Olmsted Woods at Washington National Cathedral

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.’s, comprehensive plan for the 59-acre grounds of the Washington National Cathedral included the preservation of an existing five-acre woodland, now known as the Olmsted Woods. A critical component of the Potomac River Basin watershed system, this beloved landscape has suffered escalating damage from drought, stormwater runoff, and flooding events in recent years, adding stress to both the watershed and the woodland’s native plants and mature trees.

History

Initially hired in 1907 to consult on the grounds for the Washington National Cathedral’s Choir School, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., with Olmsted Brothers, eventually expanded his purview to include a comprehensive plan for the 59-acre campus of the Washington National Cathedral. Executed from 1907 to 1928, his plan included internal roadways, locations for institutional buildings, a series of open spaces and gardens, enhancement of an existing amphitheater for outdoor services, and the preservation of an existing five-acre woodland, now known as the Olmsted Woods.

Preliminary General Plan of the Washington Cathedral Close, 1910. Photo courtesy of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.

Before European colonization, an extensive oak and beech forest covered the area of Mount Saint Alban, the high point of a piedmont plateau above the Potomac River on which the Cathedral sits. Much of the surrounding area has been extensively developed, and the Cathedral grounds, including the vestigial five-acre woodland, together with the nearby Glover Archbold Park and Rock Creek Park, contain the entire remaining natural area serving as a critical wildlife habitat and watershed system for the Potomac River Basin.

Olmsted, Jr., was particularly drawn to the woodland and envisioned its preservation as a natural area as a crucial component of the Cathedral’s master plan. “The great sweeping branches of the trees seem to brush off, as it were, the dust of the city, so that one at last reaches the Cathedral cleansed in mind and in spirit,” he wrote. In Olmsted, Jr.’s, plan, the south slope was dedicated to open space, with a winding Pilgrim Way providing a calming passage through a stream-strewn woodland to the assemblage of ecclesiastical buildings at the hill’s summit. As more congregants and visitors to the Cathedral began to travel by car, the pedestrian route designed by Olmsted was mostly abandoned in favor of the west entrance, which gave preference to vehicular movement. However, the Olmsted Woods remains a beloved and beneficial Washington, D.C., cultural landscape. Frequently enjoyed by visitors and pupils of the Cathedral’s three schools, the more rugged character of the woodland district provides a more intimate and immersive experience than the remainder of the campus, while also benefitting the surrounding community by diminishing localized air pollution, reducing the urban heat island effect, and providing habitat to insects and animals.

Washington National Cathedral Grounds. Photo courtesy of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.

The non-profit All Hallows Guild, founded in 1916 to steward the Cathedral’s grounds, had as one of its early members Florence Brown Bratenahl, the wife of the Cathedral’s second dean. She worked alongside Olmsted, Jr., from 1922 to 1928 on several landscape features, including the Pilgrim’s Way and the Bishop’s Garden. In its first decades the Guild raised funds to purchase mature specimen trees to populate the grounds, an effort Olmsted hoped would create a feeling of permanence and antiquity. A grant enabled the Guild to complete the Pilgrim’s Way, sometimes called the Pilgrim Path, in 1955. The Guild continues to support and collaborate with the Cathedral’s horticultural staff to maintain the grounds, including the Olmsted Woods.

Olmsted Woods, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., 2022. Photo by Allen Russ.

After several decades of project work that was not afforded a comprehensive perspective, a master plan was initiated in 1997 by a team including Andropogon Associates, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture firm that has formed a long-term partnership with the Guild. From 2000 to 2008, measures were implemented to improve the woodland area’s stormwater management and biodiversity while maintaining public access. As part of these efforts, the design team paved the Pilgrim’s Path in stone and retraced its path through the woods to minimize its impact on sensitive areas vulnerable to flooding and erosion. Additional vegetation management and renewal strategies included aeration for tree roots, the introduction of stormwater infiltration pits, and new dedicated seating areas that protect sensitive plants and ecologies while enhancing the visitor experience.