“Where flowers bloom, so does hope - and hope is the precious, indispensable ingredient.”¹

During her tenure as First Lady of the United States (1963-1969), Lady Bird Johnson served as a champion of conservation efforts, advocated for the creation of National Park Service units, lobbied for the passage of environmental legislation, and campaigned for the improvement of the character of the nation’s highway system.

In a similar vein of enthusiasm and commitment, she initiated the Beautification Project as a solution to America’s urban ills. Urban renewal projects and the expansion of highway infrastructure had fractured communities. Downtown centers and neighborhoods were becoming empty and blighted. Inner city waterways and urban cores were heavily polluted.

Beautification, as conceived by Lady Bird Johnson, was concerned with matters of environmental improvement and condition enhancements. Quoting Churchill and expanding on his concept, Lady Bird stated that, “‘First we shape our buildings, and then they shape us.’ The same is true of our highways, our parks, our public buildings, and the environment we create. They shape us.”²

Beautification was far more complex than a garden club project. According to Johnson, “Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me…beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.”³

Lady Bird Johnson selected her adopted hometown of Washington, D.C. as the pilot city to show the nation how Beautification could enhance the overall quality of life. The city afforded Johnson the perfect opportunity to showcase the potential of the program. The prominence of Washington, D.C. garnered national visibility to highlight the progress of the effort.

Lady Bird Johnson formed a coalition of both public and private entities, including Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital, local Washington, D.C. government officials, philanthropist, architects, planners, landscape architects and most importantly private citizens, including school groups and neighborhood beautification committees.⁴

The efforts of the coalition galvanized the citizens of Washington, D.C. The Committee for a More Beautiful Capital created reports detailing findings, plan proposals, and accomplishments.⁵ Design guidelines were planned for neighborhoods.⁶ A national public relations campaign produced such articles as “The ABC’s of Beautification,” and “Beautification: You too can help.”⁷ Following in the example of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, the White House created two documentaries - Mrs. Johnson Goes to Washington and Showcase for the Nation - to highlight the successes of the program.

Beautification in Action

The first category of projects were classified as environmental improvements. The efforts included the mobilization of neighborhood and school groups to address causes, advocacy for the expansion of Washington, D.C.’s mass transit system, the introduction of nature into the urban core, and the renovation of historic buildings. Working with community and school groups, Lady Bird Johnson established Project Pride to reduce litter in neighborhoods. Task forces made efforts to repair the conditions of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Groups cleaned the shorelines and tributaries of the many small creeks and streams.⁸

The next step was the development of a series of pocket parks in the adjoining neighborhoods. Trees were planted along the medians of avenues, street sidewalks, and NPS-maintained small park reservations in order to create an urban canopy and improve the visual and air quality of the city. Vacant buildings were rehabilitated, rather than torn down, and converted to community and recreational facilities, preserving architectural heritage and strengthening neighborhoods by providing meeting spaces.

The second category of projects focused on matters of aesthetics. These efforts included rehabilitating existing parks, preparing plans for previously unimproved parcels, creating visitor facilities and activating urban spaces, developing design guidelines and standards, and improving pedestrian circulation.

Johnson believed that the most successful projects should include “masses of color where the masses pass.” Working with the National Park Service in the monumental core, along parkways, and on select avenues in the city, large swaths of mass plantings were installed that created a high visual contrast from the surrounding environment. Tightly spaced plants in beds of organic forms ensured the desired effect by creating blocks of color. The selection of different varieties ensured a gradual play of color. Daffodils lined the region’s parkways and monument grounds, while clusters of azaleas introduced color to Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

In other small parks and triangular reservations, the National Park Service installed floral displays. Smaller in scale than mass plantings, floral displays had seasonal planting plans, rotating between varieties of tulips in the spring, an eclectic mix of perennials and annuals in the summer, with a conclusion of vibrant chrysanthemums in the autumn. The most noted example is the Floral Library, located south of the Washington Monument. This library of flowers adds color to the monument grounds, and serves as an example or demonstration garden for different types of tulips and plants.

For a more lasting impact, Lady Bird Johnson advocated for the further greening and softening of the city by planting trees. At predetermined entrances to the city, or ‘gateways,’ including Rosslyn Circle and the Baltimore Washington Parkway, landscape plans consisting of flowering trees and shrubs were developed and planted in order to create a hospitable welcome to the city. The effort also included adding understory plantings of flowering dogwood and redbud trees to provide splashes of spring color along the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Following in the example of First Lady Helen Taft, Johnson added cherry trees around the Tidal Basin to fill the gaps where they were lost, and introduced a planting of cherry trees around the edge of Hains Point. Other improvements included the roadway median of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, where an allee of deciduous magnolias were planted, and the creation of pedestrian malls along F Street NW and M Street SW made by converting the medians into tree lined plaza spaces, that provided needed shade and afforded passive recreation opportunities.

Beyond the introduction of new floral material, Beautification also embraced improvements to hardscape - or, the more substantial built environment. In order to make spaces more inviting, the National Park Service introduced new site furniture, including benches, trash receptacles, and information kiosks, and installed new pathways, sidewalks, and plaza spaces. To further activate these spaces, water features were installed to add both movement and sound. Examples range from the modern-designed Haupt Fountains in President’s Park to the former large water jet placed at the end of Hains Point. In select Capitol Hill parcels, such as Lincoln Park and Stanton Park, new playground equipment was installed in order to better serve the community.⁹

Beautification Today

Lady Bird’s legacy is still evident in Washington, D.C. today. Daffodil drifts soften the hillsides of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, as well as the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Lady Bird Johnson Park. Cherry trees line the road of Hains Point, sprays of blossoms frame views in the monumental core, and the Floral Library is a burst of color in the springtime. Children continue to play in the Capitol Hill park playgrounds under the shade of trees.

Street trees line the avenues throughout the city, as ongoing initiatives look to expand the canopy further. Flower beds enliven Washington, D.C.’s small parks and furnishings make for an enjoyable experience. Efforts to clean the city’s waterways have continued into the present and plans are currently underway to develop a river walk along the banks of the Anacostia River to better connect D.C. residents to the water. “The environment after all is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.”¹⁰

Related Collections & Locations

• LBJ Library Research Collections
• White House Historical Association
• Lady Bird Johnson Collection at the National Archives
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
• Visit Lady Bird Johnson Park on George Washington Memorial Parkway