Virginia Avenue, NW Corridor: Cultural Landscape Inventory, National Mall and Memorial Parks, National Park Service

Garrison, Shannon

Virginia Avenue NW is a cultural landscape in southwest Washington, DC. Located in the southwest quadrant, the segment of the avenue included in this cultural landscape inventory runs diagonally, southeast to northwest, for approximately one mile, between 18th Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue NW. The cultural landscape is made up of fourteen reservations, managed by the National Capital Region, National Mall and Memorial Parks. Reservation numbers from southeast to northwest include: 110 (Artigas), 383 (Bolivar), 384 (Pan American Annex), 108, 106 (San Martin), 378 (Federal Reserve Annex), 105 (Edward J. Kelly Park), 104, 103, 720 (Galvez), 101, 99, 98 and 134 (Juarez). The reservations are all small parks, many of them triangle shaped, some with statues, fountains and/or plazas. They range in size from approximately 0.01 acres to 2.2 acres. Virginia Avenue NW was first laid out as part of Pierre L’Enfant’s plan for the city of Washington, in 1791. Despite its proximity to the White House and central Washington, DC, the avenue remained largely undeveloped until the late 19th century. Virginia Avenue NW was unpaved until the 1870s and the triangle parks created as a result of the L’Enfant plan were not improved until the early 20th century. The Office of Public Buildings and Grounds (OPBG) delineated, landscaped and enclosed these small parks for the first time between 1899 and 1912. During the 1930s, the southern half of Virginia Avenue NW saw its first large-scale development, after a number of federal agencies relocated their headquarters to either side of the avenue. This was followed by a massive redevelopment and highway construction project that reshaped the avenue’s northwest section in the 1950s and 1960s. Between 1947 and 1977, the NPS redesigned many of Virginia Avenue NW’s larger reservations, working with local, national and international architecture firms to design spaces that would accommodate a number of statues of Latin American revolutionary figures. Virginia Avenue NW derives national significance as one of the major public avenues envisioned in Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 Plan of the City of Washington. It was listed to the National Register under Criteria A, B and C in 1997, as part of the L’Enfant Plan. The period of significance is 1790-1942. This CLI recommends expanding the period of significance to include local significance under Criteria A and C, for the period that covers the actual construction of the Virginia Avenue NW small park reservations between 1899-1912, as well as the postwar urban renewal and beautification efforts that reshaped the avenue and many of its open spaces between 1950 and 1977. Under Criterion B, this CLI recommends expanding the period of significance for Reservation 383 (Bolivar), to include the date of the installation of the sculpture Felix de Weldon’s equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, in 1959.

Virginia Avenue, NW Corridor: Cultural Landscape Inventory, National Mall and Memorial Parks, National Park Service

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