photo by Jill Pape
While the uber-trendy H Street Corridor draws residents of Northwest DC into Northeast, the rest of that quadrant is generally treated as a pass-through. Most DC residents wouldn’t guess that there’s a national park within Northeast DC, let alone one as gorgeous as the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.
Past warehouses, parking lots, and Soviet-style buildings with years of exhaust clinging to their facades, the drive to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens belies the beauty of the destination. Kenilworth itself isn’t gritty, just aggressively bland and economically depressed. By the time you find yourself in the gardens, it is jarring to be someplace so lovely.
Like those swampy summer days we enjoy throughout July, the Aquatic Gardens are a reminder that DC is, essentially, a marsh. Here, natural marshland is tamed just enough to frame a few acres at their
photo by Jill Pape
most beautiful–high concentrations of lilypads, rolling fields, and ponds teeming with wildlife. The gardens are a bit of an oddity: a national park that is partly man-made. They were lovingly cultivated by lilypad-mad Howard Shaw until his death in 1921; his private gardens were ultimately combined with surrounding marshland into today’s park.
With wide, clear paths cutting through the park, it’s nearly impossible to lose your way, even for the directionally-challenged. The sense of exploration without the danger of getting lost—it’s a heady combination!
On a recent weekday, I was practically alone in the gardens, enjoying a hush interrupted only by cicadas. While it was a treat to have a national park to myself, I couldn’t help but think it was a shame that the rest of the city was missing this sight. In a city that is neatly divided into quadrants and lettered and numbered streets, it’s easy to get the feeling that you’ve seen everything DC has to offer. The Aquatic Gardens are the perfect pick-me-up for the jaded DC resident.
photo by Jill Pape
While sitting in the H Street Beer Garden does technically count as being outdoors in Northeast, kick it up a notch and explore the Aquatic Gardens. They are about a twenty minute drive from downtown DC, and you’ll find a GPS helpful since signage is sporadic. You can also walk to the gardens from the Deanwood metro stop on the orange line. Hours are normally 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Break out of your Northwest rut and get yourself to the Aquatic Gardens!
I never knew this existed! So neat. I’ll have to check it out when I’m back in DC.