![]() ![]() On April 8, the day after Taft's letter, Dr. Of course, they could not reflect in the water, but the effect would be very lovely of the long avenue. I have taken the matter up and am promised the trees, but I thought perhaps it would be best to make an avenue of them, extending down to the turn in the road, as the other part (beyond the railroad bridge Ed.) is still too rough to do any planting. The White House, Washington ApThank you very much for your suggestion about the cherry trees. Two days later, the First Lady responded: Scidmore sent a note outlining her new plan to the new First Lady, Helen Herron Taft-the wife of President William Howard Taft- who had once lived in Japan and was familiar with the beauty of the flowering cherry trees. In 1909, Scidmore decided to try to raise the money required to purchase the cherry trees and then donate the trees to the city. In attendance was Eliza Scidmore, who afterwards he referred to as a great authority on Japan. In closing his Arbor Day speech, Fairchild expressed a vision that the "Speedway" (the present day corridor of Independence Avenue in West Potomac Park) be transformed into a Field of Cherries. In 1908, Fairchild gave cherry saplings to boys from each school in the District to plant in schoolyards on Arbor Day. ![]() ![]() Friends of family also became interested, and on September 26, arrangements were completed with the Chevy Chase Land Company to order 300 Oriental cherry trees for the Chevy Chase area. In 1907, pleased with the success of the trees, Fairchild and his wife began to promote Japanese flowering cherry trees as the ideal type of tree to plant along avenues in the Washington area. Fairchild planted these trees on a hillside on his own property in Chevy Chase, Maryland, testing their hardiness in the Washington area. ![]() Department of Agriculture, imported 75 flowering cherry trees and 25 single-flowered weeping types from the Yokohama Nursery Company in Japan. David Fairchild, a botanist who worked for the U.S. Her idea was rejected over the next 24 years, Scidmore approached every new superintendent, but the idea was never authorized. Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, upon returning to Washington, D.C., from a visit to Japan, initiated the idea of cherry trees in Washington, D.C., She approached the Superintendent of Public Building and Grounds, then Colonel Spencer Cosby, about the idea in 1885. The famous sakura Japanese cherry trees of Washington, D.C., line the Tidal Basin and are the main attraction at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in early spring, when the cherry blossoms bloom. Cherry trees West Potomac Park seen from across the Tidal Basin with cherry trees in bloom The Jefferson Memorial in West Potomac Park Congress first appropriated money for the beautification of the reclaimed land in 1902, which led to the planting of sod, bushes, and trees grading and paving of sidewalks, bridle paths, and driveways and the installation of water, drainage, and sewage pipes. This " reclaimed land" - which included West Potomac Park, East Potomac Park, the Tidal Basin - was largely complete by 1890, and designated Potomac Park by Congress in 1897. In the process, the nearby Babcock Lakes, a series of small ponds, were filled in. After terrible flooding inundated much of downtown Washington, D.C., in 1881, Congress ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge a deep channel in the Potomac and use the material to fill in the Potomac (creating the current banks of the river) and raise much of the land near the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue NW by nearly 6 feet (1.8 m). Creation of the park Īlmost none of the National Mall west of the Washington Monument grounds and below Constitution Avenue NW existed prior to 1882. West Potomac Park is administered by National Mall and Memorial Parks, an administrative unit of the National Park Service's National Capital Parks. The park includes the surrounding land on the shore of the Tidal Basin, an artificial inlet of the Potomac River which was created in the 19th century, an inlet that links the Potomac with the northern end of the Washington Channel. The park is the site of many national landmarks, including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. It includes the parkland that extends south of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, from the Lincoln Memorial to the grounds of the Washington Monument. national park in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the National Mall. ![]()
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