The Mall: Cultural Landscape Inventory, National Mall, National Park Service

Fanning, Kay

The central area of the Mall, within this inventory’s study boundaries, is a simple but monumental landscape that encompasses 135 acres between 3rd and 14th Streets, and Madison and Jefferson Drives, N.W., in the center of Washington, D.C. The National Park Service oversaw the implementation of the plan with strong design support and legislative assistance from the National Capital Planning Commission; the 1930s plan followed the 1902 McMillan Plan, which sought to revive the conception of the 1791 L’Enfant Plan for a broad promenade lined by fine buildings and gardens that would form the center of the capital city’s cultural and social life. The Periods of Significance extend from 1791-1792, the date of the L’Enfant Plan and its revision by Andrew Ellicott, and 1902-1975, extending from the date of the McMillan Plan to the year when the last tree panel on the Mall was planted, following the removal of the last temporary military buildings in 1971. The Mall retains a high level of historic integrity, and is in fair condition. The major problems affecting the Mall are soil compaction and chronic wear and tear on the turf caused by recurrent visitor use (both passive, individual use and intrusive organized activities); and the unevenness of the elm canopy, caused by later in-fill plantings, construction activities, over fifty years of Dutch elm disease losses, and the incompatible form of some replacement elms. The creation of this linear landscape opened the view between the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument. The landscape, view, and spatial organization of the Mall are all interdependent and reinforce each other. Central grass panels are flanked north and south by panels planted with four rows each of American elm trees, almost six hundred in all. A few dozen elms remain from an early planting in the 1920s, and some portion of the rest date from the major planting in 1935. Others are replacements planted since the 1930s, many of them cultivars of a disease-resistant elm from the 1930s planting; there are a few other cultivars or varieties as well, and several trees of other species. Behind the lines of elms, imposing museum buildings designed in Victorian, Beaux-Arts classical, and modern styles line the Mall on the north and south. Two sculpture gardens are located at the north and south along the 8th Street cross axis, designated as an important element on the L’Enfant Plan. The landscape is overlaid with a grid of walks and cross walks. The two former inner Mall drives, parallel to Madison and Jefferson Drives, have been converted into gravel walks. Single or paired gravel and concrete walks follow the routes of most cross-axial streets, except 11th Street. Fourth and 7th Streets are surface roads that cross the Mall, and 9th and 12th Streets are tunneled beneath it. All street curbs are granite. Benches designed in a historic, standard National Capital Region style are placed along the outer edges of the east-west walks and the inner edges of the walks along Madison and Jefferson Drives. Light standards in a style designed specifically for the Mall in the 1930s and trash receptacles designed in the 1960s are located between the benches along the inner Mall walks. Other features include four small food service buildings and short sections of post-and-chain barriers. A few constructed areas interrupt the continuity of the lines of elms, but do not detract from the monumental landscape. The Smithsonian Castle extends to within 300 feet of the Mall’s center line. The sunken sculpture garden of the Hirshhorn Museum also extends into a Mall tree panel, and has its own varied planting palette. An entrance to an underground Metro station is located in a tree panel between the Freer Gallery of Art and the Department of Agriculture building, and a small permitted carousel is situated in the tree panel in front of the Arts and Industries building.

The Mall: Cultural Landscape Inventory, National Mall, National Park Service

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