Last updated: June 11, 2024
Place
Roosevelt Memorial
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Washington, D.C.
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Landscape
In 1932, an island was purchased with the idea of creating a memorial to the American political leader and renowned conservationist, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. What better way to honor someone so devoted to our natural spaces, then by dedicating one to them?
Olmsted Brothers began preparing the plan for the memorial in May 1932, with Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. assuming primary responsibility, with the assistance of his associate Henry Hubbard. Olmsted Jr.’s goal was to create a restored woodland as a living tribute to the former president.
The woodland was to be “a real forest closely similar in character to the natural primeval forests which once covered this and other of the Potomac islands”. With the assistance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, clearing of the island's non-native vegetation and planting of about twenty thousand native hardwood trees and shrubs took place between 1934 and 1937, only stopping because of World War II.
Through Olmsted Jr. and the CCC’s efforts, the island was re-naturalized into a mature woodland. Olmsted Jr. and Hubbard’s original plan still guides the National Park Service in maintaining the landscape.
Source: "Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Olmsted Brothers began preparing the plan for the memorial in May 1932, with Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. assuming primary responsibility, with the assistance of his associate Henry Hubbard. Olmsted Jr.’s goal was to create a restored woodland as a living tribute to the former president.
The woodland was to be “a real forest closely similar in character to the natural primeval forests which once covered this and other of the Potomac islands”. With the assistance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, clearing of the island's non-native vegetation and planting of about twenty thousand native hardwood trees and shrubs took place between 1934 and 1937, only stopping because of World War II.
Through Olmsted Jr. and the CCC’s efforts, the island was re-naturalized into a mature woodland. Olmsted Jr. and Hubbard’s original plan still guides the National Park Service in maintaining the landscape.
Source: "Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr