| Rawlins Park | |
|---|---|
 Rawlins Park in 2008 | |
  Location within Washington, D.C. | |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′45″N 77°02′33″W / 38.8957°N 77.0426°W |
| Area | 1.44 acres (0.58 ha) |
| Designated | April 24, 1997 |
| Designated | November 8, 1964 |
Rawlins Park is a rectangular public park in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., two blocks west of the White House grounds and two blocks north of the National Mall. The boundaries of the park are 18th Street NW to the east, E Street NW to the south and north, and 19th Street NW to the west. The park was an undeveloped open space for many years, until plans were made to install the statue of John Aaron Rawlins in 1874. Various improvements were made, but the area surrounding the park remained mostly undeveloped. This changed in the 1890s when the area was cleared of marshes, and houses were built on the park's southern border.
The first time the statue of Rawlins was moved occurred in the 1880s, but by 1931, it was returned to the park and has been there ever since. A major development in the park's history came in 1915 when the Interior Department selected the lot on the north side of the park to be its new headquarters. The building was later renamed United States General Services Administration Building after a larger building, the Main Interior Building, was built on the south side of the park in the 1930s. A tunnel runs underneath the park, connecting the two buildings.
The park encompasses almost 1.5 acres (0.6 ha), and is 150-feet (46 m) wide and 450-feet (137 m) long. There were plans to extend a line of parks similar to Rawlins Park all the way to the Old Naval Observatory, but the only one built is the Walt Whitman Park, located on the Rawlins Park's western edge. In addition to the statue of Rawlins, the park features a central marble fountain with a rectangular pond on each side. One of the redesigns that took place in the 20th-century involved transforming the park from residential to commercial, so office workers have a place to gather outside.
The statue of Rawlins is one of eighteen Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C., that are collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites (DCIHS). The park itself is also a contributing property to the L'Enfant Plan, which is also listed on the NRHP and DCIHS.