South Lawn

When the White House was first occupied in 1800 the site of the South Lawn was an open meadow gradually descending to a large marsh, the Tiber Creek, and Potomac River beyond.

Jefferson, working with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe located a triumphal arch as a main entry point to the grounds, just southeast of the White House.

[2] Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's 1793 plan of the city of Washington, indicates a setting of terraced formal gardens descending to Tiber Creek.

Later in 1850, landscape designer Andrew Jackson Davis attempted to soften the geometry of the L'Enfant plan, incorporating a semicircular southern boundary and meandering paths.

[5] During the administrations of Rutherford B. Hayes and the first term Grover Cleveland the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were engaged to reconfigure the South Lawn, reducing the size of Downing's circular parade, and creating the current boundaries much as they presently are.

[6] Theodore Roosevelt, who had engaged the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White to reconfigure and rebuild parts of the White House in 1902, was influenced to remove the complex of Victorian era glass houses built up the West Colonnade and the site of the present West Wing.

Olmsted understood the need to offer presidents and their families a modicum of privacy balancing with the requirement for public views of the White House.

[15] However President Bill Clinton moved it to its current location just south of the Rose Garden, a short walk from the Oval Office.

[16] A horseshoe pit was created on the site of the present putting green by Harry Truman, and later re-established near the swimming pool by George H. W. Bush who was an avid player.

Two month long horseshoe tournaments were held bi-annually during Bush's presidency, with teams consisting of maintenance and house staff and family members and administration personnel.

For aesthetic reasons, the lawn does not contain a full helipad, but rather three removable aluminum discs which accommodate the helicopter's individual landing gear.

An avid runner, Clinton would regularly want to go on runs, but his doing so greatly disrupted Washington traffic; thus the track was built adjacent to the South Lawn driveway.