Cultural Landscape Report: Memorial Avenue Corridor, George Washington Memorial Parkway

Frisbie, Meg; Lester, Molly; Mao, Chen; Penberthy, Ruth; Shang, Haoyi; Wang, Zhijie; Drake, Ryan

The Memorial Avenue Corridor cultural landscape is a nationally significant site that extends from Washington, D.C. to Arlington, Virginia, spanning the Potomac River and Boundary Channel. The landscape includes Arlington Memorial Bridge, Memorial Circle and its immediate context in Lady Bird Johnson Park (formerly, Columbia Island), and a segment of Memorial Avenue. The western edge of the cultural landscape is defined by the boundary between National Park Service (George Washington Memorial Parkway) land and property owned by the Department of the Army (Arlington National Cemetery), where the avenue crosses over VA Highway 110. The cultural landscape is managed by George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP). A portion of the cultural landscape was documented in a 1980 National Register of Historic Places nomination, titled Arlington Memorial Bridge and Related Features; an update to that nomination is currently underway. A cultural landscape inventory (CLI) was also prepared for the corridor in 2004, with updated condition assessments in 2009 and 2015; that CLI predated the land transfer at the western end of the avenue. The study area boundaries for this CLR were established based on GWMP’s management boundaries (in other words, they exclude the land managed by the Department of the Army); the boundaries are also based on the boundaries established in the pending update to the National Register nomination. This CLR defines the period of significance for the Memorial Avenue Corridor as 1901-1979, and recognizes its significance at the national level under Criteria A (in the area of Politics/Government) and C (in the areas of Architecture, Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Art—Sculpture, and Community Planning and Development). This period of significance, and these areas of significance, encompass the initial conception and composition of the corridor as a commemorative and recreational landscape, the construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge and other corridor features, and the fuller realization of the corridor’s design through the installation of memorials and the landscape designs associated with landscape architect Edward Durell Stone, Jr. The Memorial Avenue Corridor was designed as a symbolic and physical link between the Lincoln Memorial, a tribute to the 16th American President; the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery; and Arlington House, former plantation home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The concept for a memorial bridge and avenue first emerged after the Civil War, and gained momentum when it was included within the 1901/1902 McMillan Plan, which proposed improvements to the park system of Washington, D.C. The design of the corridor took shape amidst the City Beautiful Movement, which promoted formal and classical treatments for architectural, engineering, sculptural, and landscape features—all of which were incorporated into the evolving designs for the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Memorial Avenue Corridor. Architect William Mitchell Kendall, of renowned firm McKim, Mead & White, was responsible for the corridor’s overall design. The corridor was built in phases: Arlington Memorial Bridge was constructed between 1926 and 1932; the Boundary Channel Bridge was built between 1929 and 1930; Memorial Circle was constructed on Columbia Island beginning in 1940; and Memorial Avenue was built beginning in 1930. Designs for the corridor continued to evolve as the broader context changed—most notably with the construction of the Pentagon nearby in the 1940s, which altered the configuration of roads leading to and away from the corridor. These alterations had significant impacts on the design of Memorial Circle as a rotary and node at the heart of the corridor. Early planting designs for the cultural landscape emphasized the linearity along the avenue, accentuated by turf panels (flanking the sidewalks), holly hedges, and rows of deciduous trees approaching the cemetery entrance. The palette of those trees shifted over time: William Mitchell Kendall initially proposed elm trees, but they were eventually planted as white oaks. Elsewhere within the corridor, the area around Memorial Circle remained largely clear of plantings (other than some trees along the Boundary Channel) until the 1960s, when Edward Durell Stone, Jr. developed a series of landscape plans for Columbia Island (which would become Lady Bird Johnson Park). Stone’s designs were part of Lady Bird Johnson’s Beautification Program, an urban planning initiative that sought to improve society through an array of landscape interventions, including planting trees and flowers in highly visited areas. The program targeted Columbia Island as one of its pilot sites, engaging landscape architect Stone to design a master planting plan for trees across Columbia Island. Beginning in 1967, Stone and a consulting horticulturalist developed a planting plan that included an array of deciduous and evergreen trees, accented by flowering dogwoods. Although the plan covered all of Columbia Island, it gave particular emphasis to the area around Memorial Circle, envisioning a much denser context of trees around the rotary than had existed to that point. Stone’s plans were implemented in phases, based on available funding, and were never fully realized; however, they did have a transformative effect for the character of the landscape around Memorial Circle, and much of those plantings remain extant today. The cultural landscape exhibits 11 of the 13 landscape characteristics defined by the National Park Service, including: • Natural Systems and Features • Land Use • Topography • Spatial Organization • Views and Vistas • Cultural Traditions • Buildings and Structures • Circulation • Constructed Water Features • Vegetation • Small-Scale Features This cultural landscape report (CLR) addresses the historic and existing landscape conditions of each characteristic, building an understanding of much the landscape today reflects its character and appearance during the period of significance (1901- 1979). The treatment recommendations of this CLR are organized spatially, according to three character areas that comprise the landscape: (from east to west) Arlington Memorial Bridge, Memorial Circle, and Memorial Avenue. These character areas share several landscape characteristics that transcend any particular area, and yet, each character area also presents specific condition challenges and treatment opportunities. This CLR recommends preservation and rehabilitation as the treatment approaches for the cultural landscape. Preservation (for the character area that encompasses Arlington Memorial Bridge) will retain the existing form and aesthetic of the historic bridge, as rehabilitated in 2018-20. Rehabilitation (for the character areas that encompass Memorial Circle and Memorial Avenue) allows for the flexibility needed to preserve the historic resources and enhance the historic character of the circle and avenue, while improving site conditions and climate resilience. The treatment recommendations prioritize the historic significance of the landscape as a cohesive and coherent corridor, even as they acknowledge the realities of fragmented public ownership along the avenue today. The recommendations emphasize the corridor’s viewshed connections and significant vistas, and they address the needs of vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists who pass through the landscape. Finally, the treatment recommendations acknowledge the multiple generations of horticultural design and implementation within the cultural landscape, proposing treatments that respond to the varying tolerances for change and balance the significance of the corridor’s historic integrity and its necessary adaptation for climate resilience.

Cultural Landscape Report: Memorial Avenue Corridor, George Washington Memorial Parkway

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