Frederick Douglass National Historic Site: Landscape Preservation Maintenance Plan, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, National Park Service

Moss, Saylor

The Landscape Preservation Maintenance Plan (PMP) for the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site was prepared to assist with the care of historic landscape features of the site, located in the Anacostia Historic District of southeastern Washington, D.C. This plan includes vegetation, paths, and other landscape elements and consists of both preservation planning and preservation maintenance. Preservation planning is the research, documentation, and decision-making process which leads to treatment of the landscape. Preservation maintenance is the act of caring for a specific feature, area, or landscape by protecting, stabilizing, and repairing it on a routine or cyclic basis so that the historic character is not compromised or lost. The PMP is designed to ensure that the historic character is preserved so that the landscape can continue to serve as an educational tool for future generations. To preserve the Frederick Douglass NHS, the landscape would ideally reflect the time period where Douglass spent the last 18 years of his life (1877-1895). Douglass was a well-regarded African-American abolitionist, publisher, orator, statesman, reformer, and proponent of human rights. The character of the landscape, as expressed through its vegetation and landscape, helps to suggest the historic uses and significance of the property. Douglass called it “Cedar Hill” for the abundance of cedar trees, and he managed the land as a gentleman’s farm, family home, and retreat. Gardens, fruit and nut trees, livestock, and ornamental plantings served functional and pleasurable aims, and the ample vegetation provided a shady retreat in the midst of urban surroundings. Maintenance restrictions and cost, as well as the time it takes for plants to mature, assure that restoring the landscape to this state is not a quick process. The PMP recognizes that landscapes change over time and that resource planners and managers need to be flexible. The PMP is not meant to be an overly restrictive document. Instead, it is a guiding reference for those who are managing the landscape. It contains information on planting, care, and culture of landscape features that contribute to the overall character and significance of the landscape. The approved guiding landscape document for the historic landscape at the Frederick Douglass NHS is the 1976 Landscape Restoration Plan. The plan contains a list of plants known to have been included in the historic landscape, as well as a map of the historic landscape. The findings were extracted from research of historic documents, photographs, and correspondence related to the site. Since the development of the 1976 plan, no significant additional findings about the historic landscape have been discovered by the National Park Service Cultural Landscape Program of the National Capital Region. This document is not comprehensive. It focuses on maintenance activities and treatment priorities. A more complete history of the landscape during the time of Frederick Douglass can be found in the Cultural Landscape Inventory of the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site, which was completed in 2007.

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site: Landscape Preservation Maintenance Plan, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, National Park Service

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