, the Zero Milestone, the Second Division Memorial, and the National Christmas Tree.

The lights of the National Christmas Tree glow in the twilight in President's Park, in front of the White House.

NPS

Quick Facts

• Cultural Landscape Type: Designed
• National Register Significance Level: National
• National Register Significance Criteria: A, B, C
• Period of Significance: 1791-1947

Landscape Links

• Cultural Landscape Inventory park report
• National Register of Historic Places: President's Park South
• Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs
• More about NPS Cultural Landscapes