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Human and Natural Landscapes of the Capital Region
Item 5 of 9
Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in a National Park Services-maintained park that hosts a vast and diverse biological system, and is most notably home to numerous rare waterlilies and lotuses. In the 1800s, Walter Shaw selected the location to make into a water garden, bringing in plants from his native state of Maine. Today, the Park has expanded to include additional recreational facilities, and is open to visitors wishing to explore the wetlands.

Waterlilies from the Park.

Waterlilies from the Park.

In the 1880s, Civil War veteran Walter Shaw bought a patch of land that is today the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. Part of the reasoning behind purchasing the land was to make space for aquatic gardens for him to grow. Though the wetlands themselves had character to them, Shaw, a native of Maine, decided to bring in waterlilies from the state, which quickly flourished. As the plants began to thrive, Shaw decided to bring in a great deal of additional plants, and began crafting the garden into a public attraction, the W.B. Shaw Lily Ponds, in 1912.

The W.B. Shaw Lily Ponds flourished for the next decade, but in 1921, Shaw passed away, leaving the Ponds to his daughter, Helen Shaw Fowler. By this time, the Ponds were a regular site of visitation by numerous dignitaries and Presidents of the United States, but the Anacostia River had recently been filled with an excessive amount of silt. Because of this, the river had to be dredged, which threatened the livelihood of the Ponds. Threatened with closure because of this, Fowler worked to keep the Ponds alive, and in 1938, negotiation with Congress resulted in the purchasing of the Ponds by Congress and converting it into a national park.

http://www.nps.gov/keaq/learn/historyculture/index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenilworth_Park_and_Aquatic_Gardens