Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac | |
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Location | Washington, D.C., USA |
Coordinates | 38°52′43″N77°3′5″W / 38.87861°N 77.05139°W |
Area | 17 acres (0.07 km2) |
Established | December 28, 1973 |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Website | LBJ Memorial Grove on the Potomac |
Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac is located on Lady Bird Johnson Park (formerly known as Columbia Island), in Washington, D.C. The presidential memorial honors the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The grove consists of two parts. The first area, commemorative in nature, is a Texas granite monolith surrounded by a serpentine pattern of walks and trails. The second area is a grass meadow and provides a tranquil refuge for reflection and rejuvenation of the spirit. The trails are shaded by a grove of hundreds of white pine and dogwood trees, and framed by azaleas and rhododendron. The memorial overlooks the Potomac River with a vista of the city of Washington.
Visitors may listen to a recording made by Lady Bird Johnson at the entrance to the park facing The Pentagon. In the recording, the former First Lady talks about the creation of the park, the trees, and the views of major Washington, D.C., landmarks.
Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died on January 22, 1973. Soon after, Johnson's admirers proposed constructing a statue in Washington, D.C., in his memory, but concern that it would be defaced led to rejection of that idea. [1] Brooke Astor and Laurence Vanderbilt suggested a grove of trees instead, and planning for the $2 million grove began in Spring 1973. [2] Lady Bird Johnson Park was chosen as the site of the grove due to Johnson's love of the park and its panoramic views of Washington, D.C., and its monuments on the National Mall and elsewhere while he was president. [3]
The national memorial was authorized by Congress on December 28, 1973, and administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places the same day. [4]
By February 1975, $1.3 million for the memorial grove had been raised. A $15 silver medal and a $350 gold medal were designed in early 1975 and sold to help raise another $150,000. [5] Plans for the grove were largely complete by May 1975. Landscape architect Meade Palmer designed the grove, which included a contemplative meadow and a small granite plaza among some trees. [6] The grove covered 15 acres (61,000 m2), and would be planted with white pine, dogwood trees, and flowering shrubs and bushes. A granite plaza was intended for the center of the grove, on which a 45-short-ton (41 t), 19-foot (5.8 m) high pink granite orthostat (or "standing stone") quarried in Texas was to be placed. Stone carver Harold Vogel worked the exterior of the stone to give it a dynamic, rough-hewn look reminiscent of Johnson's personality. [7] The Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas estimated the rock's age at a billion years. [8] A flagstone walkway winding through the grove was included in the design. Four quotes from Johnson's public speeches, selected by Lady Bird Johnson, were carved into flagstones placed around the orthostat. But $600,000 was still needed in May 1975 to complete the memorial. [7]
The orthostat was delivered to the site in August 1974, and emplaced on August 13, 1975. [9] In December 1975, Congress authorized $1 million to complete the memorial grove and establish a maintenance fund. [10]
The memorial was dedicated on April 6, 1976. [11] [12] It is administered by the National Park Service, as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
A $500,000 footbridge between the memorial and a 30-car parking lot along Boundary Channel was constructed to make it easier to visit the Grove. The bridge was designed by landscape architect Meade Palmer and dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson on October 12, 1977. [13] [14]
Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson previously served as a U.S. representative and U.S. senator.
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson was first lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of then president Lyndon B. Johnson. She had previously served as second lady from 1961 to 1963 when her husband was vice president.
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson is a reservoir on the Colorado River in the Texas Hill Country about 45 miles northwest of Austin. The reservoir was formed in 1950 by the construction of Granite Shoals Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). The Colorado River and the Llano River meet in the northern portion of the lake at Kingsland.
West Potomac Park is a U.S. national park in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the National Mall. It includes the parkland that extends south of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, from the Lincoln Memorial to the grounds of the Washington Monument. The park is the site of several national landmarks including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
Lynda Bird Johnson Robb is the elder daughter of the 36th U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. She served as chairwoman of the Board of Reading is Fundamental, the nation's largest children's literacy organization, as well as chairwoman of the President's Advisory Committee for Women. She is a magazine editor who served as First Lady of Virginia from 1982 to 1986, and as Second Lady of Virginia from 1978 to 1982. She is the oldest living child of a U.S. president, following the death of John Eisenhower on December 21, 2013.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a 25-mile-long (40 km) limited-access parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely in Northern Virginia, except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island in Washington, D.C.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington, D.C. Ozaki gave the trees to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations. Large and colorful helium balloons, floats, marching bands from across the country, music and showmanship are parts of the Festival's parade and other events.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, also known as the LBJ Presidential Library, is the presidential library and museum of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States (1963–1969). It is located on the grounds of the University of Texas at Austin, and is one of 13 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The LBJ Library houses 45 million pages of historical documents, including the papers of President Johnson and those of his close associates and others.
Lady Bird Johnson Park, formerly known as Columbia Island until 1968, is an island located in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It formed naturally as an extension of Analostan Island in the latter part of the 1800s, and over time erosion and flooding severed it from Analostan, now known as Theodore Roosevelt Island.
Luci Baines Johnson is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the younger daughter of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson.
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in central Texas about 50 miles (80 km) west of Austin in the Texas Hill Country. The park protects the birthplace, home, ranch, and grave of Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States. During Johnson's administration, the LBJ Ranch was known as the Texas White House because the President spent approximately 20% of his time in office there.
The National Capital Parks was a unit of the National Park System of the United States, now divided into multiple administrative units. It encompasses a variety of federally owned properties in and around the District of Columbia including memorials, monuments, parks, interiors of traffic circles and squares, triangles formed by irregular intersections, and other open spaces.
The Tidal Basin is a man-made reservoir located between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel in Washington, D.C. The Basin is part of West Potomac Park, is near the National Mall and is a focal point of the National Cherry Blossom Festival held each spring. The nearby Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial overlook the Basin, which is south of the Washington Monument.
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970. The school offers training in public policy analysis and administration in government and public affairs-related areas of the private and nonprofit sectors. Degree programs include a Master of Public Affairs (MPAff), a mid-career MPAff sequence, 16 MPAff dual degree programs, a Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS), eight MGPS dual degree programs, an Executive Master of Public Leadership, and a Ph.D. in public policy.
Ohio Drive is a street in Southwest Washington, D.C., located in East and West Potomac Parks and bordering the Tidal Basin, Washington Channel, and the Potomac River. It is a central organizing feature of East Potomac Park, providing the only major vehicular route to and through the area. Unlike most roadways named after states in the District of Columbia, Ohio Drive is not an avenue, nor it is heavily used like Wisconsin or Rhode Island Avenues. However, the segment from Independence Avenue to the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway is an important commuter route.
SAM 26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States. It used the callsign Air Force One when the president was on board, otherwise SAM 26000, with SAM indicating Special Air Mission.
Harry Joseph Middleton Jr. was an American journalist, author, and library director who served as Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidential speech writer and staff assistant from 1967 to 1969. Middleton was also director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum from 1971 until 2002, and led the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation from 1993 until 2004.
The family of Lyndon B. Johnson is an American political family related to Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States (1963–1969), and his wife Lady Bird Johnson, the second lady of the United States (1961–1963) and the first lady of the United States (1963–1969). Their immediate family was the First Family of the United States from 1963 to 1969. They also served as the Second Family of the United States from 1961 to 1963, when Lyndon B. Johnson was vice president.
Elizabeth "Bess" Hughes Abell was an American presidential aide. She was the White House social secretary in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. She later worked in public relations and then as executive assistant to Second Lady of the United States Joan Mondale.