Park History
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For more than thirty years, Georgetown residents, community leaders, and local activists worked to establish a waterfront park in what had been an industrial area that included a large asphalt-covered parking lot and a storage area along the Potomac. Their vision was simple: transform the Georgetown waterfront into a green, welcoming place where people could come to enjoy the river.
Envisioning a Park on the River
Organizing to Create a Park
Former Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland saw the same potential and he established a regional task force to develop a plan for the park. It took more than three decades and four separate organizations for this stretch of waterfront to be transformed from a parking lot and storage yard into the park you see today.
In 1978, Judy Bonderman, Ann Satterthwaite, and Katharine Sullivan formed the Committee for Washington’s Riverfront Parks, the first community group dedicated to encouraging the National Park Service to create a park on the waterfront. In 1979, a small park with waterfront access was included as part of the neighboring Washington Harbour development that was built on the waterfront between 31st Street and Wisconsin Avenue.
In the early 1980s, the District of Columbia offered to transfer ten acres of Georgetown waterfront land, originally acquired for a freeway project that never was built, to the Park Service in exchange for a commitment to build a national park there. The land transfer was signed in 1984, and a conceptual plan for the park followed in 1985. But without construction funds, the waterfront land continued to serve as a parking lot and a storage site for trash trucks and road salt.
Two more community organizations were formed in the years that followed, the Georgetown Waterfront Arts Commission in 1991, and the Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission in 1994. Each of these community organizations worked to keep the vision for the park alive and move it forward. The Commission, led by community volunteers and chaired by former Senator Charles H. Percy, secured seed funds and some federal matching funds for the park. In 2001, the National Park Service engaged the Philadelphia landscape firm of Wallace, Roberts and Todd to design the park.
The design process, which incorporated extensive community input, called for a passive park emphasizing native plants and water-related activities. The final design for the park included a bio-edge along the river, rain gardens, a waterfront promenade, river steps, and the fountain that now anchors the Wisconsin Avenue entrance.
Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park: Raising Funds to Build the Park
By 2005, the Park Service had a detailed plan for the park, but there were still not sufficient funds available to build it. The Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission eventually disbanded, but support for the park continued.
In 1997, Ann Satterthwaite convened a small group of Georgetown residents who had been participating in the Commission to continue working to establish the waterfront park. Grace Bateman, Barbara Downs, Gretchen Ellsworth, Jonda McFarlane, Roger Stone, and Bob vom Eigen joined Ann Satterthwaite in founding a fourth organization to advocate for the park: Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park. They incorporated FOGWP as a nonprofit, signed a partnership agreement with the National Park Service, and committed to raising the funds needed to finally build the park.
A United Effort Builds the Park
Over the next several years, FOGWP raised a substantial portion of the $22 million needed to build the park. Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans helped secure a $10 million contribution from the District of Columbia, and private donors, including the Sen. Charles H. Percy and Sharon Percy Rockefeller families, gave generously to the effort. Those contributions helped FOGWP qualify for matching federal funds through the National Park Service's Centennial Challenge Grant Initiative, closing the final gap to reach the $22 million goal.
The National Park Service suggested building the park in two phases so that work could begin before all of the necessary funds were in hand. Groundbreaking for Phase 1 took place in July 2006, with the first phase, from Wisconsin Ave., N.W.to 34th St., N.W. completed in October 2008. The second phase followed in 2011 when the entire park was dedicated. Many of the advocates who had worked for 30 years to build the park were present for the dedication.
Since 2011, thousands of residents and visitors have enjoyed the park. FOGWP continues to work alongside the National Park Service to preserve and enhance Georgetown Waterfront Park and to raise funds to keep it thriving.
THE HISTORY OF
The Port of Georgetown
Four hundred years of history shaped this waterfront, from Native American trading grounds, to tobacco port, to the park we have today. Explore the full story.