Central Grounds
Summary
Name
Significance
Key
Description
The Central Grounds Character Area is the historic core of Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington (AFRH-W or Home). This area includes “Corn Rigs,” (Lincoln Cottage; Building 12) the 1842 country retreat of George Washington Riggs. The Riggs farm, traversing over most of the fourteen Character Areas of AFRHW, originally consisted of cultivated fi elds, agricultural buildings, springs and streams, and woodlands. Soon after the Military Asylum took possession of the Riggs property in 1851, the first three buildings constructed for the institution were located within close proximity to Riggs’s former dwelling. These include the Main Building (Sherman Building, Building 14), Quarters One (Building 1), and Quarters Two (Building 2), all constructed by the Asylum’s first builder Gilbert Cameron.
This Character Area includes locally and nationally designated historic sites and resources:
• Soldiers’ Home National Historic Site (District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites);
• Soldiers’ Home, Main Building/Sherman Building (District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites);
• Anderson Cottage (District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites);1
• United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Register Historic District;
• United States Soldier’s Home National Historic Landmark; and
• President Lincoln and Soldiers’ Home National Monument.
The Central Grounds contains the property’s earliest and most significant buildings. The buildings, structures, and landscape elements retain a high level of integrity, representing the tenure of George W. Riggs and the establishment of the Military Asylum.
Improvements made during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transformed the northern portion of the Central Grounds into a quadrangle bounded by the Main Building on the south, Stanley Hall (Building 20) to the east, the former Sheridan Building (demolished) to the west, and Grant Building (Building 18) to the north. Construction of the Administration Building (Building 10) and the Security Building (Building 22) improved the eastern and western edges of the quadrangle.
Additional officer’s quarters – Quarters Three (Building 3), Four and Five (Buildings 4-5), and Six (Building 6) – were constructed in the southern portion of Central Grounds during two building campaigns in 1871 and 1905-1907. Fenced yards and outbuildings, including the wood-frame tool shed (Building 2B) used by builder Gilbert Cameron, are located in proximity to the officers’ quarters.
Guidelines
none recorded
Boundary
Location Notes
The Central Grounds Character Area is approximately 35 acres. The northwest and northeast boundaries of the property coincide with those of the Central Grounds, with Rock Creek Church Road to the northwest and Harewood Road to the northeast. The 1876 masonry wall and iron fence marks this boundary (see Fence/Entry/Perimeter Character Area). Within the property MacArthur Drive, Marshall Drive, Scott Road, Eisenhower Drive, and Sheridan Road form the internal boundaries of Central Grounds.
Related Resources
Related Inventory Resources
Lincoln Cottage Grounds (is contained within / contains)
Flagstaff (is contained within / contains)
Grant Building Quadrangle Plantings (is contained within / contains)
Lamp Post, Lincoln Cottage Grounds (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 6 (is contained within / contains)
Civil War Howitzers (I), Lincoln Cottage Grounds (is contained within / contains)
Sundial, Sherman Building (is contained within / contains)
Grant Building Foundation Plantings (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 3 (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Lincoln Cottage (is contained within / contains)
Beech Grove (is contained within / contains)
Water Tower (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 1 (is contained within / contains)
Entry Drive Trees (is contained within / contains)
North Converter Room (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Admissions Building (is contained within / contains)
Sherman Building North (is contained within / contains)
MacArthur Drive Street Trees (is contained within / contains)
Culvert, Marshall Drive West (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Air Conditioning Cooling Tower (is contained within / contains)
Grant Building (is contained within / contains)
Tool House (is contained within / contains)
Sherman Building-Scott Building Connection (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 2 (is contained within / contains)
Hitching Posts (is contained within / contains)
Bandstand (is contained within / contains)
Gazebo (is contained within / contains)
Sherman Building Annex (is contained within / contains)
Administration Building (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 4 (is contained within / contains)
Bridge, Coal Vault (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Sherman Building (is contained within / contains)
Security Building (is contained within / contains)
Brass Guns, Sherman Building Main Entrance (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 5 (is contained within / contains)
Lincoln Cottage, Archeological Site (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Quarters' Foundation Plantings (is contained within / contains)
Stanley Hall Chapel (is contained within / contains)
Quarters' Woods (is contained within / contains)
Lincoln Cottage/Sherman Building Buffer (is contained within / contains)
Specimen Trees in Lawn (is contained within / contains)
Substation (is contained within / contains)
Toilet Building (is contained within / contains)
