Downing's Plan for the Mall

Title: Downing's Plan for the Mall
Creator: Andrew Jackson Downing
Date: 1851
Description: Andrew J. Downing presented this proposal for a landscape design of the National Mall to President Millard Fillmore in February 1851. He incorporated the Capitol's western front (left) and White House grounds (right), fulfilling Pierre L'Enfant's desire for the two buildings to be connected by a park-like space. Downing divided the Mall into six spaces, connected by winding paths. As he wrote in a letter to the President a month after presenting his plan, he wanted the Mall to "form a public museum of living trees and shrubs." Downing's plan was never fully implemented, in part due to his early death in 1852 at the age of 36.
Source: National Archives at College Park. View original.
Coverage: 1830-1859
Original Format: Drawing, with modern digital annotations