North Lawn (White House)
Encyclopedia
The North Lawn at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in Washington, DC, is bordered on the north by Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
with a wide view of the mansion, and is screened by dense plantings on the east from East Executive Drive and the Treasury Building
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
, and on the west from West Executive Drive and the Old Executive Office Building
Old Executive Office Building
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building , formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building and as the State, War, and Navy Building, is an office building in Washington, D.C., just west of the White House...
. Because it is bordered by Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House's official street address, the North Lawn is sometimes described as the front lawn.
Description and use
A semicircular driveway runs from the northwest gate through the North Portico, sweeping back to Pennsylvania Avenue through the northeast gate. A circular pool with fountain is centered on the north portico of the White House.Visiting heads of state enter the White House grounds, and are officially welcomed here prior to a state dinner
State dinner
A state dinner is a dinner or banquet paid by a government and hosted by a head of state in his or her official residence in order to renew and celebrate diplomatic ties between the host country and the country of a foreign head of state or head of government who was issued an invitation. In many...
. Public tours, which begin on East Executive Drive, exit through the North Portico, and visitors exit from the northeast gate.
White House correspondents, for television news, often stand on the North Lawn with the North Portico as a backdrop.
A reviewing stand is erected on the North Lawn facing Pennsylvania Avenue prior to the inauguration of the president. The president uses the enclosed structure to review the parade from the U.S. Capitol.
Design and horticulture
Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's 1793 plan of the city of Washington placed the President's House facing a convergence of radial avenues centered on the North Lawn. In 1850, landscape designer Andrew Jackson DavisAndrew Jackson Davis
Andrew Jackson Davis , American Spiritualist, was born at Blooming Grove, New York.- Early years :He had little education, though probably much more than he and his friends pretended. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie on animal magnetism, as the phenomena of hypnotism was then termed, and...
attempted to soften the geometry of the L'Enfant plan.
In the mid-19th century a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
was placed in middle of the lawn; it was replaced by a pool and "gurg" steam-driven fountain in 1871. Through the remainder of the 19th century the North Lawn was planted with increasingly complex seasonal "carpet" style flower bedding punctuated by tropical plants borrowed from the White House glass houses.
President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, who had engaged the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
to reconfigure and rebuild part of the White House in 1902, was induced to simplify the grounds, removing what was increasingly seen as Victorian clutter. The bedding scheme on the North Lawn was greatly simplified. Later, in 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt engaged Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to evaluate the grounds and recommend changes. Olmsted understood the need to offer presidents and their families a modicum of privacy balancing with the requirement for public views of the White House. The Olmsted plan presented the landscape largely as seen today: retaining or planting large specimen trees and shrubs on the perimeter to create boundaries for visual privacy, but opened with generous sight lines of the house from north and south. The lawn is planted with a grass variety called tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea
Festuca arundinacea
Festuca arundinacea is a species of fescue commonly known as Tall fescue. It is a cool-season perennial C3 species of bunchgrass native to Europe. It is an important forage grass throughout Europe, and many cultivars have been used in agriculture...
). http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/ask/20081016.html
Specimen trees
Trees on the North lawn include Fern-leaf Beech (Fagus sylvatica asplenifolia), American Elm (Ulmus americana), White Oak (Quercus alba), White Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia × soulangeanaMagnolia × soulangeana
Magnolia × soulangeana is a hybrid plant in the genus Magnolia and family Magnoliaceae. It is a deciduous tree with large, early-blooming flowers in various shades of white, pink, and purple...
), Red Maple (Acer rubrum), and American and English Boxwood (Buxus
Buxus
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood ....
species).
Seasonal plantings
The pool is planted seasonally with borders of tulips edged by grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacumMuscari armeniacum
Muscari armeniacum is an bulbous plant of the genus Muscari with basal, simple leaves and short, flowering stems. It is one of a number of species and genera known as Grape Hyacinth, in this case Armenian Grape Hyacinth. The flowers are purple, blue , or white and the plants are usually tall. M...
) for spring, red geranium (Pelargonium
Pelargonium
Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as scented geraniums or storksbills. Confusingly, Geranium is the correct botanical name of a separate genus of related plants often called Cranesbills. Both Geranium...
) and Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) in summer, and chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, are of the genus constituting approximately 30 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae which is native to Asia and northeastern Europe.-Etymology:...
) in fall.
Further reading
- Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
- Clinton, Hillary Rodham. An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. Simon & Schuster: 2000. ISBN 0-684-85799-5.
- Leish, Kenneth. The White House. Newsweek Book Division: 1972. ISBN 0-88225-020-5.
- McEwan, Barbara. "White House Landscapes." Walker and Company: 1992. ISBN 0-8027-1192-8.
- Mellon, Rachel Lambert. The White House Gardens Concepts and Design of the Rose Garden. Great American Editions Ltd.: 1973.
- Seale, William. The President's House. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN 0-912308-28-1.
- Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
- Seale, William. The White House Garden. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1996. ISBN 0-912308-69-9.
- The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.