District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation
D.C. Dept. of Parks and Recreation logo in 2010
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1790 (legal predecessor) 1989 (current agency) |
| Jurisdiction | District of Columbia |
| Headquarters | 1250 U Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20009 38°55′0.2″N 77°1′44.1″W / 38.916722°N 77.028917°WCoordinates: 38°55′0.2″N 77°1′44.1″W / 38.916722°N 77.028917°W |
| Employees | 574.8 FTEs |
| Annual budget | $48,095,331 |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | http://dpr.dc.gov |
The District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is an executive branch agency of the government of the District of Columbia in the United States. The department plans, builds, and maintains publicly owned recreational facilities in Washington, D.C., including athletic fields, community centers, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, spray pools and tennis courts. It also manages publicly run recreational sports leagues for youth and adults as well as provides various outdoor activities (such as boating and camping) for youth, adults, and senior citizens.
DPR has principal authority over the construction and maintenance of city-owned (but not federally owned) parks, and over nearly all public recreation facilities in Washington, D.C. It oversees 900 acres (360 ha) of parks and 68 recreational facilities. This includes 25 outdoor pools, eight spray parks, and 10 indoor pools—all offered with no admission fee for residents of the District. In its fiscal 2011 budget, the department proposed eliminating 21 full-time workers (saving $1.67 million), but adding $1.056 million to provide additional summer youth health and safety activities.
DPR's history is long and greatly complicated by the unique constitutional and legal nature of the District of Coumbia. The department traces its history to the original three Commissioners who governed the District beginning in 1790, through several incarnations as executive branch and independent agencies, to the present department.
Under the Residence Act of 1790 (which established the District of Columbia), the Commissioners of the District of Columbia were given the power to oversee the establishment and operation of all public lands within the new federal reservation. Another 301 parcels of land (known as "reservations") were purchased by the federal government from these landholders the same year, and turned into parkland. Parks were a major component of the city under the L'Enfant plan for the City of Washington (produced in 1791). An Office of Public Buildings and Public Grounds was organized at the time of the District's creation to oversee construction of public buildings as well as create parks and other public spaces. In 1814, following the burning of major public buildings in the city by the British during the War of 1812, authority over public buildings was removed from the office and given to a new commission (whose mission was to rebuild the city as quickly as possible). The two bodies were merged into one again in 1816. Under legislation enacted in March 1849, the United States Department of the Interior was created and responsibility for Washington's city parks was given to this agency. The Office of Public Buildings and Parks continued as a subsidiary unit of the Department of the Interior. In July 1851, President Millard Fillmore appointed J.A. Downing the city's "Rural Architect," and charged him with turning many of the undeveloped reservations into public parks. Federal legislation enacted in March 1867 abolished the Office of Public Buildings and Parks and transferred authority over city parks to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Four years later, the Corps created a "Park Commission" whose mission was to plant some 60,000 trees throughout the city. A reorganization of the Corps' city park unit in August 1876 led to better landscaping. During this period, the city Commissioners and the Corps shared maintenance and other duties for the city's parks. The three-commissioner form of the District government was created by federal legislation in 1878, but only purely local parks remained under the control of the commissioners. But in 1898, the Corps was given exclusive jurisdiction over these parks, too.
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