The DC Office of Motion Picture and Television Development is pleased to recognize the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens, located in Northeast Washington’s Ward 7, as the February 2015 Location of the Month. Kenilworth Park’s unique water garden and marshlands serve as a fascinating contrast to the District’s traditional urban backdrop and offer scenic views of natural plant and wildlife in the nation’s capital rarely depicted in film and television.
Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens, the only National Park Service site devoted to aquatic plants, is located along the banks of the Anacostia River and directly south of the Baltimore Washington Parkway. Under the administrative management of National Capital Parks-East, the 700-acre park is most known for the Aquatic Gardens, which preserves a plethora of rare water lilies and lotuses in the cultivated ponds near the river. The park also contains the Kenilworth Marsh, the only remaining tidal marsh in the city, and adjacent recreational facilities.
The park is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including a wide range of bird species such as osprey and bald eagles, once native to the region before the District became the bustling metropolitan city it is today. According to a species count by the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, there were 650 species of insects, 150 species of land plants, 76 species of birds, 18 species of fish, nine species of mammals, and eight species of reptiles along with other organisms such as algae, lichens, mushrooms and worms. Mammals sighted in the park include beavers, muskrats, minks, deer, foxes, and coyotes. In addition, other wetland plants besides the lilies that thrive abundantly include wild rice and the all-season cattail.
Situated on 14 acres along the east bank of the Anacostia River, the water gardens were originally purchased by Civil War veteran Walter B. Shaw in the 1880s, which he began cultivating as a hobby with wild water lilies native to his home state of Maine. In 1912, he took his passion commercial, with the W.B. Shaw Lily Ponds where he developed more varieties of the water plants and sold plants and blooms. His daughter Helen Fowler continued his work and created a prosperous commercial nursery and a local visitors' attraction. In 1938, the Gardens were purchased from Fowler by the Federal Government and became part of the National Park system. Today, the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are included on the National Register of Historic Places, and were also designated a Category II Landmark by the Joint Committee on Landmarks of the National Capital.
In 2011, the DC Film Office launched the Location of the Month to bring attention to the wide range of varied, cinematically compelling locations that are available to film and television productions. Former Location of the Month recipients include Eastern Market in Southeast, Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Southwest, the Fort Lincoln neighborhood in Northeast, and the Mansion on O Street in Northwest.
To learn more about Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens and to view photos, please visit the Location of the Month feature on our website. If you are interested in using Kenilworth Park as a future filming location, please contact us at [email protected].