The District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is an executive branch agency of the government of the District of Columbia in the United States. The department plans, builds, and maintains publicly owned recreational facilities in District of Columbia, including athletic fields, community centers, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, spray pools and tennis courts. It also manages publicly run recreational sports leagues for youth and adults as well as provides various outdoor activities (such as boating and camping) for youth, adults, and senior citizens.
DPR has principal authority over the construction and maintenance of city-owned (but not federally owned) parks, and over nearly all public recreation facilities in District of Columbia. It oversees of parks and 68 recreational facilities. This includes 25 outdoor pools, eight spray parks, and 10 indoor pools—all offered with no admission fee for residents of the District.FY 2011 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan. Vol. 3: Agency Budget Chapters—Part II. Submitted to the Congress of the United States by the Government of the District of Columbia. July 1, 2010, p. E-88. In its fiscal 2011 budget, the department proposed eliminating 21 full-time workers (saving $1.67 million), but adding $1.056 million to provide additional summer youth health and safety activities.FY 2011 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan. Vol. 3: Agency Budget Chapters—Part II. Submitted to the Congress of the United States by the Government of the District of Columbia. July 1, 2010, p. E-89.
History DPR's history is long and greatly complicated by the unique constitutional and legal nature of the District of Columbia. The department traces its history to the original three Commissioners who governed the District beginning in 1790, through several incarnations as executive branch and independent agencies, to the present department.
Federal antecedents Under the Residence Act of 1790 (which established the District of Columbia), the Commissioners of the District of Columbia were given the power to oversee the establishment and operation of all public lands within the new federal reservation.National Capital Parks: A History. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2003. Another 301 parcels of land (known as "reservations") were purchased by the federal government from these landholders the same year, and turned into parkland. Parks were a major component of the city under the L'Enfant plan for the City of Washington (produced in 1791).Report of the Senate Park Commission. The Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia. United States Senate. Committee on the District of Columbia. 57th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1902, p. 12. An Office of Public Buildings and Public Grounds was organized at the time of the District's creation to oversee construction of public buildings as well as create parks and other public spaces. In 1814, following the burning of major public buildings in the city by the British during the War of 1812, authority over public buildings was removed from the office and given to a new commission (whose mission was to rebuild the city as quickly as possible). The two bodies were merged into one again in 1816. Under legislation enacted in March 1849, the United States Department of the Interior was created and responsibility for Washington's city parks was given to this agency. The Office of Public Buildings and Parks continued as a subsidiary unit of the Department of the Interior. In July 1851, President Millard Fillmore appointed J.A. Downing the city's "Rural Architect," and charged him with turning many of the undeveloped reservations into public parks. Federal legislation enacted in March 1867 abolished the Office of Public Buildings and Parks and transferred authority over city parks to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Four years later, the Corps created a "Park Commission" whose mission was to plant some 60,000 trees throughout the city.Grant III, Ulysses S. "The L'Enfant Plan and Its Evolution." Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 1932, p. 13. A reorganization of the Corps' city park unit in August 1876 led to better landscaping. During this period, the city Commissioners and the Corps shared maintenance and other duties for the city's parks. The three-commissioner form of the District government was created by federal legislation in 1878, but only purely local parks remained under the control of the commissioners. But in 1898, the Corps was given exclusive jurisdiction over these parks, too.Grant, "The L'Enfant Plan and Its Evolution," Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1932, p. 12.
Although great strides had been made in the development of the city's municipal as well as federal parks, no comprehensive strategy had been followed. By 1900, competing visions for the further development of the city threatened to turn many of the capital's parks over to development. That year, the United States Senate established the Senate Park Commission (popularly known as the McMillan Commission after its chairman, U.S. Senator James McMillan). The McMillan Commission produced a report, known as the McMillan Plan, in 1901 which laid out a new, comprehensive vision for the development of parks in the District of Columbia.See, generally: Report of the Senate Park Commission. The Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia. United States Senate. Committee on the District of Columbia. 57th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1902.Peterson, Jon A. The Birth of City Planning in the United States, 1840–1917. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, p. 359. The McMillan Plan proposed that Anacostia Park, East Potomac Park, and West Potomac Park, areas created by dredged material taken from the Potomac and Anacostia riverbeds between 1882 and 1920, be designated as parks (rather than commercial land). The areas were duly set aside as parkland.Bednar, Michael J. L'Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, D.C. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, p. 47; Thomas, Bill and Thomas, Phillis. Natural Washington. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980, p. 4-5; Gutheim, Frederick Albert and Lee, Antoinette J. Worthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., From L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, p. 148. Over the next few years, the President and Congress established several new agencies to supervise the approval, design, and construction of parks in the District of Columbia. The Commission of Fine Arts was established in 1910 to oversee and advise on the design of parks, and the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission was created in 1924 to oversee planning for the District.Cannadine, David. Mellon: An American Life. Reprint ed. New York: Random House, Inc., 2008, p. 373.
The Army Corps of Engineers' Office of Public Buildings and Parks became an independent office within the executive branch under legislation adopted in February 1925. The new office, known as the Director of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, reported directly to the President of the United States. Under Executive Order 6166 (June 10, 1933), President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed the independent office into the new Office of National Parks, Buildings and Reservations in the United States Department of the Interior. The name of the new office was changed to the "National Park Service" by an Act of Congress in March 1934.Rettie, Dwight. Our National Park System: Caring for America's Greatest Natural and Historic Treasures. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 57.
On April 19, 1942, Congress passed legislation creating a District of Columbia Recreation Board, and lodging this board within the local D.C. government. Although the federal government retained responsibility for building and maintaining the city's local and federal parks, the new recreation board was responsible for designing, implementing, and overseeing recreational programs within these parks (at least, those which were purely local in nature).Proceedings of the National Recreation Congress. Washington, D.C.: National Recreation Association, 1959, p. 46. This law was formally implemented in 1949 with a memorandum of understanding between the National Park Service and the D.C. government.Government Accountability Office. National Park Service: Managed Properties in the District of Columbia. GAO 05-378. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 2005, p. 33.
Local antecedents
Even as Congress continued to exercise rather than delegate federal authority over parks and recreation facilities in the District of Columbia, the District government continued to press its own initiatives over these areas. In 1910, the District Commissioners pressed for federal legislation that would permit the city to build, maintain, and run public playgrounds (the construction of public playgrounds then being a revolutionary and new national movement). In March 1911, Congress approved legislation creating the D.C. Department of Playgrounds.Mergen, Bernard. "Children's Playgrounds in the District of Columbia, 1902–1942." Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 1980, pp. 393. In 1913, the Department of Playgrounds won congressional authorization to allow recreational programs at these playgrounds."Wants Recreation Board." Washington Post. August 30, 1913. Two years later, Congress established the Community Center Department under the D.C. Board of Education to provide adult recreation throughout the city (not just at public schools).Mergen, "Children's Playgrounds in the District of Columbia, 1902–1942," Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1980, pp. 394. Congress enacted legislation in 1932 authorizing the NPS to transfer land to the government of the District of Columbia (after following certain procedures) without Congressional approval, and vice versa.Government Accountability Office, National Park Service: Managed Properties in the District of Columbia, April 2005, p. 32. In 1939, Congress required that the Community Center Department and Department of Playgrounds merge to form the Community Center and Playgrounds Department.
At this time, the National Park Service still retained near-complete control over the construction, maintenance, and operation of most parks in the District of Columbia. This caused extensive friction between the citizens and government of the District on the one hand and the NPS on the other, and in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed legislation to transfer a number of parks to city control."New Reorganization Bill Introduced." Washington Post. July 7, 1939. This effort was unsuccessful, and in 1941 another attempt was made."Recreational Setup Inquiry Set for Tuesday." Washington Post. April 30, 1941. This, too, was unsuccessful.