Civilian Conservation Corps at Theodore Roosevelt Island

CCC workers on Theodore Roosevelt Island working on the overlook terrace, July 1935.

JM&T, 2018

Once the Roosevelt Memorial Association owned the island and had hired the Olmsted Brothers as landscape architects, work could finally begin on redesigning the island as a natural sanctuary and memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. The plans laid out by the Olmsted Brothers included the planting of 35,000 native trees, shrubs, and other plants. In addition, the Mason House and other ruins on the island would be demolished. Lastly, various walking paths would be planned to make this natural sanctuary easily accessible to the public.

Construction started in 1935 and was undertaken by the federal government’s newly established Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal era organization designed to provide work and development of trade skills to unemployed White men. Early work for the CCC on Theodore Roosevelt Island included the grading of walking paths and removal of nonnative vegetation. Part of the CCC work was conducting one of the first archeological investigations of the island. This involved an excavation of the foundation of the Mason House. These excavations began in 1936 and involved a joint effort by CCC workers and the Historic American Building Survey (HABS). With direction by HABS, the CCC workers provided the labor with excavations revealing a detailed map of the foundation, photographs of the ruins, and field notes. The scale of this excavation led to the preservation of the house foundation instead of its complete removal. The basement was filled in after these excavations and covered with soil, as it remains to this day.

 

Archeological Research

During the early phases of the archeological process, archeologists will research the background of the archeological site. One area of research commonly sought after by archeologists are previous archeological excavations like those done by HABS and the CCC. Field notes, maps, and photographs from these excavations can help archeologists understand what to expect at the archeological site.

 

The Mason House under excavation, 1936.

Library of Congress

Work by the CCC at Theodore Roosevelt Island was not completed though, because Frederick Law Olmsted Jr’s ill health and lack of funds halted the project. With the onset of the Second World War, this all but ensured progress on the island would not begin anytime soon. War once again brought the island into use, this time by the Office of Strategic Services who used the island for training agents. The OSS heavily graded the island with the building of a road disrupting some of the original landscape designs. Following the war, the NPS added a causeway in 1955 from the Virginia shore to the northern end of the island, which was eventually replaced by the footbridge in 1979 that remains today. The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge was also constructed across the southern end of the island in 1964 as part of highway improvements with the newly implemented interstate system. Part of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr’s original plans for the island included a boathouse and viewing platform on the southern end of the island. With the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge though, these plans were never completed.

 

The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial on the island.

NPS

Up to this point there was still no memorial dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt in Washington D.C. The Roosevelt Memorial Association wanted a memorial to be in place by the centennial of Roosevelt’s birth in 1958, but this would not happen until 1967. This delay was in part caused by a controversy over the original design of the memorial by Eric Gulger, who had proposed lights and a parking lot as part of the memorial on the island. The Association felt this violated the intended purpose of the island as a retreat of nature and in 1961 a final version of the memorial was approved, with parking eventually moved to the Virginia shore accessible by the footbridge. In 1967 the memorial was finally finished and dedicated by President Lyndon B. Johnson. As it stands today, Theodore Roosevelt Island has 2 miles of footpaths and remains a retreat from the surrounding urban environment and a staple of the extensive park lands throughout Washington, DC.