Sign at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Sign at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Photo: Brent McKee Creative Commons 2018Sign at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Sign at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
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.
-
-
View of West Potomac Park (left) from the Washington Monument
View of West Potomac Park (left) from the Washington Monument
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith Source Public Domain 2007View of West Potomac Park (left) from the Washington Monument
-
-
View of Potomac River from West Potomac Park - Washington DC
View of Potomac River from West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Photo: Brent McKee Creative Commons 2018View of Potomac River from West Potomac Park - Washington DC
-
-
Recreation fields sign,West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Recreation fields sign,West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Photo: Brent McKee Creative Commons 2018Recreation fields sign,West Potomac Park - Washington DC
-
-
Baseball Field at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Baseball Field at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
Photo: Brent McKee Creative Commons 2018Baseball Field at West Potomac Park - Washington DC
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
Project originally submitted by Brent McKee on May 25, 2013.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
SUBMIT MORE INFORMATION OR PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS SITE
