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Photo, Print, Drawing Theodore Roosevelt Island, Potomac River, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

View 46 images in sequence.
[ Photos from Survey HALS DC-12  ]

More Resources

View 14 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HALS DC-12  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HALS DC-12  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HALS DC-12  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Theodore Roosevelt Island, Potomac River, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Names

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
  • Mason, George, IV
  • Mason, John
  • Hadfield, George
  • Hepburn, David
  • Bradley, William A., Sr.
  • 1st U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment
  • Truth, Sojourner
  • Association of Friends for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen
  • Bradley, William A., Sr.
  • Bradley Family
  • Columbia Athletic Club
  • Leiter, Joseph
  • Washington Gas Light Company
  • Roosevelt Memorial Association (Theodore Roosevelt Association)
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Jr.
  • Hubbard, Henry V.
  • Olmsted Brothers
  • U.S. National Park Service
  • Manship, Paul
  • Gugler, Eric
  • Fonderia Artistica Battaglia
  • Baldi & Sons
  • Dolinsky, Paul D., Chief, Historic American Landscapes Survey
  • O'Connor, Richard, Chief, Heritage Documentation Programs
  • Vela, David, superintendent
  • Muller, Bonita, project manager
  • Wenchel, Andrew, project manager
  • George Washington Memorial Parkway, sponsor
  • Kidd, Anne E., field team supervisor
  • Clemmens, Meghan, field team
  • Mincey, Cal J., field team
  • Pliska, Jonathan, field team
  • Rosenthal, James W., photographer
  • Lowe, Jet, photographer
  • Stein, James, field team

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 2000

Headings

  • -  bas-reliefs
  • -  basins
  • -  emblems
  • -  fountains
  • -  sculpture
  • -  stonework (granite)
  • -  charity
  • -  religious groups
  • -  agriculture
  • -  slavery
  • -  elevations
  • -  elevations
  • -  floor plans
  • -  photographs (photocopies)
  • -  watercolors (photocopies)
  • -  archaeology
  • -  historic sites
  • -  military organizations
  • -  historic buildings
  • -  leisure
  • -  sports
  • -  benches
  • -  Presidents & the Congress
  • -  plazas
  • -  granite
  • -  African Americans
  • -  landscaping plans
  • -  landscaping plans
  • -  barracks
  • -  clubhouses
  • -  country houses
  • -  estates
  • -  schools
  • -  national parks & reserves
  • -  hospitals
  • -  Friends meeting houses
  • -  plantations
  • -  mansions
  • -  story
  • -  picnic grounds
  • -  resorts
  • -  gardens
  • -  orchards
  • -  trees
  • -  paths
  • -  allées
  • -  shrubs
  • -  beds (site elements)
  • -  vegetable gardens
  • -  lawns
  • -  grounds
  • -  deciduous trees
  • -  evergreens
  • -  canopy trees
  • -  understory trees
  • -  planting drawings
  • -  plant material lists
  • -  footpaths
  • -  pedestrian bridges
  • -  trails & paths
  • -  formal gardens
  • -  slave quarters
  • -  war (Civil War)
  • -  gardeners
  • -  woodlands
  • -  forests
  • -  woods
  • -  memorials
  • -  service roads
  • -  boxwood gardens
  • -  express highways
  • -  rivers
  • -  clubs (associations)
  • -  New Deal
  • -  architectural elements
  • -  agricultural facilities
  • -  marks (symbols)
  • -  causeways
  • -  location maps (photocopies)
  • -  chronologies
  • -  Sunday schools
  • -  grandstands
  • -  linden trees
  • -  landscapes
  • -  ecology
  • -  forestry
  • -  open spaces & site elements
  • -  work camps
  • -  plants
  • -  grasses (plants)
  • -  sites
  • -  wilderness
  • -  landscaping plans (photocopies)
  • -  families
  • -  woody plants
  • -  nonwoody plants
  • -  herbaceous plants
  • -  biennials
  • -  communal living
  • -  pedestrian facilities
  • -  landings (marine structures)
  • -  Nature
  • -  prints (photocopies)
  • -  temporary structures
  • -  oak trees
  • -  hemlock trees
  • -  plans (photocopies)
  • -  paving brick
  • -  bronzework
  • -  bronze
  • -  Civilian Conservation Corps
  • -  restoration (process)
  • -  mulberry trees
  • -  natural phenomena
  • -  landscape architecture drawings
  • -  conjectural works
  • -  design drawings
  • -  contract drawings
  • -  measured drawings
  • -  architectural photographs
  • -  photographs
  • -  maps
  • -  associations
  • -  landscape paintings
  • -  peach trees
  • -  horticulture
  • -  locust trees
  • -  maps (photocopies)
  • -  vistas
  • -  views
  • -  displacement
  • -  botany
  • -  figures (representations)
  • -  walnut trees
  • -  persimmon trees
  • -  ash trees
  • -  agricultural exhibits
  • -  livestock
  • -  livestock
  • -  weeping willows
  • -  tenant farming
  • -  conjectural works (photocopies)
  • -  shores (landforms)
  • -  curvilinear paths
  • -  buildings distinguished by topographical location
  • -  views
  • -  war (Spanish-American war)
  • -  magnolia trees
  • -  cherry trees
  • -  epidemics
  • -  naturalistic landscape architecture
  • -  panoramic views
  • -  native plantings
  • -  ferns
  • -  race relations
  • -  race discrimination
  • -  racism
  • -  as-built drawings (photocopies)
  • -  gambling
  • -  vehicular bridges
  • -  cedar trees
  • -  pines
  • -  birches
  • -  deer
  • -  rabbits
  • -  schematic drawings
  • -  peach orchards
  • -  landscape architects
  • -  architects
  • -  hickory
  • -  dogwood
  • -  cedar
  • -  villages
  • -  military depots
  • -  military training
  • -  explosions
  • -  explosives
  • -  poplars
  • -  maples
  • -  explosives
  • -  torpedoes
  • -  water features
  • -  sheep
  • -  memorial landscapes
  • -  National Forest Service
  • -  relocation camps
  • -  military facilities
  • -  public works
  • -  District Of Columbia--District Of Columbia--Washington

Latitude / Longitude

  • 38.89729,-77.064124

Notes

  • -  See also HABS DC-28 for additional documentation, includes drawings, photographs, and written data.
  • -  See also HAER VA-87, includes written data.
  • -  Significance: Theodore Roosevelt Island's primary significance rests on its role as a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt and his devotion to the conservation of America's natural resources. However, the site also enjoys a rich history with several additional periods of significance. Throughout its evolution, topography and geology have always mandated settlement patterns on and the development of the island landscape. Archeological evidence shows that the island was in use by the area's Native American tribes from prehistory until the early eighteenth century. Furthermore, the island's alternate name of Analostan likely originated through an association with the Necostin (Anacostian) Indians. In 1717, Revolutionary Patriot George Mason IV, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, acquired the Island and established a ferry there in 1748. His son, John Mason, developed the island as a plantation estate and built a causeway connecting with the Virginia coast and a large Federal-style mansion, also named Analostan. The alternate historical name of Mason's Island stems from the Mason family's ownership of the site. Later, during the Civil War, Union forces occupied Theodore Roosevelt Island. During the summer of 1863 the island functioned as the camp of the 1st United States Colored Troops, an African American regiment composed of free blacks and escaped slaves. From May 1864-June 1865 a freedmen's refugee camp occupied much of the island, including the Mason mansion. Following a long period of transient ownership, short-term tenancy, and disuse, the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) purchased the island in 1931 as a national memorial to the former president. The following year the RMA gave the island to the federal government, but maintained planting and development rights. Between 1934-1945 the RMA retained renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to replant the island as a planned wilderness "to be preserved as nearly as possible as in its natural state.” This concept of designed nature is significant in that it forces people to rethink the human relationship with the natural world, and indeed, what constitutes nature. Less abstractly, the planting plan, carried out by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers, "represents one of the most complete expressions of Olmsted's ideals on scenic preservation, through his attempt to recreate the island's presumed former appearance so that it could continue its natural evolution to a stable, 'climax' forest." Finally, Gugler's plaza and Manship's Theodore Roosevelt sculpture represent a distinct step in the development of presidential memorials within Washington, DC.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N15
  • -  Survey number: HALS DC-12
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1733-1792 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1792-1833 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1797- 1802 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1796- ca. 1802 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1852-1861 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1861-1865 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1863-1863 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1864-1864
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1864-1865 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1865-1867
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1867-1909 Demolished
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1887- 1892 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1913-1914
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1914-1931
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1931-current Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1932-1947 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1932-1947 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1932-1947 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1933-current Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1934- ca. 1941 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1956-1966 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1956-1967 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1961- 1966 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1963-1966 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000869

Medium

  • Photo(s): 46
  • Measured Drawing(s): 14
  • Data Page(s): 200
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 3

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HALS DC-12

Source Collection

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Control Number

  • dc1044

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Format

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Location

Language

Subject

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HALS DC-12
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, George Mason, John Mason, George Hadfield, David Hepburn, William A Bradley, 1St U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, et al., Rosenthal, James W, and Jet Lowe, photographer. Theodore Roosevelt Island, Potomac River, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Washington Washington D.C, 2000. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/dc1044/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, C., Mason, G., Mason, J., Hadfield, G., Hepburn, D., Bradley, W. A. [...] Stein, J., Rosenthal, J. W. & Lowe, J., photographer. (2000) Theodore Roosevelt Island, Potomac River, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Washington Washington D.C, 2000. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/dc1044/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Rosenthal, James W, and Jet Lowe. Theodore Roosevelt Island, Potomac River, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/dc1044/>.