Dumbarton Oaks Park: Cultural Landscape Report, Rock Creek Park, National Park Service
De Lay Joseph M, Fanning K, Davison M. 2000. Dumbarton Oaks Park: Cultural Landscape Report, Rock Creek Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscape Report. NPS National Capital Regional Office. National Capital Regional Office
The goal of this report is to document the history and existing conditions, and to analyze and evaluate the landscape resources, of Dumbarton Oaks park (DOP), a designed landscape that is part of Rock Creek park, a unit of the National Capital Region of the National park Service. The need to document the Dumbarton Oaks Park historic landscape first became apparent in 1985, when the national Park Service recognized that the garden was an important designed landscape that was being managed as a natural, rather than cultural, resource. Documentation of the historic landscape began in 1989 when the historic American Building survey (HABS) prepared a site history and measured drawings of DOP and its structures. An unofficial report, Preservation Needs Assessment, produced by the George Washington University (GWU) Continuing Education landscape preservation certificate program in 1993, was the first attempt to analyze the park’s vegetation, though it was essentially limited to the tree canopy and shrub cover. The HABS and GWU reports documented the landscape resources, but did not go far enough in analyzing the complexity of the design or the significance and integrity of the design features. To accomplish this goal, a Cultural Landscape Inventory was completed by a US/ICOMOS student intern in 1996. As was the case with both previous reports, the CLI relied on and expanded the information base, and also produced a detailed analysis of the landscape resources. The CLI has, in turn, been used for Part 1 of the Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). The Cultural Landscape Report is necessary to help Rock Creek Park successfully manage and maintain Dumbarton Oaks Park. Though a Landscape Preservation maintenance Plan, completed in April 1997, included guidance for stabilizing existing resources such as focal paths and waterway features, there is at present no comprehensive plan available to direct the future preservation of significant landscape resources within DOP. This report will provide that guidance.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- De Lay Joseph, Maureen; Fanning, Kay; Davison, Mark
- Date of Issue
- 2000-08
- Publisher
- NPS National Capital Regional Office
- Units
- HIST , NCR , ROCR
- Keywords
- color schemes, ehistory, formal terraced gardens, garden furniture, Georgetown, History, inscriptions, naturalistic gardens, ornamentation, Rock Creek, Water features
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 600286: Dumbarton Oaks Park