Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
Lafayette Square | |
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Coordinates | 38°53′58.3″N 77°02′11.6″W / 38.899528°N 77.036556°W |
Area | 7 acres (2.8 ha) |
Lafayette Square is a seven-acre (30,000 m2) public park located within
Lafayette Square and the surrounding structures were designated the Lafayette Square Historic District in 1970.
History
Initial plans
Planned as part of the pleasure grounds surrounding the Executive Mansion, the square is part of President's Park, which is the larger National Park Service unit that also includes the White House grounds, The Ellipse, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and grounds and the Treasury Building and grounds. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson had Pennsylvania Avenue cut through the park and separated what would become Lafayette Square from the White House grounds. In 1824, that north side square including the park was officially renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general whose involvement was indispensable in securing victory in the American Revolutionary War.[1][2][3]
Named in honor of the naval war hero Commodore Steven Decatur,[4] the Decatur House borders Lafayette Square.[5] Used for slave trading,[5] the house remains as one of few surviving examples of an urban slave market.[6]
The land on what is now Lafayette Square was formerly used at various times as "a racetrack, a graveyard, a zoo, a
19th century
In 1851, Andrew Jackson Downing was commissioned by President Millard Fillmore to landscape Lafayette Square in the picturesque style.[6] On February 27, 1859, US Representative Daniel Sickles killed Philip Barton Key II in Lafayette Square. Key had come to the park for an affair with Sickles's wife, only to be discovered and killed by Sickles.[7]
20th century
In the 20th century, the area around the square became less residential, with buildings increasingly occupied by offices and professional groups,[6] especially in the 1920s, and the construction of the Treasury Annex.[8] The last resident, Mary Chase Morris of the O'Toole House (730 Jackson Place), died during the Great Depression era, and her former home became an office building.[6]
Today's plan for the park dates from the 1930s. The park has five large statues. In the center stands Clark Mills' equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson, erected in 1853; it is the first bronze statue cast in the United States.[9] In the four corners are statues of foreign Revolutionary War heroes:[6]
- Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette (depicting the Marquis de Lafayette, of France, by sculptors Alexandre Falguière and Antonin Mercié, installed 1891);[10]
- Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau (depicting the comte de Rochambeau, of France, by sculptor Fernand Hamar, dedicated 1902);[11]
- Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko (depicting Tadeusz Kościuszko, of Poland, by sculptor Antoni Popiel, dedicated 1910);[12]
- Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (depicting the Baron von Steuben, of Prussia, by sculptor Albert Jaegers, dedicated 1910).[13]
Lafayette Square was a popular
In the 1960s, Lafayette Square became more noted for its use as a protest location. Protests related to nuclear weapons, Israel, and the Vietnam War were held there.[15]
In the 1970s, the park was overrun with a large Eastern gray squirrel population, possibly "the highest density of squirrels ever recorded in scientific literature," which eventually destroyed many trees and flowers in the park.[16] The squirrels' large numbers were sustained because the public overfed the squirrels and also because nestboxes had been once been installed and maintained by the National Park Service.[16] In 1985 and 1987, the issue was solved by a project in which the nest boxes were removed and many squirrels were captured and relocated away from Lafayette Square, to Fort Dupont Park and elsewhere.[16]
In 1989,
21st century
On June 1, 2020, amid
A report by the
On June 22, 2020, demonstrators attempted to tear down the
See also
References
- ^ "Lafayette Square Historic District. May 1, 1802". National Park Service. p. 175. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
- ^ "Foundation Document: The White House and President's Park" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
- ^ "Reservation List: The Parks of the National Park System, Washington, DC" (PDF). www.nps.gov. National Park Service; Land Resources Program Center; National Capital Region. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ "The Historic Decatur House". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on 2020-07-21. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ a b DeNeen L. Brown, A history lesson for Trump: Lafayette Square was once bordered by 'slave pens' Archived 2020-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (June 5, 2020).
- ^ a b c d e f g "Lafayette Square, Washington, DC". General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ Marlowe, Beth (May 15, 2015). "A few bad days in Washington, D.C., history". Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- Commission of Fine Arts, 1978, pp. 1-7.
- ^ Kames M. Goode. "Four Salutes to the Nation: The Equestrian Statues of General Andrew Jackson". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on 2021-09-04. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, (sculpture)". Inventory of American Sculpture, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Smithsonian American Art Museum. IAS DC000217. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
- ^ "Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau, (sculpture)". Inventory of American Sculpture, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Smithsonian American Art Museum. IAS DC000072. Archived from the original on 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, (sculpture)". Inventory of American Sculpture, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Smithsonian American Art Museum. IAS DC000215. Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, (sculpture)". Inventory of American Sculpture, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Smithsonian American Art Museum. IAS DC000216. Archived from the original on 2020-06-28. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- ^ "Telling All Americans' Stories: LGBTQ Heritage Introduction". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2020-06-07. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
- ^ "Demonstrating At The Front Door Of The White House". Arnold & Porter. 1996. Archived from the original on 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
- ^ a b c John Kelly, Remembering the Great Squirrel Purge of Lafayette Square Archived 2019-06-20 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (April 10, 2016).
- ^ Isikoff, Michael (September 22, 1989). "Drug Buy Set Up For Bush Speech". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ Colman McCarthy (February 8, 2009). "From Lafayette Square Lookout, He Made His War Protest Permanent". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ Carol D. Leonnig, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey & Rebecca Tan, Barr personally ordered removal of protesters near White House, leading to use of force against largely peaceful crowd Archived 2020-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (June 2, 2020).
- ^ a b c d e f g Tom Jackman, Report: Park Police didn’t clear Lafayette Square protesters for Trump visit Archived 2021-06-10 at archive.today, Washington Post (June 9, 2021).
- ^ Epps, Garrett (June 2, 2020). "Trump's Grotesque Violation of the First Amendment". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
- ^ Baker, Peter; Haberman, Maggie; Rogers, Katie; Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Benner, Katie; Willis, Haley; Triebert, Christiaan; Botti, David (June 2, 2020). "How Trump's Idea for a Photo Op Led to Havoc in a Park". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
- ^ a b Ebbs, Stephanie. "Police did not clear Lafayette Park area so Trump could hold 'Bible' photo op: Watchdog". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2021-06-18. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
- ^ a b c Wild, Whitney (9 June 2021). "Watchdog report finds Park Police did not clear racial injustice protesters from Lafayette Park for Trump's visit to St. John's Church last June". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-06-09. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
- ^ a b c Dilanian, Ken (9 June 2021). "Police did not clear D.C.'s Lafayette Park of protesters so Trump could hold a photo op, new report says". NBC News. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Review of U.S. Park Police Actions at Lafayette Park" (PDF). June 2021.
- ^ a b Carol D. Leonnig, DHS watchdog declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration, documents show Archived 2021-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (April 19, 2021).
- ^ Marissa J. Lang (May 10, 2021). "D.C.'s Lafayette Square opens gates to pedestrians for first time in nearly a year". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
Further reading
- Blair, Gist. "Lafayette Square." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, DC vol 28 (1926): 133-173 online.
- Helfrich, Kurt. "Modernism for Washington? The Kennedys and the Redesign of Lafayette Square." Washington History 8.1 (1996): 16-37 online.
- Keck, Andrew S. "A Toast to the Union: Clark Mills' Equestrian Statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, DC 71 (1971): 289–313. online
- Moser, Edward P. The White House's Unruly Neighborhood: Crime, Scandal and Intrigue in the History of Lafayette Square (McFarland, 2020) online review.
- Winner, Viola Hopkins. "Henry Adams and Lafayette Square, 1877-1885." Virginia Quarterly Review 62.3 (1986): 478–489. online