Ruth Shaw Family
Walter Shaw in his garden.
In the late 1800s Walter Shaw, bought a small parcel of land here on the flats of the Anacostia River. An ice pond had been built in the edging wetland by a previous owner. Perhaps homesick, Walter Shaw had a few wild water lilies from his native Maine sent to him to add to the pond. They flourished, and he began filling in more marshland, making more ponds as he added new varieties of flowers. When Shaw died in 1921, the Shaw Gardens was a commercial enterprise run by his widowed daughter, Helen Shaw Fowler. She expanded the local attraction where U.S. presidents, their wives, and neighbors visited in summer. They became valuable friends of the gardens in a fight to save them.
By this time, the Anacostia River was so filled with silt, the Corps of Army Engineers was asked to dredge the river. Their sea wall is visible at Kenilworth Park. Wetlands, then, were seen as worthless, not to be paid for. Helen fought for the Shaw Gardens, and Congress authorized payment in 1938 of $15,000 for 8 acres. The gardens, saved from being filled, were added to Anacostia Park. It would be many more years before the value of the entire area would be rediscovered and fully appreciated.
