The polo field on the National Mall has been a popular site for polo matches since the early 1900s. During World War II members of the military, including General George S. Patton, used the field for intramural games. Today, the polo field and…

In 1860, the first baseball clubs in Washington, DC, the Nationals and the Potomacs, played a game on the field south of the White House, then known as the White Lot. The field was originally open to baseball enthusiasts of all races, but became…

The mud flats and marshland to the west of the Washington Monument (on the left side of this image) were called the Potomac Flats for most of the 1800s. In 1870, the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the Potomac to remove silt and to deepen the…

The Babcock Lakes, located west of the Washington Monument, served as spawning pools for the US Fish Commission. Mandated to remedy decreases in the availability of commercial fish in America, the Commission used Babcock Lakes to breed Eurasian Carp,…

The Ellipse, officially known as President's Park South, is a 52 acre park located directly south of the White House. It was part of L'Enfant's original plan of the city. The Ellipse was originally called "The White Lot" due to the whitewashed fence…

Built in 1995, the Smithsonian Butterfly Garden supports a variety of plant species which are important to the life cycle of butterflies in the Eastern United States. The 11,000 square foot area was originally built with funds provided by the…

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan created a Presidential Commission to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of 13 German Mennonite families in Pennsylvania. The Commission decided to create a German-American Friendship Garden on the…

Tiber Creek had been known as Goose Creek before 1790 when the city of Washington, DC was laid out and designated the nation's capital. The creek extended from the base of Capitol Hill to its mouth near the present day Washington Monument. In 1815,…

Now encompassing several buildings and several dozen acres, the US Botanic Garden began with an original plot of 5 acres set aside by President James Monroe. The original location of the garden buildings was on 3rd Street in line with Capitol dome,…

Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city of Washington first suggested a reflecting pool for the Capitol, but was never built. The 1902 McMillian Commission design for the National Mall revived the idea, yet it still took until 1971 for the…