Rock Creek Park: Creek Stabilization - Washington DC

State:: WASHINGTON-DC
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Forestry and Agriculture, Erosion Control
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Work Relief Programs
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in Rock Creek park, as well as the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, during the 1930s. Among other work, the CCC enrollees cleared Rock Creek of brush, deepened the channel and added rip-rap and stone retaining walls to stabilize the channel at various places along the stream.

The exact dates of the creek stabilization work are unknown, as the CCC had a camp in Rock Creek Park for most of the 1930s.

Much of the CCC work appears to remain in place, though distinguishing it from earlier and later stonework is not certain.

Source notes

“District gets $325,000 fund for building,” Washington Post, September 8, 1933, p. 22.

Civilian Conservation Corps Activities in the National Capital Region of the National Park Service, National Capital Parks-Central, Washington, DC, HABS DC-858.https://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc1000/dc1020/data/dc1020data.pdf

Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on January 17, 2020.