Glen Echo Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, George Washington Memorial Parkway - Glen Echo Park, National Park Service

Ribeiro Jones, Angelina

Occupying a total of approximately 22 acres in Montgomery County, MD, the Glen Echo Park-Clara Barton House Cultural Landscape comprises two contiguous National Park Service units: Glen Echo Park and the Clara Barton National Historic Site. Administratively, the Clara Barton National Historic Site is an independent National Park Service holding and Glen Echo Park is under the jurisdiction of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The cultural landscape property is located on the east side of the Potomac River, approximately 2.5 miles northwest of the District of Columbia. The landscape’s boundaries do not easily equate with the four cardinal compass directions, and therefore this CLI has followed past precedent in defining the boundaries as follows: Oxford Road to the north, Tulane Avenue to the south, MacArthur Boulevard to the east, and additional National Park Service lands administered by the George Washington Memorial Parkway to the west. The Clara Barton Parkway and the C & O Canal National Historical Park are also located a short distance to the west of the cultural landscape. A tributary of the Potomac River, Minnehaha Creek, bisects the site flowing north to south. The current property comprises a portion of the approximately 80 acres of land donated by brothers Edward and Edwin Baltzley to establish an educational campus known as the National Chautauqua of Glen Echo in 1891. That same year they also gifted a small portion of this land to Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, and supplied the labor and some of the materials used to construct the building that has come to be known as the Clara Barton House. The Baltzleys were real estate developers who sought to create a major suburban enclave around the Chautauqua, and they hoped that attracting such a well-known public figure as Barton would serve as a testimonial to the soundness of their enterprise and encourage others to purchase lots and build houses. Unfortunately for them, the Chautauqua concept failed after only a year, and their efforts to resurrect it, coupled with the nationwide financial Panic of 1893, eventually doomed their entire enterprise. Edwin Baltzley, who held out longer than his brother, turned to renting out the former Chautauqua grounds to Vaudeville acts and other groups as a last-ditch effort to recoup his losses, and by 1899 the first amusement park structures, including an early carousel, had been erected on the site. His efforts, however, were in vain, as the bank finally foreclosed in 1903. Nonetheless, the amusement park idea took hold, and approximately 16.5 acres of the original 80-acre Chautauqua campus would function in this capacity until 1968 under the name Glen Echo Park. For her part, Clara Barton lived in the house built for her by the Baltzleys for a brief time in 1891, when the Chautauqua was in operation, and then again from 1897 until her death in 1912. During this second, period, she established a miniature farm on the grounds of her house that included a stable and several ancillary outbuildings, fruit trees and bushes, vegetable gardens, flower beds, and such animals as cows, horses, chickens, and goats. The General Services Administration (GSA) of the federal government acquired title to Glen Echo Park, the historic amusement park, on April 1, 1970 and the National Park Service (NPS) was given the responsibility of managing the new site. The GSA transferred title of the park to the NPS on March 5, 1976, and the National Park Service currently administers Glen Echo Park while a private non-profit organization, the Glen Echo Park Partnership for the Arts and Culture, Inc. (GEPPAC), manages a variety of park arts and cultural programs that harken back to the original educational ideals of the National Chautauqua of Glen Echo. Under the terms of this cooperative agreement, individual tenants occupy many of the historic buildings and offer a wide selection of classes: ceramics and pottery, children’s programs, dance and movement, drawing and painting, glass, music, photography, silversmithing, social dance, theater and puppetry, and a variety of other arts and media. Performances and workshops are also held on a regular basis according to the park’s monthly calendar. Because the name Glen Echo Park pertains to both the historic amusement park and the current arts and cultural park, in order to avoid any possible confusion between the two, the historic park is referred to throughout this CLI as either the Glen Echo amusement park or simply as the amusement park. From this point forward, the term Glen Echo Park is used only when referencing actions that have taken place on the property since it became federal property in 1970. Congress declared the Clara Barton House a National Historic Landmark on January 12, 1965, and in 1974 passed legislation establishing the house and its grounds, which amounted to just over an acre of land, as the Clara Barton National Historic Site. This property was acquired by the National Park Service in April 1975 through a donation from the Friends of Clara Barton, a nonprofit that formed to acquire, preserve, and protect the site a decade earlier. When the GSA transferred title to Glen Echo Park in 1976, the NPS became the steward of approximately 17.9 acres of land comprising the two adjacent sites. Shortly thereafter, the NPS adjusted their boundaries. A 9.3-acre parcel, containing all surviving amusement park infrastructure continued under the name Glen Echo Park. The remainder of the Glen Echo Park property, 7.5 acres that was mostly parking lot space, became part of the Clara Barton National Historic Site, bringing its new size up to 8.59 acres. In 2007, Glen Echo Park acquired additional lands that had been part of an historic 19th-century trolley right-of-way running along the west side of MacArthur Boulevard. These acquisitions brought the total land held by the two sites up to the current 22 acres. While it is important to note that Glen Echo Park and the Clara Barton National Historic Site are indeed two separate National Park Service units, these distinctions actually amount to very little. The two sites have a shared history that stretches all the way back to 1888 and a single NPS site manager is currently in charge of both properties. For more than a century, Glen Echo Park and the Clara Barton House have been extensions of one another, and for this reason the decision was made to document both sites as a single cultural landscape. The Glen Echo Park-Clara Barton House Cultural Landscape retains integrity to its historic period of significance (1888 -1968). Many of the historic structures remain, including the Clara Barton House and the stylized Art Deco buildings that lend Glen Echo Park its signature appearance. The historic Dentzel Carousel, installed in 1921, continues to operate seasonally. The circulation routes between the amusement park buildings are the same as in the historic period, and the circular driveway established by Barton to the west of her house is still present today. Historic and specimen trees grow in the Picnic Grove section of Glen Echo Park, shading modern-day visitors just as trees have done for more than a century. Alterations have also occurred, and several, such as the removal of all of Clara Barton’s outbuildings and the majority of the amusement park rides, have impacted both the form and character of the cultural landscape. On the whole, however, continuity outweighs change. By virtue of its listing as a National Historic Landmark, the Clara Barton House was automatically added to the National Register of Historic Places following the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The first National Register inventory form was completed in 1972 and an update followed in 1980. The latter identified the Clara Barton National Historic Site as nationally significant according to National Register Criterion B, based upon its association with the life and work of Clara Barton. Glen Echo Park was listed on the National Register as a historic district in 1984. It qualified under Criteria A and C, and the nomination identified architecture, commerce, education, and recreation as specific areas of significance. The Chautauqua Tower, the oldest intact structure in place within the Glen Echo Park-Clara Barton House Cultural Landscape , and the 1921 Dentzel Carousel had previously been individually listed in 1980. Both also met National Register Criteria A and C, with the former identified for its social/humanitarian history and architecture, and the latter on the basis of its art, sculpture, and entertainment.

Glen Echo Park: Cultural Landscape Inventory, George Washington Memorial Parkway - Glen Echo Park, National Park Service

Series

Other versions