North Lawn (White House)

The North Lawn at the White House in Washington, DC, is bordered on the north by Pennsylvania Avenue with a wide view of the mansion, and is screened by dense plantings on the east from East Executive Drive and the Treasury Building, and on the west from West Executive Drive and the Old Executive Office Building. Because it is bordered by Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House's official street address, the North Lawn is sometimes described as the front lawn.

A semicircular driveway runs from the northwest gate through the North Portico, sweeping back to Pennsylvania Avenue through the northeast gate. A circular pool with fountain is centered on the north portico of the White House.

Visiting heads of state enter the White House grounds, and are officially welcomed here prior to a state dinner. Public tours, which begin on East Executive Drive, exit through the North Portico, and visitors exit from the northeast gate.

White House correspondents, for television news, often stand on the North Lawn with the North Portico as a backdrop.

A reviewing stand is erected on the North Lawn facing Pennsylvania Avenue prior to the inauguration of the president. The president uses the enclosed structure to review the parade, which proceeds from the U.S. Capitol.

Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's 1793 plan of the city of Washington placed the President's House facing a convergence of radial avenues centered on the North Lawn. In 1850, landscape designer Andrew Jackson Davis attempted to soften the geometry of the L'Enfant plan.

In 1848 a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson was placed in middle of the lawn by President James K. Polk; it was replaced by a pool and "gurg" steam-driven fountain in 1871. Through the remainder of the 19th century the North Lawn was planted with increasingly complex seasonal "carpet" style flower bedding punctuated by tropical plants borrowed from the White House glass houses.

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Wikipedia