Most public parks in Washington, D.C., are administered as Federal parkland by the National Capital Region, one of tenregional offices, of the National Park Service. The NationalCapital Region inherited duties originally assigned to threeFederal Commissioners appointed by President George Washington in1790. The city's parks operated under a variety of Federalagencies until this responsibility was given to the National ParkService under the Reorganization Act of 1933. Most parkland in thecity was included in the Act, although in recent years the Districtof Columbia government also operates parks, playgrounds andrecreational centers.
Staff Organization
The National Capital Region (NCR) is headquartered in EastPotomac Park at 1100 Ohio Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C. Managementand direction of NCR is the responsibility of Regional DirectorRobert G. Stanton, who was appointed in December 1988 by theDirector of the National Park Service. The Region is responsiblefor parkland and facilities in the District of Columbia, nearbyMaryland, northern Virginia and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
NCR headquarters provides program direction, evaluation andoversight in the areas of technical and professional support,administration, park planning, maintenance, visitor services, andcultural and natural resource preservation. In addition, NCRannually issues about 4,000 First Amendment Rights and specialevents permits for demonstration activities on parkland and morethan 400 commercial filming permits.
Parkland in NCR is divided into 11 management units supervisedby ten Superintendents, and one Director (Wolf Trap Farm Park). The Region has 2,500 employees, including headquarters staff, parkstaff and U.S. Park Police. The Region has an annual operatingbudget of approximately $100 million, including the United StatesPark Police.
United States Park Police
NCR is the home of the United States Park Police, the Nation'soldest law enforcement agency, with a force of 640 officers. Theforce provides protection not only for park visitors, but uponrequest for visiting dignitaries. The force has an award-winning,horse-mounted unit, a canine unit, and an aviation unit thatprovides life-saving medical treatment and service to accidentvictims as well as assistance in law enforcement actions. U.S.Park Police field units are located at Golden Gate NationalRecreation Area, San Francisco, California, and Gateway NationalRecreation Area, New York, New York, and New Jersey.
Park Units Administered
Parkland within NCR amounts to 8,845 acres within theDistrict of Columbia and 66,000 acres in Maryland, Virginia andWest Virginia. NCR has some 447 miles of parkways and primaryroads, more than 150 statues, monuments and memorials and servesmore than 40 million visitors annually. Some 717 miles of trailsand bike paths wind through NCR parks.
Famous park sites in Washington, D.C., include the NationalMall, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, ThomasJefferson Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Mary McLeod BethuneMemorial, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Rock CreekPark (the country's largest and first urban park), GeorgeWashington Memorial Parkway, C&O Canal National Historical Park,and Piscataway Park.
Civil War battlefields include Manassas National Battlefieldin Virginia, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in WestVirginia, and Antietam National Battlefield in western Maryland. The parks dedicated to nature and recreation are Prince WilliamForest Park in Virginia and Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland.
Also included in NCR are Wolf Trap Farm Park for thePerforming Arts, Vienna, Virginia, the Nation's first national parkfor the performing arts, and historic sites Arlington House, theRobert E. Lee Memorial in Arlington, Virginia; Ford's Theatre andthe House Where Lincoln Died National Historic Site; and ClaraBarton National Historic Site, Glen Echo, Maryland.
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Washington D.C.,has been designated by the American Association of Museums as thethird museum in the National Park System to receive accreditation. This honor was the result of the site having met the Association'srequirements for long-range planning, curatorial work, maintenance,landscaping and interpretation.
The Museum and Archeological Regional Storage (MARS) Facilityserves as the NCR repository for cultural and natural artifacts.The repository houses more than 150,000 historic and more than 1million archeological artifacts. The repository provides directpark support in the areas of preservation, storage, processing andcataloging. MARS also houses the Regional archeology laboratory.
Special Events and Services
NCR sponsors and conducts numerous national celebrations, suchas the Cherry Blossom Festival, Independence Day and Presidentialanniversary wreath-layings at the Thomas Jefferson and LincolnMemorials and the Washington Monument. It sponsors the NationalChristmas Pageant of Peace and other events of national andinternational importance.
NCR provides various visitor services through its concessionoperations. These include sightseeing transportation, golfcourses, tennis courts, several marinas, ice skating rinks,horseback riding facilities and food services. NCR has 15concession operators at 40 separate locations. Total grossreceipts approximate $29 million annually.
The Region administers a Job Corps Civilian ConservationCenter at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to teach young adults theskilled trades of masonry, painting, carpentry, plastering,welding, cement finishing, building maintenance and cooking. Thecenter has an enrollment of about 210 corpsmembers. This programis funded by the Department of Labor, but is managed by NCR,National Park Service.
Youth employment programs operating within NCR include theD.C. Summer Youth Employment Program, which brings approximately130 young employees into 39 worksites each summer; the D.C. Stay-in-School program for 30 enrollees, and the Youth ConservationProgram for 60 participants at 12 parks. The Student ConservationAssociation (SCA) provides volunteers who contribute to theresearch, resource management, visitor services and maintenanceprograms of the Region.
Cooperative Activities
The National Capital Region receives substantial volunteerhelp from private citizens, community, civic and conservationgroups. More than 7,000 individuals annually contribute about135,000 hours of volunteer work valued at $1.3 million.
Cooperating associations provide sales of educationalliterature to the public at more than 20 sites in the Region. Inturn, these sales generate donations of $300,000 to interpretiveprograms at NCR parks.
NCR represents the National Park Service on the Ford's TheatreSociety Board of Directors, Wolf Trap Foundation Board ofDirectors, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, National CapitalPlanning Commission, White House Historical Association andWashington National Monument Association.
A list of park units within National Capital Region follows:
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