Main Content
This oil painting by artist Peter Waddell depicts a historical scene that occurred during John Quincy Adams' presidency. President Adams liked to swim in the Tiber Creek, which ran to the south of the White House where Constitution Avenue is today.
Peter Waddell for the White House Historical Association
This photograph of the South Lawn of the White House Grounds was taken around 1875. The South Portico of the Executive Mansion is clearly visible in the background, standing high above the ornamental gardens of the era and the first White House greenhouse (the small structure to the left), which was a relocated orangery.
Library of Congress
This lithograph published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1858 depicts the newly added White House Conservatory. In the print, presumably, is Harriet Lane, President James Buchanan's niece who served as White House hostess during his administration, standing in the Conservatory. The Conservatory was built during Buchanan's administration and stood on the grounds of what is today the West Colonnade and West Wing.
White House Collection
This photograph of the White House Conservatory was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1889. The massive Conservatory contained houses dedicated to specific plants such as orchids, ferns, grapes, geraniums, roses, and camellias and even had a house only for the propagation of plants.
Library of Congress
This portrait photograph of First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley was taken as she sat in the White House Conservatory in 1900. Mrs. McKinley suffered from epilepsy and often took refuge from the public in the Conservatory because of the greenhouse's privacy and splendor.
Library of Congress
This 1890 photograph is of the fountain on the North Lawn of the White House surrounded by tubs of live plants borrowed from the conservatory during the warmer months. Bringing plants from the conservatory was intended to reduce costs, rather than tending to plants and shrubs that were permanently embedded in the lawn.
Collection of William Seale
This photograph shows the north lawn and fountain as it looked around 1902 during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had remodeled the White House in the Beaux-Arts style, including the exteriors. In the photograph, gardeners work to plant flowers around the fountain.
Library of Congress
The colonial East Garden was designed by First Lady Edith Roosevelt, and is shown here in 1904, shortly after its completion. The East Garden is now called the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.
Library of Congress
Sheep are shown on the South Lawn of the White House ca. August 27, 1919. To encourage Americans to conserve resources for the war effort, President Woodrow Wilson replaced lawn mowers with a flock of sheep. Additionally, the flock's wool was auctioned off to raise funds for the Red Cross.
Library of Congress
This pair of photographs are two aerial views of the White House in the early 20th Century. The top view is from 1927 and shows First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson's gardens: to the left of the South Portico is the West Garden, to the right is the East Garden. Today the West Garden is known as the Rose Garden and the East Garden is known as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The bottom image is from an unknown date.
Library of Congress
This a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's grandchildren, Eleanor Roosevelt and Curtis Roosevelt, or "Sistie" and "Buzzie", playing on a slide on the South Grounds of the White House in 1933.
Library of Congress
Men oversee the transplantation of a tulip poplar on the grounds right in front of the North Portico of the newly renovated White House in 1952. President Harry S. Truman oversaw the eponymously named Truman renovation from 1948 to 1952.
National Archives and Records Administration
President Lyndon B. Johnson, accompanied by his wife, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, and Superintendent of Grounds Irvin Williams, helps dig a hole for a willow oak planted in his honor in 1964. The willow oak was planted on the west side of the South Lawn near the Oval Office.
White House Collection
This photograph shows President Lyndon Johnson's "Country Fair" on the South Lawn, which he brought to the White House in 1967. The small amusement park included rides, games, and farm animals.
National Park Service
In this photograph, taken April 14, 1973 by Karl Schumacher, President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon lead a group including children and Washington, D.C. Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington on a private tour of the White House Rose Garden. The children were winners of a student poster contest sponsored by the Society for a More Beautiful National Capital, an organization founded by Mary Lasker and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in 1964.
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
President Gerald R. Ford and his daughter Susan Ford survey the progress of construction on the new outdoor swimming pool on the South Grounds of the White House in 1975.
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and President George H. W. Bush plant a little-leaf linden tree on the South Lawn of the White House in May 1991. The Queen planted the tree to replace the one her father, King George VI, planted in 1937 that was lost in a storm in September 1990. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth's husband, and First Lady Barbara Bush observe the ceremony.
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
First Lady Michelle Obama is seen harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House Kitchen Gardens in 2013. Mrs. Obama started the garden in 2009 with the hopes of educating school-age children about the values of healthy eating, often enlisting their help and using the harvested vegetables in the White House kitchen and for State Dinners. The Kitchen Garden is located on the South Lawn of the White House Grounds.
Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy
This photograph of First Lady Melania Trump was taken at a tree planting ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House Grounds along with a small group of presidential descendants in attendance on August 27, 2018. Two descendants asked to plant the sapling with Trump were Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, and Richard Emory Gatchell, Jr., a 5th generation descendant of President James Monroe. The two descendants were symbolic participants: the sapling planted came from the Eisenhower oak tree near the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden and 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of President Monroe's return to the White House following the burning of the White House. The White House was burned by British forces in 1814, during the War of 1812.
Matthew D'Agostino for the White House Historical AssociationAbout this Gallery
The White House grounds began as approximately 85 acres of land chosen by George Washington, and they were refined and cultivated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1933, the President's Park, and all national capital parks, were placed under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Daily and seasonal maintenance of the White House Grounds is supported by a dozen or so landscape architects, horticulturalists, and gardeners. It is to them and to the National Park Service that the president and the public alike are indebted for the well-manicured green spaces, magnificent trees, and many gardens full of flowers at the People's House.
A Garden for the President: A History of the White House Grounds is available on sale here.
It is hard to imagine that it was something as casual as a lunch conversation between a newly elected president and an amateur gardener that gave rise to one of our nation's most iconic outdoor spaces. In this collection, Rose Garden designer Rachel Lambert Mellon explains how the grounds were so thoughtfully transformed, while others detail the White House's diverse
Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an "egg roll" party. Held on the South Lawn, it is one of the oldest annual events in White House history. It has changed and evolved through the years and each First Family has put their stamp on the popular public event. From the roll's origins to today,
The White House Grounds began as approximately 85 acres of land chosen by George Washington and was refined and cultivated by garden-loving President Thomas Jefferson. These shifting grounds around the Executive Mansion have seen retaining walls, green houses, vegetable gardens, and beautiful flowers. Changes to the landscape came in long intervals and evolved to fit the era and the needs of
Since the first cherry blossom planting in 1912 by First Lady Helen Herron Taft, Washingtonians have celebrated the scenic beauty and the coming of spring the cherry trees represent. Today, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which takes place in early spring when the blossoms are in full bloom, has become a major event, drawing tourists and locals alike. First ladies have
