DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN PARK 



It was while the Garden was being relocated early in the 

 1930s that the triangular one-acre plot across Independence 

 Avenue just south of the new Conservatory was developed 

 as an outdoor garden. Today, the Frederic Auguste Barthol- 

 di Park of the United States Botanic Garden Park is still used 

 to display hardy plant material and seasonal floral exhibits. 

 This Washington showplace features a wide variety of sum- 

 mer blooming annuals, rock garden perennials, and unusual 

 trees and shrubs. The focal point of the park is the historic 

 Bartholdi Fountain. This graceful thirty-foot-high cast-iron 

 fountain, with its adorning aquatic monsters, fish, and 

 caryatids, is a perfect ornament for the park. 



NEW GROWING AREAS 



Until the early 1960s, the Garden used nine greenhouses 

 of various types and sizes as well as four cold frames adja- 

 cent to the Conservatory. These structures were utilized both 

 for growing plant material to be displayed in the Conserva- 

 tory and on the Garden's grounds and for maintaining a fair- 

 ly extensive collection of orchids. The other buildings on the 

 property, which the Garden began using for the first time 

 in 1873, were storehouses, garages, and potting and work- 

 ing sheds. There was also a picturesque old two-story house 

 with a mansard roof, built around 1842, which was used 

 as a staff headquarters. 



By 1956, however, the greenhouses next to the Conserv- 

 atory had deteriorated so badly that they were no longer 

 adequate for use and Congress authorized their demolition. 7 



7 70 Stat. 1068; and 72 Stat. 450. See also U.S. Senate, Committee on 

 Rules and Administration, Replacement of Facilities of the Botanic Garden, 

 Senate Report No. 2382, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., Washington: U.S. Govt. 

 Print. Off., 1956, 2 pp. (Serial No. 11889); U.S. Congress, House, Com- 

 mittee on Public Works, Authorizing the Demolition and Removal of Cer- 

 tain Greenhouses and Other Structures ... at the Botanic Garden 

 Nursery, House Report No. 2878, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., Washington: U.S. 

 Govt. Print. Off., 1958, pp. 1-2 (Serial No. 11901); Liz Hillenbrand, Old 

 Botanic Garden to Vanish From Scene, Washington Post, August 13, 1956, 

 p. 19; Demolition and Removal of the Greenhouses, Buildings, and Other 

 Structures From Square 576 West Located Adjacent to the Site of the Main 

 Conservatory and Construction of New Greenhouses and Service Build- 

 ings at Poplar Point Nursery in Replacement of Such Structures, Febru- 

 ary 16, 1956, p. 4. Botanic Garden Files, AOC. 



53 



