North Lawn

Coordinates: 38°53′54″N 77°02′12″W / 38.8983°N 77.0366°W / 38.8983; -77.0366
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North Lawn (White House)
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The North Lawn at the White House
An American Elm, Ulmus americana, with yellow fall foliage
Presidential reviewing stand and North Lawn
The North Lawn and a column of the North Portico photographed from the present President's Dining Room, c. 1902
The White House North Lawn and its statue of Thomas Jefferson in the 1860s, during the Abraham Lincoln administration

The North Lawn at the

Old Executive Office Building
. Because it is bordered by Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House's official street address, the North Lawn is sometimes described as the front lawn.

Description and use

A semicircular driveway runs from the northwest gate through the North Portico, sweeping back to Pennsylvania Avenue through the northeast gate.[1] A circular pool with fountain is centered on the north portico of the White House.

Visiting heads of state enter the White House grounds, and are officially welcomed here prior to a

state dinner
. Public tours, which begin on East Executive Drive, exit through the North Portico, and visitors exit from the northeast gate.

White House correspondents often stand on the North Lawn with the North Portico as a backdrop during television news broadcasts. Up until the 1990s they would broadcast from the lawn itself, however this left a large expanse of trampled grass and mud. In the 1990s the broadcast point was moved to a new area of the lawn covered with gravel for the purpose, leading to the nickname 'Pebble Beach'. The area was later repaved in Pennsylvania fieldstone in 2003, leading to the new nickname 'Stonehenge', though the former remains somewhat more common.[2]

A reviewing stand is erected on the North Lawn facing Pennsylvania Avenue prior to the inauguration of the president. The president uses the enclosed structure to review the parade, which proceeds from the U.S. Capitol.

Design and horticulture

Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's 1793 plan of the city of Washington placed the President's House facing a convergence of radial avenues centered on the North Lawn. In 1850, landscape designer Andrew Jackson Davis attempted to soften the geometry of the L'Enfant plan.[3]

In 1848, a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson was placed in middle of the lawn by President James K. Polk; it was replaced by a pool and "gurg" steam-driven fountain in 1871.[4] Through the remainder of the 19th century the North Lawn was planted with increasingly complex seasonal "carpet" style flower bedding punctuated by tropical plants borrowed from the White House glass houses.[5]

President

Festuca arundinacea). [1]

Specimen trees

Trees on the North lawn include fern-leaf beech (Fagus sylvatica asplenifolia), American elm (Ulmus americana), white oak (Quercus alba), white saucer magnolia (Magnolia × soulangeana), red maple (Acer rubrum), American Chestnut Tree (Castanea dentata) and American and English boxwood (Buxus species).[7][8]

Seasonal plantings

The pool is planted seasonally with borders of

Senecio cineraria) in summer, and chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium) in fall.[9]

References

  1. ISBN 0-912308-69-9
    .
  2. ^ "White House Letter; Facelift for What's on the Other Side of the Camera". The New York Times. New York City, New York. August 23, 2003. p. A11.
  3. ISBN 0-912308-69-9
    .
  4. ISBN 0-912308-69-9
    .
  5. ISBN 0-8027-1192-8
    .
  6. ISBN 0-8027-1192-8
    .
  7. ISBN 0-912308-69-9
    .
  8. ^ Haskell, Sabina (April 30, 2005). "Dream takes root - Chestnut group president visits White House" (PDF). Rutland Herald.
  9. ISBN 0-912308-69-9
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to White House North Lawn.

38°53′54″N 77°02′12″W / 38.8983°N 77.0366°W / 38.8983; -77.0366

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