History

Maryland Avenue NE is a cultural landscape in northeast Washington, D.C. Located in the northeast quadrant, the segment of the avenue included in this cultural landscape inventory runs diagonally, southeast to northwest, for approximately 1.4 miles, between 2nd Street NE and 14th Street NE. The landscape is comprised of ten reservations, including Stanton Park, that are managed by the National Capital Area, National Capital Parks – East. Reservation numbers from southwest to northeast include: 205, 015, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, and 213. The reservations are all small parks, many of them triangle-shaped or quasi-triangular. They range in size from approximately 0.05 acres to 3.88 acres, with U.S. Reservation 213 (at the northeast end of the cultural landscape) as the smallest reservation on Maryland Avenue NE and Stanton Park (near the southwest end of the avenue) as the largest reservation in the cultural landscape.

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Maryland Avenue NE was first laid out as part of Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for the city of Washington, and included in Andrew Ellicott’s modified plan in 1792. L’Enfant’s original plan interposed an orthogonal grid of streets, oriented in the cardinal directions, with a series of grand radial avenues to connect prominent sites. As one such grand avenue, L’Enfant designed Maryland Avenue NE to begin at the United States Capitol and extend northeast, crossing a series of gridded streets. A series of triangular parcels were created by the juxtaposition of the two urban systems; it was these triangular “reservations” (together with other traffic circles and squares) that L’Enfant envisioned as ornamental green spaces for public use. The Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape comprises ten of these reservations from the L’Enfant Plan, as modified by Andrew Ellicott.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British Army marched down Maryland Avenue after the Battle of Bladensburg, setting fire to the capital city as they marched. In subsequent decades, the avenue remained largely undeveloped, despite its proximity to the United States Capitol and central Washington, D.C.

The small parks created as a result of the L’Enfant plan were not improved until the 1870s at the earliest, and Maryland Avenue NE was not paved until 1892. These improvement projects coincided with an effort by the Board of Public Works (BPW) to establish “parkings” along the city’s wide streets and avenues, bordering roadways with long strips of lawn and planting trees in order to reduce paving costs. These “parking projects” motivated the OPBG to reassert its ownership over the reservations under its jurisdiction, and to gradually improve them as ornamental spaces adjacent to the new “parkings.” Beginning in 1871, the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds (OPBG) redesigned the park at Massachusetts and Maryland Avenues, giving it the official name of Stanton Park and a statue of Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene was installed in 1874. The OPBG also delineated, landscaped, and enclosed the Maryland Avenue NE small parks during this period; these projects progressed incrementally until 1914. In 1915, a wide planted median was established along the centerline of the avenue between the small parks, further greening the experience of traveling through the cultural landscape.

In 1933, two reservations were selected as sites for design improvement projects undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as part of the New Deal’s programs in Washington, D.C. Three decades later, several reservations saw replantings and improvements to hardscapes and infrastructure as part of the beautification projects spearheaded by First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson. Concerned about the country’s increased traffic congestion and deteriorating downtown areas, First Lady Johnson established the Beautification Program to restore beauty to blighted areas and improve the quality of life in urban neighborhoods. The program launched in Washington, D.C. and expanded nationwide. On Maryland Avenue NE, the program’s interventions included the addition of play areas in Reservations 209 and 210, and the creation of new vegetation features in several reservations.

Analysis + Evaluation

Landscape characteristics identified for Maryland Avenue NE are: land use; topography; cluster arrangement; spatial organization; circulation; views and vistas; vegetation; buildings and structures; and small-scale features.

Spatial Organization: A cultural landscape’s spatial organization refers to the three-dimensional organization of physical forms and visual associations in the landscape, including articulation of ground, and vertical and overhead planes that define and create spaces. For the Maryland Avenue NE small parks, spatial organization refers to the historic internal composition of each reservation’s landscape features and their relationship to the surrounding sidewalks and streets. The spatial organization of the small parks within the Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape is consistent with the landscape conditions at the end of the last period of significance (1963-1969). The cultural landscape therefore retains integrity of spatial organization.

Circulation: Circulation is defined by the spaces, features, and applied material finishes that constitute systems of movement in a landscape. Circulation features are limited in the Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape based on the small scale of the reservations (with the exception of Stanton Park). The existing conditions at the Maryland Avenue NE small parks are generally consistent with the circulation features in place by the end of the final period of significance (1963-1969). The most significant alterations to circulation features are at Reservation 210, where one paved area and its access walkways has been removed since the beautification era. However, the loss of these features does not detract from the integrity of the cultural landscape’s overall circulation. The Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape therefore retains integrity with respect to circulation.

Views and Vistas: Views and vistas are defined as the prospect afforded by a range of vision in the landscape, conferred by the composition of other landscape characteristics and associated features. The cultural landscape’s views and vistas are subject to the conditions of its topography, surrounding vegetation, and the buildings and structures in its vicinity. Until the 19th century, Maryland Avenue NE likely had limited views due to its relatively low elevation (compared with the areas of the District of Columbia closer to Rock Creek, for example) and its documented vegetation. At its northeast terminus, it did enjoy a view toward the intersection between Maryland Avenue NE and Benning Road—a significant connection between thoroughfares and trading centers. By the mid-19th century, the southwest reservations in the cultural landscape (in particular, Reservation 205) enjoyed views toward the new United States Capitol dome. The Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape retains views consistent with the last period of significance, including the historic views between the small parks along the avenue, which reinforce the spatial relationship of the reservations within the cultural landscape. Today, views from the SW to NE contribute to the cultural landscape and as a result, Maryland Avenue NE retains integrity of views and vistas.

Vegetation: Vegetation features are characterized by the deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, vines, ground covers and herbaceous plants, and plant communities, whether indigenous or introduced in the landscape. In general, the planting plans for the individual reservations within the Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape changed several times between the different periods of significance. This includes transitions from grass to planting beds, and then alterations that revert to grass. Vegetation was not included as part of L’Enfant’s original design for open spaces in Washington, D.C., and the landscape likely retained light agricultural use in the 18th and early 19th centuries. During the second period of significance (1814), the cultural landscape’s vegetation was almost certainly affected by the burning of Washington, D.C., precipitated by the march of British troops down Maryland Avenue NE. As part of the delineation and development of small parks in the early 20th century, the OPBG planted turf grass, shade trees, shrubs, and flowers in the reservations along Maryland Avenue NE. Research for this CLI did not uncover any specific planting plans or plant species lists for these reservations during this period. The reservation files do include planting lists created for several of the small parks during the Beautification era, although there were no accompanying drawings to indicate placement of the plantings. The extant vegetation patterns for the small parks are largely consistent with the conditions at the end of the final period of significance. Maryland Avenue NE therefore retains integrity with respect to vegetation.

Buildings and Structures: Building features refer to the elements primarily built for sheltering any form of human activities; structures refer to the functional elements constructed for other purposes than sheltering human activity. Although Stanton Park is considered a structure for the purposes of this cultural landscape inventory, and very much contributes to the significance of the avenue’s small parks, the primary structures in the other reservations are non-historic and do not contribute to the significance of Maryland Avenue NE. For this reason, the cultural landscape does not retain significance with respect to buildings and structures.

Small Scale Features: Small-scale features are the elements that provide detail and diversity, combined with function and aesthetics to a landscape. The small-scale features within the Maryland Avenue NE cultural landscape include a complicated combination of historic and non-historic features. There are many non-contributing features that postdate all of the periods of significance. However, the quarter-round curbing and “U.S.” blocks that survive at several of the reservations are among the most distinctive features of this type of small parks, and significantly enhance the integrity of the cultural landscape’s small-scale features overall. The presence of the non-contributing features does not detract from the significant influence of the contributing features. Maryland Avenue NE therefore retains integrity of small-scale features.  

REAP Summary Observations

• With the exception of Stanton Park (Reservation 015), these small parks are underutilized. Most people bypass the Maryland Avenue NE small parks altogether, walking around them but not spending any time in them. Of those people who do linger (even for just a few minutes), they tend to be dog-walkers.

• These use patterns can be attributed to the fact that other than the playgrounds in Reservations 209 and 210 (and Stanton Park), the small parks do not currently offer any notable features or recreational experience to visitors—passive or active. Seven of the ten small parks are grassy lots, not designed to perform any function (even the ecological services of green infrastructure).

• The National Park Service’s role in the stewardship of the Maryland Avenue NE small parks is not recognized. Most users interviewed did not know that NPS owned or managed these parks. This observation was less true at Stanton Park, but even that park’s users were generally unaware (despite the presence of NPS regulatory signage).

• The Maryland Avenue NE small parks are largely uninterpreted. The only interpretive feature is one panel in Reservation 212, installed as part of the Greater H Street Heritage Trail; the small parks’ other signage (where it exists) is exclusively regulatory. Without NPS interpretive signage, the public has few opportunities to appreciate the landscape’s history, evolution, and significance.

• Demographically, the neighborhoods around Maryland Avenue NE have gotten younger, whiter, and wealthier since 2000.