West Potomac Park Improvements – Washington DC

State:
WASHINGTON-DC

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Park Roads and Bridges

New Deal Agencies:
Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Started:
1936

Completed:
1936

Quality of Information:
Good

Site Survival:
Unknown

Description

West Potomac Park lies just below the National Mall and encircles the Tidal Basin.  It is the site of many national landmarks, including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. It is administered by the National Park Service.

In the 1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees graded, topsoiled, and seeded a one-and-one-half acre hockey field in West Potomac Park. Although nothing remains of the hockey field, that CCC work established the park as a site of sports and athletics. (HABS Survey report).
 
In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted extensive road repairs in both East and West Potomac parks, including grading and landscaping along Georgetown Channel from Constitution Avenue to K Street, which had suffered damage as a result of floods in early 1936 (Work: A Journal of Progress).
 
Like most of the extensive road work done by the WPA around the District in the 1930s, it is probably invisible today due to subsequent paving and repairs.

Source notes

Civilian Conservation Corps Activities in the National Capital Region of the National Park Service, National Capital Parks-Central, Washington, DC, HABS DC-858, accessed February 2013.

District of Columbia Works Progress Administration, “Improving Parks of Capital,” Work: A Journal of Progress, Vol. 1, No. 1, Sept. 1936, p. 10

District of Columbia Works Progress Administration, “National Capital Parks,” Work: A Journal of Progress, Vol. 1, No. 3, Nov. 1936, p. 22

Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on May 25, 2013.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.

Location Info


West Potomac Park
Washington, D.C. 20024

Coordinates: 38.8858, -77.0481

At this Location:

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