Across from the White House, this park has hosted many prominent public demonstrations and has served as a site of national symbolic importance.
Lafayette Square is the formal public park opposite the White House, and with its surrounding frame of buildings constitutes the Lafayette Square Historic District. The Historic District includes government buildings, one-time residences, and numerous structures and objects associated with many of the great figures in the United States' political, military, diplomatic, and economic history. The historic district's buildings were designed in various architectural styles, many by the country’s leading architects. The landscaped square was originally included in the area planned by Pierre L’Enfant as the President’s Park, but was returned to public use by President Thomas Jefferson.
Lafayette Square was named for the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824 and was landscaped by the influential landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing between 1851 and 1852. In the center of the park is an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, sculpted by Clark Mills, which has a replica in New Orleans' Jackson Square. The square's periphery features elaborate monuments and memorials to other European heroes of the Revolutionary War (see American Revolution Statuary). Stretching north from Lafayette Square is 16th Street NW, one of Washington's — and the nation's — great avenues.
The historic district includes approximately 40 significant buildings and structures, dating from 1791 to 1970. This inventory includes the Treasury Department, Old Executive Office Building, Decatur House, Saint John's Church, Renwick Gallery, National Grange building, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and New Executive Office Building. Due to its location, the Square has hosted many prominent public demonstrations and has served as a site of national symbolic importance since the District's founding. For example, in response to George Floyd’s murder in 2020, 16th Street, just north of the square, was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza.
LGBTQ+ History
Additionally, during the first half of the 20th century, Lafayette Square was noted to be, as stated by historian David K. Johnson, the “epicenter of Washington’s gay male world” and had been a site of cruising — where men sought encounters with other men. Active policing of the park led to the arrest of many individuals.
Later on, the square would also be the site of protests and demonstrations by LGBTQ+ activists. Motivated by the mid-20th century “Lavender Scare,” LGBTQ+ activists fought against the deliberate actions of the federal government. With the stated goal of stopping the spread of communism in government departments and agencies, civil servants who were seen as “deviants” and “criminals” (i.e., LGBTQ+ individuals) were targeted. Individuals suspected of these “crimes” were fired or forced to resign. In response, figures such as Dr. Franklin Kameny — a federal employee who had been forced out of his job in 1957 due to these security measures — led the demonstrations at Lafayette Square. Kameny, along with fellow activists from the Mattachine Society, brought the concerns of LGBTQ+ Americans to national attention.
DC Inventory: June 19, 1973(Joint Committee on Landmarks)
DC Inventory:September 29, 2022 (Additional Documentation and Boundary Increase)
National Register: August 29, 1970
National Historic Landmark: September 6, 1970
This is a stop on the DC's LGBTQ+ History Tour.
For more information about DC's LGBTQ History, please see the Historic Context Statement for Washington’s LGBTQ Resources.
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