The alternatives are progressive in their degrees of recommended restoration for Dumbarton Oaks Park. The first two alternatives could serve as steps in the phasing of the third alternative, full restoration. The National Park Service recognizes that any of these alternatives will be a long-term commitment and feels that it is important to make amends for having in the past neglected to recognize the park's cultural significance.

Landscape Character Areas

During the landscape evaluation, seven landscape character areas were identified in Dumbarton Oaks Park: Lovers' Lane, the Beech Grove, the southern slope, the stream valley, the meadows, the northern woodland, and the designed woodland. These character areas were determined by analysis of the physical qualities of the landscape and of the design intent; analysis of the various research materials; the existing integrity of the landscape features; and the relationships among the areas. All of the character areas have suffered, to varying degrees, from the encroachment of invasive plant material. Most importantly, these seven areas define the landscape organization or spatial organization of Dumbarton Oaks Park. They serve as the basis for structuring the Treatment Alternatives in Chapter 3 into discreet areas for treatment.

LOVERS' LANE

Lovers' Lane originally a cobbled road, is owned by the District of Columbia. It runs downhill from R Street between the eastern boundary of Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and the western border of Montrose Park. On the western side of the lane is a high stone retaining wall, running along the eastern boundary of the gardens, which is topped by a wooden fence. At the base of this wall is a storm drain channel possibly designed by Beatrix Farrand, made of slate slabs interrupted by low stone rills. On its eastern side is a low, dry-laid stone wall in poor repair. A thick layer of asphalt now covers the lane's cobbled surface. Trees and shrubs line the route, with the trees forming a canopy overhead. Weeds grow in the stone gutter and along the eastern border. At the foot of the hill to the west of the lane is the entrance to Dumbarton Oaks Park.

Farrand intended that Lovers' Lane be used primarily as a service road for the park. However, with the closing of the connecting paths between the upper gardens and the park, it has become the primary entrance into Dumbarton Oaks Park.

BEECH GROVE

At the foot of Lovers' Lane is a wooden gate hung between stone piers. A path leads through this into the Beech Grove, the first section of the route through Dumbarton Oaks Park. A line of American beech trees runs along the northern edge of a wide dirt path, which formerly followed a narrower, more curving course. Along the southern edge is a retaining wall of large rounded stones, built during the Farrand era. Farrand augmented the natural grove of beeches with an understory of mountain laurel, which no longer exists.

The beech trees once formed a tunnel-like enclosure over the path, and the undulating massing of mountain laurel helped define the path edge. The play of light and shade through the trees, and the formal quality of the progression of smooth gray trunks, gave this entry its distinctive character.

SOUTHERN SLOPE

Farrand treated this hillside, which extends down from Dumbarton Oaks Gardens to the stream valley, as a transitional area between the upper and lower gardens. Four paths ran down the slope and connected the two properties. Certain features, including lines of trees and an open area, extended across the boundary. Farrand created a variety of groves, shrub massings, and clearings on the slope. She built new structures--such as Forsythia Arch and the Forsythia Steps--and made additions to others, including the spring grotto and the pebble stream.

The southern slope acts as a backdrop to views from the stream valley and the meadows on the north. It continues into the western reaches of the park, where Farrand allowed woods to grow and thus screen the intrusive development along Wisconsin Avenue and other adjoining streets.

STREAM VALLEY

The stream valley is the focal character area of the Dumbarton Oaks Park design. A small tributary of Rock Creek flows through the wooded valley between hillsides on the north and south, the latter leading up to Dumbarton Oaks Gardens. Along this stream Farrand constructed a serpentine footpath, the beginning of her circular walk through the park. The path, bordered by stones, leads through a series of spaces which are defined by plantings of trees, shrubs, and perennials. A second path runs for a shorter distance along the northern side of the stream. In the stream channel, Farrand constructed a series of stone dams over which the water flows, forming waterfalls and pools. Various structures, pools, or benches were the focal points of the enclosed spaces or "garden rooms" along the stream path. The main, southern route of the path crosses the stream at Clapper Bridge Falls, then runs by its banks through a wilder area on the border of the fifth meadow before entering the designed woodland. In this upper section of the stream are found two more groupings of dams and a small ornamental island. The planting scheme changes in the upper stream valley: shrub massings replace herbaceous groupings, which are then replaced by the trees of the designed woodland.

The design intent of the valley is still evident, though there has been extensive deterioration: the stream channel has silted up, the stream banks have been eroded, and many of the original plantings have been lost. Most of the dams and structures have suffered extensive damage from stormwater overflow.

DESIGNED WOODLAND

After leaving the stream valley, the path enters a woodland of deciduous trees which Farrand designed as the final section of the journey through Dumbarton Oaks. She planted shrubs interspersed with massings of perennials along the path to provide a sense of enclosure. A social trail runs from the path up to a western branch of Whitehaven Street. A worn path (the only one of three originally grassed paths which remains) leads from the stream path through the woodland and back to the fifth meadow on the east.

The designed woodland has been damaged by invasive vines, especially on the edges, but the majority of the forest is in good condition.

MEADOWS

Across the northern hillside of the stream valley, historically known as "Clifton Hill," Farrand created a series of five meadows, which are separated by lines of trees and increase in area and extent from east to west. An old farm track runs along the foot of the hill. The return journey of the circular walk leads east through the meadows and along the brow of Clifton Hill, just below the border of the northern woodland. The meadows were planted with grasses and drifts of perennials and bulbs, which extended in swaths of color across the face of the hill. The fifth meadow was the only one to historically lack a defined path in its top section; the three grassed paths of the designed woodland spilled out and merged with the meadow grasses, and visitors were meant to make their own way between the woodland and the Clifton Hill walk or the farm track. The northern woodland has encroached on the northern border of the meadows, reducing their original size.

NORTHERN WOODLAND