Dumbarton Oaks Park

Dumbarton Oaks Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District Contributing Property
D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites
Dumbarton Park Bridge in 2011
Location	R Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia
Coordinates	38°54′55″N 77°3′44″W / 38.91528°N 77.06222°W / 38.91528; -77.06222
Area	27 acres
Built	1932
Architect	Beatrix Farrand and James Berrall
NRHP reference No.	67000028 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 28, 1967
Designated DCIHS	March 3, 1979

The Dumbarton Oaks Park is a public park, located in the 3100 block of R Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Georgetown neighborhood. Access is via Lovers' Lane from R Street, east of 32nd Street. It is located near Dumbarton Oaks, Montrose Park, and Oak Hill Cemetery. It is part of the Georgetown Historic District.^[2] Now part of Rock Creek Park, it originally belonged to the Dumbarton Oaks estate which had designed it as an enhanced "natural" area. In the 2020's the National Park Service worked with the estate to restore and preserve the landscape architecture of Beatrix Farrand in the park.^[3]

Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss purchased the Dumbarton Oaks estate in 1920, and established the garden.^[4] The park is a naturalistic streamside garden area of 27 acres, beyond the 10 acre formal garden, designed by Beatrix Farrand.^[5] In 1940, the Blisses gifted Dumbarton Oaks Park to the National Park Service, turning over creative control and upkeep of the plantings located there.^[6] Both Montrose Park and Dumbarton Oaks Park were jointly listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1967.^[7] Montrose Park obtained an individual listing on 2007.^[7] In 1998 and 1999, Student Conservation Association groups restored the south stream path.^[2] Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy has been formed to provide restoration.^[8]

• Rock Creek Park

• Cultural Landscape Report, Dumbarton Oaks Park, Rock Creek Park: Site history, existing conditions, and analysis and evaluation, Part 1. United States National Park Service. 2000. (Cultural Landscape Report, Dumbarton Oaks Park at the Internet Archive)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dumbarton Oaks Park.

• Dumbarton Oaks Park at the Cultural Landscape Foundation*
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. DC-571, "Dumbarton Oaks Park, Thirty-second & R Streets Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC"
• Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) No. DC-13, "Dumbarton Oaks American Beech Grove"