Landscape Information
One mile west of the Hudson River and framed by linear streets, this six-sided, 89-acre park incorporates land allocated for public use by the city’s founding charter (1686). In the early-nineteenth century the city established a powder house, burial ground, and public square, which was used as a parade ground, on the site. In 1859 publisher Thurlow Weed proposed transforming the land into a park, which was echoed by Olmsted, Vaux, & Co., in 1868. Two years later the city engaged landscape architects and civil engineers John Bogart and Colonel John Culyer to lay out the park and in 1873 William Egerton was appointed chief engineer. The park expanded incrementally until 1882 and later Egerton prepared a plan (1891) to integrate the new parcels.
The topographically varied park features both naturalistic and formal sections. Curvilinear drives and walkways frame organically shaped lawns edged by canopy trees and shrubs. Groves of deciduous trees, including maple and oak, are interspersed throughout. The eastern section of the park is traversed by the linear, north-south oriented Knox Stret Mall, edged by allées of elm and crabapple trees and anchored by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1912). West of the mall is an expansive, level lawn and a symmetrical, formal flower garden featuring a central fountain) depicting Moses atop Mount Horeb (1893). The western portion of the park is characterized by a 5.2-acre elongated lake (1873) crossed by an arced footbridge (1875) and bordered by a Spanish Revival boat house (1929). Lacking a perimeter fence, the park is visually and physically connected to the surrounding residential neighborhoods, characterized by townhouses and rowhouses.
The park is stewarded by the city and the Washington Park Conservancy, which was established in 1985. In 1989 the Conservancy commissioned a Historic Landscape Preservation Plan by Heritage Landscapes with historian Joy Kestenbaum. The park is a contributing feature of the Washington Park Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
