Park Designers

Landscape architects George Burnap and Horace Peaslee, working in the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds under the guidance of the Commission of Fine Arts, designed Meridian Hill Park. By 1914, Burnap had completed a basic design featuring a linear series of elements including the Mall, the Great Terrace, the Hillside Gardens with Cascades, and the Lower Plaza with the memorial to President Buchanan. After Burnap returned to private practice in 1917, Peaslee submitted revisions that greatly simplified the Mall, eliminated vehicular access into the park as automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages in the city, added a pedestrian entrance on 15th Street, and shifted the Buchanan Memorial off the main axis to the east of the plaza. When construction began in 1918, landscape designer Ferrruccio Vitale was hired to develop a planting plan and, following Peaslee's lead, greatly simplified the lower park by eliminating the 16th Street entrance to the Great Terrace, the bridge over the Cascades, the oval amphitheater, and by simplifying the pathways to the Hillside Gardens.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States