Pershing Park (U.S. Reservation 617) Final Determination of Eligibility Form

In conjunction with the Section 106 consultation for the World War I Memorial, we are pleased to share the final Determination of Eligibility Form for Pershing Park (U.S. Reservation 617). This form was prepared by Robinson and Associates, Inc. and Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. for the World War I Commission on behalf of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, National Park Service.

The purpose of this study was to consider the eligibility of Pershing Park for the National Register of Historic Places as an individual site. This determination of eligibility concluded that Pershing Park is nationally significant under Criterion A in the area of community planning and development as the site of the General John J. Pershing Memorial. It is also nationally and locally significant and under Criterion C in the area of landscape architecture as a signature designed landscape by M. Paul Friedberg, one of modern American landscape architecture's most accomplished urban designers. The park is an exceptional example of a landscape design of the modern period and of an approach to the design of public space as an integral part of the revitalization of an urban neighborhood in decline. Pershing Park is also significant at the national and state levels under Criterion C as the first modernist commemorative park on one of the important elements of the nationally significant Washington city plan.

Pershing Park meets Criterion Consideration F for a commemorative property and Criterion Consideration G for a property having achieved significance within the last fifty years for its exceptional significance as a highly intact example of M. Paul Friedberg's concept of the urban park plaza. Finally, the "Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Cultural Landscape Inventory - White House to the Capitol" determined that several aspects of Pershing Park (spatial organization, views and vistas, Pershing Memorial, Bex Eagle sculpture, and PADC street furnishings and vegetation) contribute to the significance of the Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, cultural landscape.

Document Content:

Pershing Park DOE.SHPO Signed Final.pdf   (4.5 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.