National Mall: Reconstruction – Washington DC

Description

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.  Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the PWA had expended $1,050,000 on the reconstruction work. 

As one newspaper put it, “…the mile long park connecting the Capitol with Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial probably would still be in an early stage of development but for the allocation of PWA funds to finish the project.” 

In 1901, the McMillan Commission, composed of eminent architects and landscape architects, was created to rethink the park system of Washington DC and come up with a new plan for city parks.  In the case of the National Mall, they rejected a previous plan based on the Central Park model of winding roads and naturalized landscaping and returned to the principal features of the L’Enfant plan of 1801.  The McMillan plan proposed a broad carpet of grass between park drives, bordered on either side by formal rows of trees.  Little of the new plan had been accomplished, however, before the New Deal came along.

The PWA made an initial allotment of over $600,000 in 1933 and work began in early 1934.  Another $175,000 was added in 1936 and smaller allotments made after that. Work was carried out under the direction of the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks, which had become a branch of the National Park Service when the park system was taken over by the Interior Department under Harold Ickes in August 1933. 

Temporary wartime structures and an old power plant were removed, old roadways and paths erased, and the land graded between 1st and 14th streets (the eastern half of the Mall).   Workers constructed four parallel park drives and adjoining paths, created a huge area of lawn (1 mile long x 300 feet wide), planted trees all along the paths and borders, installed a sprinkler system and added decorative lighting. The botanic gardens were also moved.  

Later, other encroaching buildings were removed, the grade at 12th street raised, and the park drives carried over 14th Street on bridges.  Repair work was also done on the Washington Monument, at the center of the Mall, and the Lincoln Memorial, at the far western end, and improvements made to the grounds around each.