The Enid A. Haupt Garden is a 4.2 acre public garden in the Smithsonian complex, adjacent to the

Smithsonian Institution Building The Smithsonian Institution Building, located near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. behind the National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery, houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center. The ...

(the "Castle") on the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

It was designed to be a modern representation of American Victorian gardens as they appeared in the mid to late 19th century. It replaced an existing Victorian Garden which had been built to celebrate the nation's Bicentennial in 1976.

History

The garden opened on May 21, 1987, as part of the redesigned Castle quadrangle. It is named for

Enid A. Haupt Enid Haupt ( Annenberg, formerly Bensinger; May 13, 1906 – October 25, 2005) was an American publisher and philanthropist whose gifts supported horticulture, the arts, architectural and historic preservation, and cancer research. She has been de ...

, who provided the $3 million endowment which financed its construction and maintenance. Initially approached with a request that she finance a small Zen garden within the quadrangle, after a review of the plans Haupt said that she was "not interested in putting money into a Zen garden...I'm only interested in financing the whole thing." The quadrangle redesign project and the

Smithsonian Gardens The Smithsonian Gardens, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, is responsible for the "landscapes, interiorscapes, and horticulture-related collections and exhibits", which serve as an outdoor extension of the Smithsonian's museums and learn ...

more broadly were part of the vision of the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian,

S. Dillon Ripley S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

, who felt that the museum experience should extend beyond the museums' buildings into the outdoor spaces. The landscape design of the garden featured the collaborative efforts of architect Jean Paul Carlhian, principal in the Boston firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott; Lester Collins; Sasaki Associates Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts; and James R. Buckler, founding director of the Smithsonian's Office of Horticulture. The central feature of the garden is a symmetrically patterned

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

, flanked by the Moongate Garden to the west and the Fountain Garden to the east. The parterre measures 144 feet long by 66 feet wide; the low-growing plants that fill out the series of diamonds, fleurs-de-lis, and scallops or swags that make up the design are changed every six months, typically in September and May. Other notable design features include saucer and tulip magnolias, brick walkways, and historical cast-iron garden furnishings from the Smithsonian Gardens' Garden Furniture Collection. The Andrew Jackson Downing Urn is within a circle in the northeast portion of the parterre.(1)
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Gallery

File:Moving Magnolia Trees for Haupt Garden.jpg, Moving Magnolia Trees for Haupt Garden File:Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for AMSG & NMAfA.jpg, Ribbon Cutting 1987 File:Visitor Playing in Pool of Water.jpg, Visitor Playing in Pool of Water File:NMAfA and Haupt Garden in the Spring.jpg, NMAfA and Haupt Garden in the Spring File:S. Dillon Ripley Views Quadrangle.jpg, Eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley with the completed quadrangle and Haupt Garden in the background File:Smithsonian-castle-haupt-garden.jpg, Smithsonian Castle and Haupt garden parterre File:Smithsonian-haupt-garden1.jpg, Haupt garden parterre File:Smithsonian-haupt-garden-carriage-gates.jpg, Haupt garden and carriage gates File:Smithsonian-haupt-garden-planters.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate File:Smithsonian-haupt-moongate2.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate File:Smithsonian-haupt-moongate3.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate File:Smithsonian-haupt-moongate-castle.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate garden and Castle File:Smithsonian-haupt-moongate-pool-castle.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate pool and Castle File:Smithsonian-haupt-moongate-pool.jpg, Haupt garden Moongate pool File:USA-Enid A Haupt Garden.jpg, Andrew Jackson Downing Urn in the Enid A. Haupt Garden File:Smithsonian-haupt-garden-urn.jpg, Andrew Jackson Downing Urn and parterre File:Andrew Jackson Downing urn.jpg, Andrew Jackson Downing Urn and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Arts and Industries Building The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest (after The Castle) of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Initially named the National Museum, it was built to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facil ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control Gardens in Washington, D.C. National Mall Smithsonian Institution Landscape design history of the United States Southwest Federal Center