Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.

Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, a statue of Lafayette by Alexandre Falguière and Antonin Mercié, 1891

Planned as part of the pleasure grounds surrounding the Executive Mansion, the square was originally part of President's Park, which is the larger National Park Service unit that also includes the White House grounds, The Ellipse, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and grounds and the Treasury Building and grounds. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson had Pennsylvania Avenue cut through that park and separated what would become Lafayette Square from the White House grounds. In 1824, the park was officially renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general whose involvement was indispensable in securing victory in the American Revolutionary War.[1][2][3]

Named in honor of the naval war hero Commodore Steven Decatur,[4] the Decatur House borders Lafayette Square.[5] Used for slave trading,[5] the house remains as one of few surviving examples of an urban slave market.[6]

The Andrew Jackson statue (pictured circa 1900) by Clark Mills was erected in Lafayette Park in 1853.

The land on what is now Lafayette Square was formerly used at various times as "a racetrack, a graveyard, a zoo, a slave market, an encampment for soldiers during the War of 1812, and the site of many political protests and celebrations."[6] In the early and mid-19th century, the buildings around the square included the homes of Washington's most prominent residents, including William Wilson Corcoran, Martin van Buren, Henry Clay, Dolley Madison, John Hay, and Henry Adams.[6]

In 1851, Andrew Jackson Downing was commissioned by President Millard Fillmore to landscape Lafayette Square in the picturesque style.[6] On February 27, 1859, US Representative Daniel Sickles killed Philip Barton Key II in Lafayette Square. Key had come to the park for an affair with Sickles's wife, only to be discovered and killed by Sickles.[7]

Clark Mills' equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson, erected in 1853

In the 20th century, the area around the square became less residential, with buildings increasingly occupied by offices and professional groups,[6] especially in the 1920s.[8] The last resident, Mary Chase Morris of the O'Toole House (730 Jackson Place), died during the Great Depression era, and her former home became an office building.[6]

Today's plan for the park dates from the 1930s. The park has five large statues. In the center stands Clark Mills' equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson, erected in 1853; it is the first bronze statue cast in the United States.[9] In the four corners are statues of foreign Revolutionary War heroes:[6]

• Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette (depicting the Marquis de Lafayette, of France, by sculptors Alexandre Falguière and Antonin Mercié, installed 1891);[10]
• Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau (depicting the comte de Rochambeau, of France, by sculptor Fernand Hamar, dedicated 1902);[11]
• Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko (depicting Tadeusz Kościuszko, of Poland, by sculptor Antoni Popiel, dedicated 1910);[12]
• Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (depicting the Baron von Stueben, of Prussia, by sculptor Albert Jaegers, dedicated 1910).[13]

Lafayette Square was a popular cruising spot for gay men until the 1950s Lavender scare.[14]

In the 1970s, Lafayette Square was overrun with a large Eastern gray squirrel population, possibly "the highest density of squirrels ever recorded in scientific literature," which eventually destroyed many trees and flowers in the park.[15] The squirrels' large numbers were sustained because the public overfed the squirrels and also because nestboxes had been once been installed and maintained by the National Park Service.[15] In 1985 and 1987, the issue was solved by a project in which the nest boxes were removed and many squirrels were captured and relocated away from Lafayette Square, to Fort Dupont Park and elsewhere.[15]

In 1989, Drug Enforcement Administration agents arranged a crack cocaine purchase in Lafayette Park prior to US President George H. W. Bush's delivery of a national address that was part of his ongoing effort against drug abuse.[16]

Thomas and Concepcion Picciotto are founders of the White House Peace Vigil, which is the longest running anti-nuclear peace vigil in US history, at Lafayette Square.[17]

During the Trump administration, on June 1, 2020, amid mass protests in Washington, DC and nationally, which followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis; Lafayette Square was forcefully cleared of peaceful protesters and clergy by police in riot gear using tear gas, by order of U.S. Attorney General William Barr. Barr ordered the controversial clearing of the square so that U.S. President Donald Trump could walk from the White House across the street to St. John's Church for a photo op,[18] which was subsequently widely condemned as deploying excessive force, and as a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly.[19][20]

• Blair, Gist. "Lafayette Square." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, DC vol 28 (1926): 133-173 online.
• Helfrich, Kurt. "Modernism for Washington? The Kennedys and the Redesign of Lafayette Square." Washington History 8.1 (1996): 16-37 online.
• Keck, Andrew S. "A Toast to the Union: Clark Mills' Equestrian Statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, DC 71 (1971): 289-313. online
• Moser, Edward P. The White House's Unruly Neighborhood: Crime, Scandal and Intrigue in the History of Lafayette Square (McFarland, 2020) online review.
• Winner, Viola Hopkins. "Henry Adams and Lafayette Square, 1877-1885." Virginia Quarterly Review 62.3 (1986): 478-489. online

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