page_title: Commemorations of Benjamin Banneker
section_title: Benjamin Banneker Park and Memorial, Washington, D.C.
hierarchical_section_title: Commemorations of Benjamin Banneker / Recreational and cultural facilities / Parks / Benjamin Banneker Park and Memorial, Washington, D.C.
caption_attribution_description: English: Benjamin Banneker Park, Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: A United States postage stamp and the names of a number of recreational and cultural facilities, schools, streets and other facilities and institutions throughout the United States have commemorated Benjamin Banneker's documented and mythical accomplishments throughout the years since he lived. Among such memorializations of this free African American almanac author, surveyor, landowner and farmer who had knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and natural history was a biographical verse that Rita Dove, a future Poet Laureate of the United States, wrote in 1983 while on the faculty of Arizona State University.
context_section_description: A 4.7 acres (1.9 ha) urban park memorializing Benjamin Banneker is located in southwest Washington, D.C., one half mile (800 m) south of the Smithsonian Institution's "Castle" on the National Mall. The park features a prominent overlook at the south end of L'Enfant Promenade and Tenth Street SW.
  A traffic circle, named Banneker Circle SW, surrounds the overlook. A grassy slope descends steeply from the traffic circle to the Southwest Freeway (Interstate 395), Ninth Street SW and Maine Avenue SW.
  The National Park Service (NPS) operates the park as part of its National Mall and Memorial Parks administrative unit. The NPS erected a historical marker near the park's entrance in 1997. The park is now at stop number 8 on Washington's Southwest Heritage Trail.
  In 1967, landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley completed the design of the "Tenth Street Overlook". After the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency completed construction of the Overlook in 1969, the Agency transferred the Overlook to the NPS in 1970.
  The elliptical 200 feet (61 m) wide overlook provides elevated views of the nearby Southwest Waterfront, Washington Channel, East Potomac Park, Potomac River and more distant areas. The centerpiece of the overlook's modernist plaza is a large conical fountain that projects water more than 30 feet in the air and catches it in a circular basin made from honed green granite. 
  The rings of the fountain and basin in the center of the site are reiterated in the benches, double rows of London plane trees, and low concrete walls that establish the plaza's edge. The ground plane is paved with granite squares, a continuation of L'Enfant Promenade's materials. The ground plane is concave, and with the trees and fountain helps define the spatial volume of the plaza.
  In 1970, the District of Columbia City Council passed a resolution that petitioned the NPS to rename the Overlook as Banneker Park, arguing that the Council had already renamed the adjacent highway circle as Banneker Circle, S.W. The NPS thereupon hosted a dedication ceremony in 1971 that renamed the Overlook as "Benjamin Banneker Park". 
  Following completion of a restoration project, the park was ceremoniously rededicated in 1997 to again commemorate Banneker. However, a 2016 NPS publication later noted that the NPS had renamed the Overlook to commemorate Banneker even though the area has no specific connection to Banneker himself.
  In 1998, the 105th United States Congress enacted legislation that authorized the Washington Interdependence Council of the District of Columbia to establish at the Council's expense a memorial on federal land in the District that would commemorate Banneker's accomplishments. The Council plans to erect this memorial in or near the park. In 2006, the Council held a charrette to select the artist that would design the memorial.
  Construction of the memorial was expected to begin after the United States Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved the memorial's design and location in accordance with the legislation that authorized the establishment of the memorial and with the United States Code (40 U.S.C. § 8905). However, the proposed memorial had by 1999 become a $17 million project that would contain a visitors' center near the "Castle" at the north end of the Promenade, a clock atop a tall pedestal at the midpoint of the Promenade, a statue of Banneker in the park's circle at the south end of the Promenade and a skyway over Interstate 395 that would connect the park to the waterfront. After considering the proposal, the National Capital Memorial Commission rejected the placement of the statue in the park and decided to consult with the District of Columbia government about placing a Banneker memorial at the midpoint of the Promenade.
  The legislative authority relative to locating the Memorial on federal land lapsed in 2005. This did not preclude the location of the memorial on lands such as the road right-of-way in the Promenade that are under the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia's gove
caption: Plaza and fountain in Benjamin Banneker Park, Washington, D.C. (2011)
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix S2000HD S2100HD", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.7.1", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:17 08:53:46", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.7.1", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "278", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3898", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5375", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/420", "EXIF FNumber": "39/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:09:16 14:35:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:09:16 14:35:10", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "87/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "59/10", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "43/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6129", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6129", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}