History of Dumbarton Oaks Park
A brief history, from its creation to today.
About Dumbarton Oaks Park
Dumbarton Oaks Park is a 27-acre urban oasis located in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Nestled in a stream valley, a visitor experiences walking trails along a stream with waterfalls and stone bridges as well as through meadows and woodlands. It offers visitors recreation or restorative quiet and inspiration. Learn more about visiting the park.
This is not just any park
Before visiting this park, many might not know it is a rare treasure - a nationally significant cultural landscape. The Park is one of America's greatest garden landscapes, designed in the 1920s by Beatrix Farrand, America's first woman landscape architect. Dumbarton Oaks Park is her last remaining wild garden and the crowning achievement of her career.
Dumbarton Oaks Park is a threatened public landscape
The land that is now Dumbarton Oaks Park was privately owned until 1941. At that time, its owners gifted it to the people of the United States to be managed by the National Park Service. But over the following decades, the Park's condition deteriorated.
The causes of deterioration were both natural and human-caused. The unchecked growth of invasive plants began to choke native species. At the same time, stormwater runoff from the surrounding communities eroded the banks of Rock Creek. Together, these forces were destroying the very essence of the Park.
Founding of the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy
Fortunately, a group of skilled professionals and community members recognized the value of this historic landscape. They acknowledged the critical issues impacting the park and took action to restore the Park with a focus on long-term rehabilitation and sustainable maintenance. Examples include upstream stormwater storage and bank-to-bank dredging of the ponds. These measures will improve flood control, water quality, and habitat while saving this cultural resource from obliteration.
DOPC is honoring the Park’s historical significance by protecting this essential public landscape and providing environmental education to the surrounding Washington, D.C., community.
In 2010, they formed the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy (DOPC) to restore, promote, and maintain Dumbarton Oaks Park. DOPC is an official nonprofit Partner of the National Park Service at Rock Creek Park. The tools used by the Partnership—community engagement, the development of a robust volunteer corps, and the implementation of a successful environmental education program—have helped to achieve many of the Partnership's goals.
The turnaround
DOPC has produced tangible results and recognition by undertaking significant projects at the Park that have begun repairing the decades of decay. The first project rehabilitated a two-acre American beech grove at the Park's main entrance.
“Today the grove ranks amongst the most celebrated components of her design scheme.”
-HALS Witness Tree Protection Program report
The site was also chosen because it features the essential elements of this cultural landscape: woodlands, riparian zones, and historic built features. To learn more about restoration projects.
Opening the park gates wide to welcome all is a guiding principle of our organization. We invite our community to understand the learning lab approach to restoration, discuss the common goals, and engage with YOUR park. With your participation, our projects go from being understood and talked about to being shared initiatives with the greater community.
DOPC core community initiatives include:
- Volunteer programming
- ---Art in the Park--- programming
- Leave No Child Inside environmental education programming
- Accessibility and inclusive design
Reaching the mission
Despite a decade of consistent work by DOPC and the community, the Park is still under the constant threats of stormwater runoff and invasive plants. These challenges continue to undermine the restoration of this landscape and its accompanying masonry structures, creating unsafe and inaccessible areas of the Park.
Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy spearheads this effort as the primary advocate for restoring the Park and the leading educator to the public.
We can't do it alone
To accomplish these ambitious projects, we need help from you, our Park community. We invite you to join us in saving Dumbarton Oaks Park, an essential resource and cultural treasure.
We welcome your input and ideas. We encourage you to volunteer your time, talent, and treasure. Your donations are vital to restoring and maintaining a vibrant Park for all to enjoy.
